Windows Installer XML was released some time ago to the open source community by Microsoft. It allows for the creation of Windows Installer Packages (i.e. MSI files) from XML files. This means by using the toolset within your build process, you can integrate the creation of custom installer packages into your build easily.

The packages created by WIX can be fairly complex, allowing for custom actions to be embedded within the MSI, including tasks such as installing Windows Services. Also, it should be noted that Microsoft are now using WIX internally themselves, for example, the installer packages for Microsoft Office 2007 were written with WIX.

WIX is currently at version 2.0 and is stable, with WIX 3.0 in development. There has recently been some talk that the project is dead, however, the team behind WIX have definitively stated that this is not the case and the WIX project is very much alive. I have been using WIX within my role at Experian to automate the build and deployment of our software, with great sucess. I have written a generator app that utilitzes the toolset to generate all the MSI files for our software and then packages them all up into one wrapper application for deployment.

Anyway, I would seriously recommend having a look at WIX. I have included a couple of links below to get you started;

WIX on SourceForge – This, as the name suggests, is the home of the WIX project on SourceForge. This contains links to the latest binaries, news and mailing lists for users and WIX project developers.

WIX Tutorial – An excellent introduction to using WIX with lots of examples and instructions to help you wade through the toolset (I think this tutorial is up to date for version 2.0 but I may be wrong).

Introduction to WIX – A short article introducing WIX and some basic concepts and usage. This is an old article from 2004, but may still be useful reading for the new users out there.

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