installer for distribution visual studio 2008 express

Question

I've been doing some research in to installers for visual studio express 2008. I don't much like the standard publish option. I'd rather have a proper windows installer. Am I right in thinking that the only way to do this is to upgrade to the standard edition?

Are there any third party tools which can be used? I've tried googling a lot, but don't seem to be getting anywhere!

Answer 1

There is a free open-source utility called WiX which creates Windows Installer (MSI) packages. WiX was the first Microsoft app to be released with an open-source license.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiX
http://wix.sourceforge.net/

Together with the Votive IDE you can create professional-calibre MSI packages.