How to add a UI to a WiX 3 installer?

Question

I've tried <UIRef Id="WixUI_Minimal" />, but I get "Unresolved reference to symbol WixUI:WixUIMinimal". What am I doing wrong?

Solution 1

The wixui extension is no longer wixui.wixlib. It was rolled into the WixUIExtension.

If you are on the command line, add -ext WixUIExtension to the call to light.exe.

If you have a WiX project in Visual Studio, add a reference to "WixUIExtension" by right clicking on "References" in the Solution Explorer.

See the WiXUI Dialog Sets page for WIX3.

Solution 2

If you use the .wixproj directly via MSBuild, without Visual Studio, the required modification is to add this:

<Project ...>
  ...
  <ItemGroup>
    <WixExtension Include="WixUIExtension">
      <HintPath>$(WixToolPath)WixUIExtension.dll</HintPath>
      <Name>WixUIExtension</Name>
    </WixExtension>
  </ItemGroup>
  ...
</Project>

Solution 3

Below is a link to a good example on how to custimize the WixUIExtensions.

Customised UIs for Wix

Solution 4

You need to add reference of WixUIExtension in your WIX project to resolve this issue.

Solution 5

See Re: (WiX-users) How to get off the ground with WixUI_Minimal?

View more solutions

Comments

[Alejandro Moreno]

If anybody's wondering where the dll is, it should be in C:\Program Files (x64)\WiX Toolset [version]\bin\ .

[Drazen Bjelovuk]

Why they've decided not to include any Visual Studio instruction on that documentation page is beyond me.

[QuantumHive]

Why is the location of the dll not documentated in the guides? It's retarded to first read the docs (where they mention that you have to add some reference), to eventually search the internet to find out where this reference is located. It's not even in the answer but hidden in a comment of a SO answer...

[user922020]

For your 2017 question, you are probably using NuGet to fetch the WixInstaller. If so, the location of the DLL is your solution folder\packages\Wix<ver>\tools\WixUIExtension.dll. I'm adding all this to my MSI project (not the EXE bundle). It compiles. LOL

[Alan B]

FWIW you need to add the DLL reference to the Wix project in your solution.

[Beauty]

You can insert this code snippet also with Visual Studio. ... unload the project in the project explorer with right-click to the project name. Then make double click to the project name. The *.wixproj file opens and you can edit it. After saving reload the project and you are done.