Saving install path to the registry

Question

I have created an application and I am trying to deply it using the Microsoft Installer (.msi). I would like to save the installation path to the registry so that it can be used when the application is executed. How can I save that information from the installer? Any help would be very much appreciated.

sjones · Answer

I have a suggestion to this problem. Don't do it! Your program should probably not need to know where it is installed. You certainly should not be writing anything to that directory. Data that may need to be read should be in the Application Data directory either for common All Users or the current user. I would suggest this even for resources like images. But if you MUST know where the application is installed STILL DONT STORE IT. Users have a habit of moving things around. If they move or rename the directory after installation your app will break. Instead use the property Application.StartupPath to determine where the program is running from at the moment not where it was originally installed. This is important where network users install software to Mapped drives because the drive letters tend to change.

zachary.isom · Answer

Thanks for the tip. My problem now is that I am having trouble retrieving the installation path that the user selected during the install process. How do I pass that information to my custom setup code? Any suggestions?

jcity444 · Answer

Check out custom deployment in .NET. This will show you how you can actually write C# code that can be launched from your msi installation created from the Setup project in Visual Studio. Here you can write your registry code using the Registry class. The only catch is that it will be executed at the very end of the installation. -Mike G.