I’ve finally got around to looking into WIX: Windows Installer XML. WIX lets us declare the operations we need to install some software, such as creating folders & copying files, and then generates an MSI file. The Windows Installer uses that to install, uninstall & repair the installation.
You can get the toolset from the project’s website. It’s open source so nothing to pay.
There’s also a tutorial on the website, but I highly recommend buying the book (WIX: A Developer’s Guide to Windows Installer XML, linked from the site). It’s comprehensive and written in a tutorial style: you’ll have a basic installer working after chapter 1, the it leads you through various common installer tasks in a logical order, introducing concepts and detail as required.
I’ve only used it for basic file deployment and installing a Windows Service, but the book covers XML configuration files; creating web sites in IIS; creating databases and running SQL to create tables. All the fiddly stuff I never quite seem to get around to automating.
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