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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-16T03:50:42+00:00

I have a software that assembled with about 19 different components. Right now I

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I have a software that assembled with about 19 different components. Right now I use 19 setup projects and 1 Winforms project that is the main installer. I want to move to WiX since I want to upgrade to visual studio 2012. My question is: is it possible to do that in WiX? In current setup I have, user able to decide which components to install by checking them out. Is it possible to create such experience with WiX? also is it possible in future to upgrade only one of those components?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Yes, Wix it brilliant for this kind of thing, it calls them Features, you can simply setup a set of features (you can set the Level so that things you want installed by default (if you do) are checked, and things that are optional are unchecked (if you like). You can also have a feature under a feature, for children like:

    Product  
-Feature 1  
-Feature 2  
--Feature 2 Documentation  
--Feature 2 Admin Tools  
-Feature 3 
(etc)

    These support title/description etc to make it nice and user friendly.

    To setup the more advances UI features you will need to add a reference to the WixUIExtension.dll to the installer project, and add a UIRef element into the product (see this article) like:

    <UIRef Id="WixUI_FeatureTree" />

    You’ll probably want to setup a Feature for each of the “things” you want installed, then setup a ComponentGroup for each one, in that you can define any number of sub components that you want installed.

    Here’s a snippet that should do the above (note it’s not fully fleshed out, just an example):

    <UIRef Id="WixUI_FeatureTree" />

<ComponentGroup Id="Component1">
  <ComponentRef Id="Component1"/>
</ComponentGroup>

<Component Id="Component1" Directory="directorytobeinstalledto">
  <File Id="File1" Source="fileweareinstalling"/>
</Component>

<Feature Id="Feature1" Title="Feature 1" Description="My Feature 1" Level="1">
  <ComponentGroupRef Id="Component1"/>
</Feature>
<Feature Id="Feature2" Title="Feature 2" Description="My Feature 2" Level="1">
  <Feature Id="Feature2.Docs" Title="Feature 2 Documentation" Description="My Feature 2 Documentation" Level="1000"/>
  <Feature Id="Feature2.Admin" Title="Feature 2 Admin Tools" Description="My Feature 2 Administration Tools" Level="1000"/>
</Feature>
<Feature Id="Feature3" Title="Feature 3" Description="My Feature 3" Level="0"/> <!-- disabled! -->
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