Summary

Synopsis

The Support Files view of an InstallShield project allows files to be extracted to the temp location at run time. This article describes how to launch an executable from this location during the installation.

Discussion

Following these steps authors a custom action that calls an executable from the Support Files view.

1. Add the executable to be launched to the Language Independent node of the Support Files View (Advanced UI, Basic MSI, InstallScript Object, and Suite/Advanced UI Projects) or Support Files/Billboards View (InstallScript and InstallScript MSI Projects)
   e.g., MyApp.exe.
   
2. Launch the Custom Action Wizard. For more information, see the References section of this article.

3. On the Action Type dialog:
   • Select Launch an Executable from the Type drop-down list.
   • Select Stored in the Directory table from the Location drop-down list.

4. On the Action Parameters dialog:
   • Select TempFolder from the Source drop-down list.
   • Set the Target to "[SUPPORTDIR]\MyApp.exe".

     The square brackets resolve to the value of the SUPPORTDIR property. See the References section of this article for more information. The quotes are needed because SUPPORTDIR resolves to a long path. Finally, the backslash is required because SUPPORTDIR does not contain a trailing backslash.

5. On the Insert into Sequence dialog:
   • Select After CostFinalize from the Install Execute Sequence drop-down list.
   • Set the Install Execute Condition to Not Installed.

Additional Information

1. Go to the Direct Editor view in the Additional Tools folder and select the Directory table from the list of tables in the Direct Editor view.
2. Create a new row at the bottom with the Directory column set to SUPPORTDIR, the Directory_Parent column set to TARGETDIR, the DefaultDir column set to ., and the ISAttributes column set to 0.
3. Select SUPPORTDIR instead of TempFolder in step four above.

For more information on the Support Files view, see the Help Library topic Using Support Files.

The SUPPORTDIR property is further documented in the Help Library topic SUPPORTDIR.