Custom Action Properties

Execution Time

• Immediately - the action will be executed immediately when it is found in the action sequence.
• When the system is being modified (deferred) - the action will be executed in order as part of the script built out of all the non-immediate actions. Custom Actions before InstallInitialize (Preparing action group) and after InstallFinalize (Finish Execution action group) can not be deferred and they must be Immediate. Note that deferred custom actions do not have access to installer's public properties.
• During installation rollback - execute the action only if something failed after this action and the installation is being rolled back.
• After the system has been successfully modified (commit) - the action will be executed in the Commit phase, after everything got installed successfully.

On Windows Vista or above the custom actions which affect the system or require Administrator privileges should run without impersonation. For this you can simply check the Run under the LocalSystem account with full privileges (no impersonation) option.

Execution Options

• Run under the LocalSystem account with full privileges (no impersonation) - the custom action will be executed under the LocalSystem account with full privileges. This option is not available for custom actions which are executed Immediately.
• Wait for custom action to finish before proceeding - determines if the main installation thread waits for the custom action to complete. Windows Installer always waits for custom actions executed during rollback.
• Fail installation if custom action returns an error - determines if the custom action return code is checked by Windows Installer. For more information about custom action return codes, please see the Custom Actions Page.
• Wait for return code at the end of the sequence - determines if the current stage (Wizard Dialogs Stage or Install Execution Stage) will wait for the custom action return code after all actions have been executed. The actual return code is ignored by the installation.
• Action Text... - specify a text that will be displayed in the progress dialog box or written in the log file, when the custom action is being run. Use the button. The Edit Action Properties Dialog will be displayed and will allow you to specify the text. Note that only deferred custom actions can set an Action Text.

Custom actions that are executable files must return a value of 0 for success. The installer interprets any other return value as failure.

Execution Condition

• Install - Enable this option if you want your custom action to execute during installation of the package.
  • First Time Install - The custom action will execute during installation of the package if no older version was found on the target computer.
  • Upgrade - The custom action will execute during installation of the package only if an older version was found on the target computer.
• Uninstall - Enable this option if you want your custom action to execute during removal of the package.
  • Regular uninstall - The custom action will execute during a complete uninstall of the application, not during an upgrade. This option is available only during "Install Execution Stage".
  • Replaced by a new version - The custom action will execute during removal of the application trigerred by the installation of a new version. This option is available only during "Install Execution Stage".
• Maintenance - Enable this option if you want your custom action to execute during a repair or customization of the package.
• Condition - a boolean expression which must be true for the Custom Action to be executed. Edit this field using Smart Condition Edit Control.

The First Time Install, Upgrade, Regular uninstall and Replaced by a new version options may not displayed by default, you should use the Show upgrade options link to display them.

• Advanced execution scenarios - this link displays the Advanced Execution Scenarios Dialog.

UI Triggering Events

A list with all the events that trigger the custom action at install time. Each entry shows the name of the dialog on the first column, and on the second column, the name of the control from the dialog that triggers the event when the user interacts with it.

This list is shown only for custom actions without sequence. If the list is empty then the custom action will never execute.

Select an event and click Go to selected event dialog link button to configure it in the Dialog Editor Page.