While building Visual Studio setup project it produces two files: [ProgramName].msi and setup.exe. What is the purpose of each one?
While building Visual Studio setup project it produces two files: [ProgramName].msi and setup.exe .
Share
Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this user should be reported.
While building Visual Studio setup project it produces two files: [ProgramName].msi and setup.exe. What is the purpose of each one?
The MSI file is the main package, that contains all the files, registry entries, custom action, etc… This is loaded by Windows Installer service (msiexec.exe) and executed accordingly.
The EXE file is actually a wrapper meant to provide additional support for features not supported by Windows Installer. The most important feature is installing prerequisites. However, there other commercial setup authoring tools that include a lot more support in the EXE like compression support to minimize package size, custom UI themes, or maybe creating a single mixed package instead of two separate MSIs (x86 and x64).