Add-in Express™
for Microsoft® Office and .netAdd-in Express Home > Add-in Express for Office and .NET > Online Guide > Deploying Office solutions > Creating MSI installers
Creating Windows installers
Running the setup project wizard
To help you create an installer for your Office extension, Add-in Express provides the setup project wizard
accessible via menu Project | Create Setup Project in Visual Studio. Another way to run the wizard is shown in the screenshot.
Let's run the setup project wizard for the sample project described in Writing Microsoft Outlook COM add-in:
The setup project wizard supports creating setup projects for InstallShield 2009 Professional and higher.
The Express editions of InstallShield are not supported.
The wizard creates and adds the following setup project to the solution:
The wizard creates the following entries in the Application Folder (see menu View | Editor | File System):
Also, the following custom actions are created:
Creating setup projects manually
You can create a setup project using the setup project wizard and check all the below-mentioned settings. To create a setup
project manually, follow the steps below.
Add a new setup project
Right-click the solution item and choose Add | New Project.
In the Add New Project dialog, select the Setup Project item and click OK. This will add the setup project to your solution.
File system editor
Right-click the setup project item and choose View | File System in the context menu.
Application folder \ Default location
Select the Application Folder and specify its DefaultLocation property as follows:
- If the RegisterForAllUsers property of the module is true, set DefaultLocation = [ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]
- If the RegisterForAllUsers property of the module is false or, if you deploy a smart tag or Excel UDF, set DefaultLocation =
[AppDataFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]
Primary output
Right-click the Application Folder item and choose Add | Project Output.
In the Add Project Output Group dialog, select the Primary Output Item of your Add-in/RTD Server/Smart Tag project and click OK.
For the sample add-in described in How to develop Microsoft Office COM add-in,
this adds the following entries to the Application Folder of the setup project:
Select AddinExpress.MSO.2005.tlb (or AddinExpress.MSO.2003.tlb in Visual Studio 2003) and, in the Properties window, set the Exclude
property to True.
Note. Always exclude all .TLB and .OLB files from the setup project except for .TLBs that you create yourself.
Extensibility.dll
If Extensibility.dll isn't listed in the Detected Dependencies section of the setup project, locate the file in the {Add-in Express}\Bin
and add it to the Application Folder of the setup project.
Project-depended resources
Now you add all resources (e.g. assemblies, dlls or any resources) required for your project.
Add-in Express Loader and manifest
Add the adxloader.dll and adxloader.dll.manifest files from the 'Loader' subfolder of the add-in project directory to the
'Application Folder' of the setup project.
Note. For an XLL add-in, the loader names include the assembly name, say, adxloader.MyXLLAddin1.dll.
Add-in Express registrator
Add {Add-in Express}\Redistributables\adxregistrator.exe to the Application Folder.
Custom actions editor
Right-click the setup project item and choose View | File System in the context menu.
Add custom actions
Add a new action to the Install, Rollback, Uninstall sections. Use adxregistrator.exe as an item for the custom actions.
Custom actions arguments
Add the strings below to the Arguments properties of the following custom actions:
- Install
/install="{assembly name}.dll" /privileges={user OR admin}
- Rollback
/uninstall="{assembly name}.dll" /privileges={user OR admin}
- Unistall
/uninstall="{assembly name}.dll" /privileges={user OR admin}
If a COM add-in or RTD server is installed on the per-user basis, or if you deploy a smart tag or an Excel UDF, the value of
the privileges argument above is user. If a COM add-in or RTD server is installed on the per-machine basis, in other words, if
the RegisterForAllUsers property of the corresponding module is true, the value of the privileges argument above is admin.
Say, for an add-in described in Developing Microsoft Office COM add-ins,
the Arguments property for the Install custom action contains the following string:
/install="MyAddin1.dll" /privileges=user
Dependencies
Right click on the Detected Dependencies section of the setup project and choose the Refresh Dependencies option. Also, exclude
all dependencies that are not required for your setup.
Launch conditions
Right-click the setup project item and choose View | Launch Conditions in the context menu.
Make sure that the .NET Framework launch condition specifies a correct .NET Framework version and correct download URL.
Note that we recommend using launch conditions rather than pre-requisites because installing a pre-requisite usually requires
administrative permissions and in this way installing a per-user Office extension may result in installing the extension for
the administrator, but not for the user who ran the installer.
Prerequisites
Right click the setup project and open the Properties dialog.
If administrative permissions are required to install prerequisites, then for a per-user Office extension, the elevation
dialog will be shown on UAC-enabled systems. If the administrator's credentials are entered in this situation, then the installer
will be run on behalf of the administrator and therefore, the Office extension will be installed for the administrator, not for
the user who originally ran the installer.
Click the Prerequisites button and, in the Prerequisites dialog, select required prerequisites.
Final touch
Rebuild the setup project. Specify the following command line in the PostBuildEvent property of the setup project:
- If the RegisterForAllUsersProperty of the module is false or if that property is missing:
{Add-in Express}\Bin\adxPatch.exe %BuiltOuputPath% /UAC=Off
- If the RegisterForAllUsersProperty of the module is true:
{Add-in Express}\Bin\adxPatch.exe %BuiltOuputPath% /UAC=On
Now build the setup project, copy all setup files to the target PC and run the .msi file to install the add-in. However,
to install pre-requisites, you will need to run setup.exe.
Back to Add-in Express for Office and .NET homepage | 
