Visual Studio 2012 - No Setup Projects
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Don't upgrade to Visual Studio 2012 until you evaluate your options for installers. In 2012, MS abandoned its own Setup & Deployment projects and what you have in place is not backward compatible. In other words, you'll have code but you won't be able to install it unless you have a plan. The two options I seem to be Flexera's Install Shield or the Windows Installer Xml (WiX) project out on source forge. Note that Flexera's free "Limited" version is so limited that you won't be able to do basic things you accomplished with MS Setup. It does not replace all the functionality that the old installer had. Really, all it is is a marketing tool to make you aware that you need to buy their professional version. Their cheapest license is $650 or their professional version for $2000. Yes, you read it right. I'd love to spend that much money on something that was previously free. Please more sir... So, it seems the only "real" option for people that live in the real world is WiX. However, free $$ does not equate to free. DO NOT underestimate your learning curve with this product. I've spent 4 full working days going through their on-line tutorial, reviewing their Channel9 video (6 years old; really?), every online article and I still couldn't get success with this product. Finally, I bought their book ($25 bucks for an out-dated book) and was able to get their windows installer working. However, I still can't get their Windows Service (ServiceInstall) product to work. I may be doing something stupid... but I'm following their book's documentation. So, now I'm back to installing services using sc.exe from the command line. For some reason, installing services using DOS commands just doesn't feel like progress. For some reason, in 2012, this just doesn't seem reasonable. Don't make me turn on my CAPS LOCKS. When I accessed SourceForge to submit a bug request I was rejected as an "external"... I guess they don't pay attention to their users, just those who write code for them. I don't have time for this. MS certainly failed the average programmer on this front. I have deadlines. Does anyone out there have a free windows installer that works? Please post here.
Joel Palmer Data Integration Engineer
Just so everyone knows... after this rant, I got the WiX installer to work on my Windows Service. The problem came down to naming. In one part of the XML I named my service "ScaleReaderSvc" and in another I named it "ScaleReaderService". I fixed that and everything came into order and I believe I heard angels sing... or the furnace kicked in and reminded me that it needed maintenance. Why the WiX installer gave me an authorization error for this typo is beyond me. This experience is like so many and explains why why I'm jaded against people that insist that XML is easy to use. "All you have to do is edit the XML"... oh, and by the way you also need to read my mind because there is no intellisense, you need to spell everything exactly right and keep it in the right context even if I name things in a goofy way or fail to follow a naming standard.
Joel Palmer Data Integration Engineer