NsisBootstrapper with multiple prerequisites and MSI with Custom dialogs

[PaulH-HBK]

Having created an MSI with standard dialogs to install software we created a bootstrapper so we could include some dependencies such as .NET which went reasonably well. We wanted to add a custom dialog into the installer so added this to the MSI and set the DisplayInternalUI flag. The MSI shows the custom dialog fine but the bootstrapper does not show it. After some reading in this group it appears a standard bootstrapper does not show custom dialogs and the NsisBootstrapper is required. After looking into this it doesn't appear to be easy to have multiple prerequisites (we have 3).
At a bit of a loss now to decide the best way to proceed.
Looking for the best way to package an MSI with custom dialog and 3 prerequisites (all third party executables).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[geghamyan]

Hi @PaulH-HBK ,
Please take a look on this reply and discussion.

I hope that helps,
Tigran

[geghamyan]

In addition - I believe Oleg has added the MsiExePackage class specifically to address situations where you need to display a custom UI of the MSI installer. Please take a look at MsiExePackage here: GitHub Link.

In general, the decision depends on the nature of the dependencies you are installing. If you need to handle them as a whole — where installing, uninstalling, or reinstalling likely applies to all packages in the bundle — the Burn bootstrapper might be a better choice. However, if the dependencies are more like prerequisites that you install on the machine and leave in place (even if your main MSI is later removed), the NSISBootstrapper is a much simpler option.

If you step away from the standard Burn bootstrapper workflows, such as creating a custom UI for the bootstrapper or a silent bootstrapper, it can become very challenging to ensure it behaves correctly in edge cases. I've spent countless hours troubleshooting such issues.