Creating custom installer packages

The previous section detailed how to get started with the freely available InstallShield LE software. While this approach can be helpful in some cases, for users of the Visual Studio Community, it is not an available option. Another consideration is for those projects where greater control of the installation process is required over what is available in Limited Edition. Finally, developers just may not want to rely on a third-party vendor for their project to be successful.

For these reasons and any that you may have, it is good to know that an alternative exists. Thanks to the freely available VS2015 Installer Projects extension provided by Microsoft, there is a way to develop your own custom installer with VS2015.

Getting ready

For this recipe, you can use Visual Studio Community 2015 or one of the Premium editions. If you have an existing project with an executable, you can use that with the recipe, or follow along as we create a sample one to help illustrate...