WiX 3 for Visual Studio
This post is about WiX 3, which is just integrated into Visual Studio.
WiX is a set of tools to create MSI installers. The only problem is that its VS integration is not perfect. And now Visual Studio team tries to integrate WiX 3 into next version of Visual Studio, which is very interesting.
Did you use Visual Studio deploy project in the past to create an installer? I did but gave it up as soon as I found InstallAware. I guess most people agree with me that we need a better installer creation technology. If it does not come from Microsoft, we have to buy some third party tools.
And if WiX is integrated, what would happen? I guess I will evaluate it as fast as I can. As least, WiX is free and open source. Even though its design goal is completely different from InstallAware (an MSI code based approach), it is powerful enough.
However, according to WiX blog, the first release of WiX 3 for Visual Studio will not contain visual dialogue designer which means it is a bit tough. I will check if it is feasible then.
An important thing is that after releasing WiX 3 for Visual Studio, its support will be provided by Microsoft! Also, now several Microsoft employees are already on this open source project. Let’s wait and see how Microsoft incorporates this nice open source project into its Team System tool chain.