How to convert vdproj file to WiX format?

Question

I need to convert a vdproj file to WiX format so that I can get it building using msbuild. One solution was to call the devenv executable from msbuild and build the vdproj file from there but that's just nasty. I thought that I would try manually converting the file to WiX format but looking at its contents scared me quite a bit. Are there any tools or elegant solutions that could possibly help with this conversion?

Stall

It's funny just how often "that's just nasty" could equivalently be said "it works"! After struggling to get MSBuild 2.0 to work with our setup projects (and C++ projects), I finally gave up and stayed with using devenv because, well, it works :-) – Ramah

Check if "VDProj to WiX Converter" helps you. visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/… – Saari

@AKaral: The link you gave is a limited trial and nagware. – Syllabus

What the hell is WiX??? Isn't that one of those "build your own website" things??? – Parasitology

@Syllabus - lol "nagware." – Parasitology

Answer 1

You can try work with Dark which converts any MSI into Wix. You will need to remove a lot of "junk" especially in the UI areas but it will give you a decent start.

Mauney

Look at people complaints: visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/… who is gonna maintain that abomination ? – Vadnais

The link is broken for now. It turned commercial . – Earleanearleen

This is a good link: visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/… – Vadnais

btw looks like finally MSFT "released an extension which delivers the Visual Studio Installer projects functionality present in Visual Studio 2010 for Visual Studio 2013." (see link above) Better late, than never :-) – Vadnais

After installation of WiX using the following command helped me: %WiXInstallDir%\dark.exe -x %OutPutDir% foo.msi %OutPutDir%\foo.wxs Better if the .msi is built in Debug mode. – Hundredpercenter

Answer 2

There is a utility by Chris Oldwood that converts a .vdproj to .wxs (using powerscript command line) I hope that helps, this is my current research and I will report back on any issues. Once converted do not forget WixEdit. Microsoft have removed .vdproj from VS2012.

Donative

I have had a quick look at this but it proved to be of little utility for my vdproj files - Chris does explicitly say that his script is specific to his use case. I have a number of projects that are installed as system services and these are not a good target for this script. – Ultrared

Answer 3

"VDProj to WiX Converter" will help you to convert vdProj file to wix.

It can be downloaded from the link http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/0f8ff662-c844-4c3c-9c7b-b170cea16baf

Saari

"VDProj to WiX Converter" plugin costs $99. Not sure its gonna work for my project. – Nickelsen

Answer 4

If you want to switch to NSIS or Inno Setup you can use Visual & Installer extension: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/5e57fe9a-ae5d-4740-a1c3-7a8e278e105b

It also supports conversion from .vdproj files into NSIS or Inno Setup script.

Jinja