MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\IntroductionQuick Start Guide (install, build small msi etc)Build your first MSI (from TryMe.MM)

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Build your first MSI (from TryMe.MM)

The following is a short flash animation of the basics which are described below:

To build the MSI from a script installed by MAKEMSI, just follow these steps:

1. Install MAKEMSI. You can probably get away with simply installing MAKEMSI itself and ignore the missing validation message. Note that on 64 bit operating systems MAKEMSI installs to "C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMsi".

2. MAKEMSI installs some complete samples you can try in its installation directory. The default location for these is the "C:\Program Files\MakeMsi\Samples" directory.

   This section will look at the samples in the subdirectory "C:\Program Files\MakeMsi\Samples\TryMe\Create MSI Installers" (use explorer to navigate to this directory).

3. MAKEMSI can build MSI Installers from a command line or ANT/MAKE process etc (see the "MM" batch file) but here I will show you how to use Explorer.

   Right click (with right side mouse button) on the "TryMe.MM" file, you should see two MAKEMSI build options as follows:

   

   Choose one of these build options (developer or production). This should build a complete MSI without any other user involvement.

   Its possible you will not be able to build the samples from the "program files" directory ("Program Files (x86)" for 64 Bit Windows) as not all users will have write access here. If you can't build anything then please copy the samples to a your "My Documents" and try again.

   If an empty console window comes up and nothing happens (a hang) then I have seen this happen if you have installed ZoneAlarm ForceField 1.1 (Check Point software). You can stop this product or uninstall it...

4. The build process generates and executes a script you may be prompted for authorisation depending on what software you have installed. If prompted then you must approve the execution or the build will not complete.

   Sometimes you may not even get prompted to allow scripts so if the build fails for some unexplainable reason then its worth testing for AntiVirus or AntiSpyware issues configuration.

5. The build process will probably take about 30-60 seconds to build and when complete will look something like:

   

   If you didn't get the validation working (did not get the "VALIDATED OK" and/or got a warning message) then you probably did not install "MSIVAL2". I probably wouldn't worry for now but I'd install it as soon as possible since the warning and error messages it produces can help you learn MSIs and solve problems. Do not release MSIs to others unless you have validated them!

   Please see the "build problems" section of this manual for any other problems building the MSI.

6. The text that you see in the above screen has been captured in the file "OUT\TRYME.dbg.txt". Most other diagnostic files are to be found in the "out\TryMe.MM\LOG" directory. I recommend you open it up in a text editors and have a look through it.

   The MSI (and its documentation) have been generated in the "out\TryMe.MM\MSI" directory. Note that the MSI may exist even if the build failed, the reason being that you can frequently work out a problem by looking at the state of the MSI (typically using "ORCA").

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections. See this page online (look for updates) MAKEMSI© is (C)opyright Dennis Bareis 2003-2008 (All rights reserved). Saturday May 28 2022 at 3:11pm Visit MAKEMSI's Home Page