title: Recommended .NET app installer?
body: <p>I need to create an install for my app that executes the following actions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Copies files</li>
  <li>Writes registry settings</li>
  <li>Registers a windows service</li>
  <li>Writes an XML app.config file (based on user supplied info during install--a connection string)</li>
  <li>Executes SQL scripts against a remote database (connection info obtained in #4)</li>
  <li>Installs and registers a COM dll</li>
  <li>Adds entry to Control Panel>Add/Remove programs for uninstall</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I don't need any fancy logic to allow the user to customize these steps--I can hard-code them with user-supplied info injected where appropriate.</p>
  
  <p>I looked at <a href="http://wix.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wix</a> but found the documentation and examples don't line up well with recent releases.</p>
  
  <p>I also looked at <a href="http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NSIS</a> but found support for writing XML to be too limited (the <a href="http://nsis.sourceforge.net/NsisXML_plug-in_(by_Joel)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">plugin</a> for this can only handle strings up to 64 bytes).</p>
  
  <p>I initially brushed off the VS2005 built in Setup project as incapable of handling these tasks but I'm ready to reconsider after stumbling with what I thought were better options.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?</p>