How to enable 'Download prerequisites from the same location as my application' in the Prerequisites

Question

_{Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:41 AM}

tl;dr

Visual Studio 2013 Creating a plain installer, project template: Other Project Types > Visual Studio Installer > Setup Project

There's gotta be something simple I'm missing. I've got the installers (such as NDP451-KB2858728-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe) for my prerequisites downloaded, how hard can it be to tell Visual Studio where to find them (or to put them where it naturally will look)?

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Got everything working, except for incorporating prerequisites.

I have googled this, but nothing quite answers the question.

I have created a plain "Setup Project" with some prerequisites, which I want bundled with the installer (no downloading by the end user at install time). I get this error:

Error 1 To enable 'Download prerequisites from the same location as my application' in the Prerequisites dialog box, you must download file 'DotNetFX45\dotNetFx45_Full_x86_x64.exe' for item 'Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 (x86 and x64)' to your local machine. For more information, seehttp://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=239883. d:\junk\installerWalkthrough\Setup1\Setup1.vdproj Setup1

This is pretty clear.

EXCEPT: after I download it, where do I put it so Visual Studio knows where to find it to include it in the build of the setup project?

I've looked for some option/properties to specify a path to the setup files for prerequisites, no luck. If I go to the url mentioned in the error message, it goes on about "clickonce" and other types of install. Nothing about plain "Setup Project" type of install. And the instructions about where to put the downloaded file are as clear as mud, seem to be specific for win version 8.1A, but if you go down into "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\ there are many different win version listed as subfolders, some with a bootstrapper folder, others not, etc.

I tried putting NDP451-KB2858728-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFX451\en which seems to be where (url from error message) is telling me to put it, but VS does not find it on build.

There's gotta be something simple I'm missing. I've got the installers for my prerequisites downloaded, how hard can it be to tell Visual Studio where to get them?

All replies (9)

_{Thursday, February 26, 2015 2:35 AM}

Hi Scott.K.Graham,

I am moving your thread into the ClickOnce and Setup & Deployment Projects Forum for dedicated support. Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,

Jack

We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
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_{Thursday, February 26, 2015 3:05 AM}

Thanks!

It's almost impossible to find appropriate topics in those tiny list boxes.  Keywords/tags would be much better than distinct predefined forums.

_{Monday, June 8, 2015 1:41 PM}

I am having a very similar problem.  Where can I go to see the answer for this question?  I got the same error message "To enable 'Download prerequisites from the same location as my application' in the Prerequisites dialog box, you must download file 7zip/7zip-920-Installer.exe for item 7zip to your local machine. For more information, seehttp://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=239883. d:\junk\installerWalkthrough\Setup1\Setup1.vdproj"  I created a 7Zip folder in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\Bootstrapper\Packages and have an en subfolder along with product. xml and inside the en subfolder I have eula.rtf and package.xml.  I believe the issue has to do with the content of package.xml or product.xml files but I am not sure what is wrong with them.  Please help as soon as possible.  Below are the contents of my package.xml and product.xml files

Package.xml:

<Package
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/2004/01/bootstrapper"
  Name="DisplayName"
  Culture="Culture"
  LicenseAgreement="eula.rtf">
  <PackageFiles>
    <PackageFile Name="eula.rtf"/>
  </PackageFiles>

  <!-- Defines a localizable string table for error messages. -->
  <Strings>
    <String Name="DisplayName">7zip</String>
    <String Name="Culture">en</String>
    <String Name="AU_Unaccepted">The automatic update agreement is not accepted.</String>
    <String Name="GeneralFailure">A failure occurred attempting to launch the setup.</String>
</Package>

Product.xml:

<Product
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/2004/01/bootstrapper"
  ProductCode="Microsoft.Sample.EULA">
  <!-- Defines the list of files to be copied on build. -->
  <PackageFiles CopyAllPackageFiles="false">
    <PackageFile Name="7zip-920Installer.exe"/>
  </PackageFiles>

  <!-- Defines how to run the Setup package.-->
  <Commands >
    <Command PackageFile = "7zip-920Installer.exe" Arguments=''>
      <ExitCodes>
        <ExitCode Value="0" Result="Success" />
        <ExitCode Value="-1" Result="Fail" String="AU_Unaccepted" />
        <DefaultExitCode Result="Fail"
          FormatMessageFromSystem="true" String="GeneralFailure" />
      </ExitCodes>
    </Command>
  </Commands>

</Product>

_{Monday, June 8, 2015 7:08 PM | 1 vote}

Basically you download the file into the Packages folder in the Winfows SDK install. For example, I downloaded the Net452 of that name to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\Bootstrapper\Packages. Ignore the \en folders in there and just give it the name it needs. That doesn't seem to be the entire solution though, because the build then says "Warning The value of the 'PublicKey' attribute in 'Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 (x86 and x64)' does not match that of file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFX452\NDP452-KB2901907-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe' "

So maybe it needs the Package.xml from the \en folder.

Phil Wilson

_{Tuesday, June 9, 2015 1:46 PM}

I tried putting "7zip-920Installer.exe" in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages", "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\7zip", and "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\7zip\en" but I am still getting the same error. 

_{Wednesday, August 31, 2016 3:00 PM}

It took me a whole day to figure this out and understand it. This file location was the final piece to the mystery of including prerequisite files in my ClickOnce. I inherited this ClickOnce based app but now I need to upgrade Crystal Reports. Thankyou!!!!

_{Wednesday, June 6, 2018 11:27 AM}

did you find solution for this ? I am facing the same exact issue and not able to solve it. 

_{Thursday, August 30, 2018 9:32 AM}

Gee, thanks for nothing. Your solution was basically: "I found the solution! But I'm not telling anybody what it is!!!". A**hole.

_{Tuesday, December 18, 2018 11:04 AM}

LOL ..... Go *u*k Your self Man !!!!!!!!