Does Windows Installer MSI have to include the .NET framework?
I am creating an installer for my Windows client application. I am currently creating an MSI (Windows Installer) file that contains the .NET 3.5 SP1 Redistributable.
My app is less than 10MB, but including the .NET framework will make an installer over 100MB. That's a lot of extra bits to download.
The .NET Framework continues to grow in size and unfortunately I cannot use the "client profile" version within the framework.
Should I just check the .NET Framework version I need and alert the user if not? Or should I continue to include the .NET framework in my installer? What is considered best practice?
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It depends a little on the user profile, but generally checks if the infrastructure is installed and if the download and install process is not booting. What do you use to build MSI, some MSI development systems (like visual studio) support this flow right out of the box.
More and more installers are moving towards a very small downloadable executable that asks users what they want to install and then downloads and installs all the relevant parts (if I were installing visual studio from the internet and not from a dvd, that would be nice. if he asked me if I would do VB and if it didn't load the necessary bits)
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I recommend targeting an earlier version of the framework (say 2.0) and then relying on it installed on all systems as part of a Windows installation (or some earlier version of .NET).
If you really need to use the latest and greatest features, you now know what the cost of those features is.
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Check the version and provide the user with the download URL if necessary.
Or open the (local) webpage supplied by the installer. Contains simple instructions and a direct download link.
Or, create code in the installer to download the file and start the installation. I think it's easy to do with the installer framework, maybe it's built in to more advanced ones. Here's how to do it with NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System).
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