WiX Online Meeting 301 Highlights

New issue triage

• Add the abilitiy to extract embedded packages from bundles, from @wixbot, was resurrected by a user leaving a comment about having looked into what it would take to implement the feature. We discussed the fact that extraction was an explicitly-excluded feature back in the original design of Burn. Layout is similar but exists specifically for air-gapped machines that don’t have access to the cesspool that is the Internet. Extracting embedded packages is useful for IT admin scenarios but after discussing it, we decided it isn’t so important a scenario that it should live in the engine and “force” all bootstrapper applications to support. So we decided instead, that WiX should make it easier for a bootstrapper application (or other tool, for that matter) to extract packages.

• Generated components should be ICE-clean for per-user target directories, from @EvgenPervenenko, came from me reviewing the issues assigned to me as I stare down the deadline of WiX v7 and my plan to support dual-mode packages in bundles. Having spent quite a bit of time with dual-mode packages in that work, I decided I didn’t want to invest more time in handling the peculiarities of per-user packages, especially the sometimes bizarre ICE errors they cause. So I added some documentation so everyone’s aware of those difficulties and retreated back to the fun of dual-mode packages in bundles.

• Neeed VS2026Setup CustomActionRef Support, from @chrpai, requests support for the recently-released Visual Studio 2026 in WixToolset.VisualStudio.wixext. That’s a perfectly cromulent request and it comes with a pull request, making it even more cromulent.

• wix-cli-x64.msi is not being signed, from @robmen, came from a message in the WiX discussion forum on GitHub, pointing out that the WiX CLI package isn’t signed. Oops. Rob volunteered to make sure it’s signed going forward.

• Require “accept EULA”, from @robmen, is the official issue for a topic Rob began discussing at last month’s meeting: WiX should have a way to make it explicit that the user accepts the Open Source Maintenance Fee EULA. Multiple people have pointed out that because there’s no “I agree” checkbox like you’d get in an installer, it’s too easy to accidentally use WiX without agreeing to the OSMF EULA. After discussion between Rob, me, and our livestream attendees, we decided that command-line switches and MSBuild properties will be the primary method for CI/CD systems to indicate license acceptance and will be required for every build. Interactive users will have a wix.exe command and MSBuild target to do a one-time license acceptance.