Visual Studio Setup Project - can you configure projects to install transitive dependencies in the correct order?

Question

I'm using Visual Studio 2010 to create an installer for my project. My installer includes my dependencies, such as .NET 3.5, and the 2007 Microsoft Office Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA). Additionally, PIA depends on .NET 3.5.

I'm encountering a problem because Visual Studio 2010 does not recognize the transitive dependency that the PIA has on .NET 3.5. As a result, the generated setup executable installs these items in the wrong order, installing the PIA before .NET is installed, resulting in an error.

What's the best way around this problem? Is there a way to configure the setup project, to indicate the correct ordering for these dependencies? I've heard about some third-party solutions such as Wix, but it seems like overkill for something this simple. Do I really need to resort to a third-party tool like Wix for this?

Answer 1

Visual Studio doesn't support custom prerequisites order.

You can try editing the project file (.vdproj) and change the bootstrapper Configurations manually, but I'm not sure if it will work.

Usually the solution is another setup authoring tools which offers more control over prerequisites.