How to install a certificate with an MSI project since .net installer classes are out

[chrisselnes]

Did you find any way to call the .net assembly without have to go through a com dll?

[Christopher Painter]

Saying that InstallShield fails to support Installer classes is akin to saying that a class fails to implement the CommitSuicide() method. Installer class CA's are junk.

InstalScript supports calling managed code custom actions that have the [ComVisible(true)] attribute. This is way better and you'll find all the information you could possible need on my blog.

[Weevie]

Originally Posted by Christopher Painter

Saying that InstallShield fails to support Installer classes is akin to saying that a class fails to implement the CommitSuicide() method. Installer class CA's are junk.

InstalScript supports calling managed code custom actions that have the [ComVisible(true)] attribute. This is way better and you'll find all the information you could possible need on my blog.

Funnily, for junk, they worked just fine in the VS2005 Setup project which as far as I can tell is just a very limiting MSI builder.

Whatever, in the end I just had myself a console app in C# with the code cut and pasted from my installer class. That works fine too.

I've no intention of wasting valuable time learning a proprietary installation scripting language unless I'm metaphotically having a gun held to my head.

One of the complaints made about installer classes is that they depend on the .Net framework being installed and another was they don't work if part of an assembly that's going in the GAC.

All our installs are of .Net assemblies and none of our stufff is going in the GAC.

[lam1278]

Not sure what you mean by "certificate" in your instance - but one of my developers asked me the same thing just yesterday, and I couldn't find a way to install a "certificate" either in InstallShield... His certificate had to do with SQL Server replication on our user's computers, so this may not even apply, but I thought I'd share anyhow.

He showed me how he did it with the "Certificate Import Wizard" within Windows and I found a command line utility from Microsoft:

certmgr.exe

Certificate Manager Tool

[Christopher Painter]

Originally Posted by Weevie

Funnily, for junk, they worked just fine in the VS2005 Setup project which as far as I can tell is just a very limiting MSI builder.

Whatever, in the end I just had myself a console app in C# with the code cut and pasted from my installer class. That works fine too.

I've no intention of wasting valuable time learning a proprietary installation scripting language unless I'm metaphotically having a gun held to my head.

One of the complaints made about installer classes is that they depend on the .Net framework being installed and another was they don't work if part of an assembly that's going in the GAC.

All our installs are of .Net assemblies and none of our stufff is going in the GAC.

There are alot more complaints then that. Another one is they only run in deferred execution and there is no way of passing data back and forth to your custom action. Another would be that when they fail, they throw up a modal exeception block. Even when running fully silent /QB.

Installer class is ****. But suit yourself.