WiX Toolset
WiX Toolset
WiX Toolset
The most powerful set of tools available to create your Windows installation experience
WiX Extended Support
WiX v3 and v4 are out of community support.
We know it can take time to upgrade, so FireGiant offers extended support for both versions.
WiX Toolset by the numbers
The most powerful set of tools available to create your Windows installers
11M+ installs and counting
Our tools build the most installers
Downloaded more than 11 million times since we started counting in 2015, the WiX Toolset is the most popular tool for creating Windows installers. HeatWave brings the power of WiX to Visual Studio and your product's installer, too.
25+ years as open source
An Open Source pioneer in the .NET ecosystem
The WiX Toolset was released as an Open Source project in 2004. It was Microsoft's first Open Source project and led the way for many more. Through it all, Rob Mensching has led the project bringing the most powerful set of Windows installer tools to the world.
It's all code
WiX fits naturally into the software development process. Rather than relying on proprietary binary files, WiX uses XML text files for seamless integration into any source control and build system.
- View and edit installer source code with any text editor.
- Easily track changes in the installer source code in source control.
- Merge changes simply and intuitively.
Clean, compact, correct
WiX is the only installer technology that provides complete control of the resulting Windows Installer packages.
- WiX enables the full capabilities of the underlying Windows Installer platform.
- You can control exactly what goes into your packages because WiX adds only what's required to each generated MSI.
- Features like smart cabbing ensure the most compact output by removing duplicate files from cabinet files.
Beyond the Windows Installer
WiX is far more than a thin veneer on top of the Windows Installer. The Burn bootstrapper engine lets you create rich UI experiences with familiar and powerful technologies like WinForms and WPF.
- Bundles let you have a single installation experience from many packages in your product and its prerequisites.
- The Burn engine does the heavy lifting when building highly customized user experiences.
- Packages can be downloaded on demand from the Internet, to minimize the installer size.
- Add-on bundles allow for easy integration of out-of-band product releases into the original installer.
Latest news about WiX
The FireGiant blog about setup matters - because setup matters.
WiX Online Meeting 294 Highlights
Since our last meeting, we fixed some last-minute WiX v6 bugs, shipped WiX v6, and began working on WiX v7. And that's just in our copious spare time. In future meetings, we're going to tackle the many, many issues we've been hoarding dutifully maintaining over the years. Join us live for some lightning-round triage!
, Bob Arnson
HeatWave v1.0.6 and HeatWave Build Tools v6.0.0 are available
Today is the 55th annual Earth Day (plus or minus 1,657,100,000,000 other, more mundane days) and we celebrate in part by releasing HeatWave v1.0.6 and HeatWave Build Tools v6.0.0, with full support for WiX v6.
, Bob Arnson
WiX v6.0.0 available
WiX v6.0.0 is now available. Update your .wixproj files, load up the WiX CLI package on your favorite build machine, and update the .NET tool installation if you have one. And if you make money using WiX, take note of the new Open Source Maintenance Fee.
, Bob Arnson