Recommendations for getting started with WiX? [closed]

Question

I found a WiX Tutorial, but it's really long-winded and seems like more than I wanted. What's the best way to get started quickly?

My end goal is nothing really complicated: an installer that installs an ISAPI filter.

Answer 1

When you install the WIX 3.0 toolset, it comes with a manual. It is installed to C:\Program Files\Windows Installer XML v3\doc\wix.chm and is linked in the start menu.

This is not just a dry reference manual. It contains a lot of introductory material such as the "Authoring your first .wxs file" and "How To: Add a File To Your Installer".

The manual also links to the tutorial you mention and some audio-visual material in the "Getting Started Learning Wix" topic.

The wix3 manual is also available online here.

Answer 2

I used that same tutorial a couple years ago when I needed to learn WiX. MSI (and therefore WiX) are incredibly complex, you'll need to invest some time to get it right.

If you have Visual Studio, I highly recommend getting Votive (which, I think, comes bundled in WiX v3 now). It'll set up VS to recognize the WiX XML schema and make hand-editing XML files much easier.