custom action for installation

[pjaiswal]

I have just started using Visual Build professional. I read the user manual to get an idea of how it works. I need to create a custom action to install a setup.msi for a software automatically if it has not already been installed in the machine.

Can anyone please tell me and give me an idea on how to proceed on this and where should I start?What would be the best way?

Thanks

[kinook]

msiexec [1] could be called from a Run Program step to install a .msi file. As far as running it only if it's not already installed, you could look for the existence of a registry key or file created/installed by the .msi file and conditionally build the step based on its existence.

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msi/setup/command_line_options.asp