Chapter 15. Bootstrapping Prerequisites with Burn

If you're like most of us, your software relies on some framework, third-party component, database, or process. Maybe it's the .NET Framework, the Java runtime, or SQL Server. Up until now, we would use a launch condition to show the user a friendly error message if the required prerequisite wasn't found, swiftly ending our installation. What we needed is a bootstrapper—a mechanism for getting those prerequisites installed prior to installing our own software. With the arrival of WiX 3.6, we have one.

Burn is a new tool in the WiX arsenal that fills the bootstrapper gap, but its feature set extends well beyond that of a simple bootstrapper. In this chapter, we'll cover the following topics:

• The ins and outs of getting your prerequisites installed using the new Bootstrapper Project template available in Visual Studio

• Displaying a single progress bar while installing multiple installation packages

• Downloading installers from the Internet at runtime...