How to make an Installer for my DirectShow filters?

Question

I have been writing Windows programs and DLLs for years but have never created an installer. How can I create a lightweight installer for a handful of DirectShow filters that I have written?

The installer needs extract the filter binaries to somewhere in Program Files and then register them. It also needs to offer an effective uninstall. Pretty simple but I have no idea where to start.

I am using Visual Studio 2010 and my code is C++.

Answer 1

You can try using a Visual Studio setup project . It's very limited, but it supports what you need to do.

Another free alternative is WiX . It has a steep learning curve, but it gets the job done.

Both Visual Studio and WiX use Windows Installer. So you will have full Windows integration and product management (modify, repair and remove).

Answer 2

Personally I like innosetup , haven't used it for directshow but I have used it to install and start services. It can certainly do registry operations.

See also How to Register DirectShow Filters