How to add a UI to a WiX 3 installer?

Question

I've tried <UIRef Id="WixUI_Minimal" />, but I get "Unresolved reference to symbol WixUI:WixUIMinimal". What am I doing wrong?

Whoa

Answer 1

The wixui extension is no longer wixui.wixlib. It was rolled into the WixUIExtension.

If you are on the command line, add -ext WixUIExtension to the call to light.exe.

If you have a WiX project in Visual Studio, add a reference to "WixUIExtension" by right clicking on "References" in the Solution Explorer.

See the WiXUI Dialog Sets page for WIX3.

Whoa

If anybody's wondering where the dll is, it should be in C:\Program Files (x64)\WiX Toolset [version]\bin\ . – Memorialize

Why they've decided not to include any Visual Studio instruction on that documentation page is beyond me. – Eburnation

For your 2017 question, you are probably using NuGet to fetch the WixInstaller. If so, the location of the DLL is your solution folder\packages\Wix<ver>\tools\WixUIExtension.dll. I'm adding all this to my MSI project (not the EXE bundle). It compiles. LOL – Herpes

FWIW you need to add the DLL reference to the Wix project in your solution. – Chrotoem

Answer 2

If you use the .wixproj directly via MSBuild, without Visual Studio, the required modification is to add this:

<Project ...>
  ...
  <ItemGroup>
    <WixExtension Include="WixUIExtension">
      <HintPath>$(WixToolPath)WixUIExtension.dll</HintPath>
      <Name>WixUIExtension</Name>
    </WixExtension>
  </ItemGroup>
  ...
</Project>

Tomika

You can insert this code snippet also with Visual Studio. ... unload the project in the project explorer with right-click to the project name. Then make double click to the project name. The *.wixproj file opens and you can edit it. After saving reload the project and you are done. – Utoaztecan

Answer 3

See Re: (WiX-users) How to get off the ground with WixUI_Minimal?

Elfredaelfrida

Answer 4

Below is a link to a good example on how to custimize the WixUIExtensions.

Customised UIs for Wix

Creosote

Answer 5

You need to add reference of WixUIExtension in your WIX project to resolve this issue.

Scholasticism