I'm using Visual studio 2005 professional edition... and I need to make a setup for my project... I add a setup project and I configure it.. but how to set the setup project to prompt for a product key that I define?
Setup project has built-in support for this, with the "Customer Information" dialog box and SerialNumberTemplate property. You can refer to the following links for more detailed information:
Customer Information User Interface Dialog Box
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8z9h65a3(VS.80).aspx
SerialNumberTemplate Property
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w3xwh311(VS.80).aspx
Hi OmarMallat,
Here is additional explanation.
Please follow these steps to add Custom Information dialog and specify SerialNumberTemplate property:
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the Setup project.
2. In context menu, click View -> User Interface to open User Interface Editor
3. Right-click the Start or Progress node -> click Add Dialog -> select Custom Information
4. Configure Custom Information in Properties panel.
Microsoft Visual Studio provides a number of predefined dialog boxes that you can use to display information or gather input during an installation. Please check Installation User Interface Dialog Boxes.
Best regards,
Martin Xie
is there any solution to put fixed Product key? not a template.... like: 1245ERFD- 4FR. so it will continue if the user enter this key only...
thanks again..
Hi Omar,
If you want to specify such fixed Product key as 1245ERFD- 4FR, you can demand to pass specific data to a custom action at Installation.
Here is the detailed solution step-by-step applied to Visual Studio .NET 2005.
Walkthrough: Using a Custom Action to Display a Message at Installation
The walkthrough demonstrates how to use a custom action to take user input and pass it to a message box that appears during installation. This is a simple demonstration of custom actions, which are useful for many other tasks. For example, a custom action could take as user input the location of the Setup.exe file and use it to launch the application after installing it.
1. To create a custom action
2. To create an installer class
'Add the following procedure to override the Install procedure of the base class
3. To create a deployment project
4. To add a custom action
5. To customize the installation user interface
6. To install on your development computer
7. To deploy to another computer
8. To test the installation
9. To uninstall the application
This is corresponding solution applied to Visual Studio .NET 2003.
Walkthrough: Passing Data to a Custom Action
Other relevant guide.
Allows you to specify additional actions to be performed on a target computer during installation. Custom actions are contained in .dll, .exe, VBScript, JScript, or Installer class files within your solution.
To access the Custom Actions Editor, right-click a setup/deployment project in Solution Explorer -> click View context menu -> click Custom Actions.
The following walkthrough demonstrates the process of creating a DLL custom action to direct a user to a Web page at the end of an installation.
Regards,
Martin
I'm sorry to tell you that, but I found the custom action like a joke... it will say that you failed to validate, but after that he finish, and the software was installed successfully..
why all software can make a setup with a product key and we cannot in vs2005?
also I found the serial number property very weak in the setup project... anyone can enter 000000000000 or 77777777777 and crack the key... and the big joke is that the setup tell you that you enter an invalid character.... also it cannot combine letter with number..
I don't think that microsoft is stupid like that... maybe there is another way...
please help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I need to put a product key in the setup project....
