Customised UI's for WiX

I recently needed to add a dialog to my setup and customise the welcome dialog slightly. I wanted to use one of the standard WiX UI templates but with a few tweaks. I thought this was going to be quite hard and involve recompling the WiXUIExtension but it turned out to be relatively easy. Note: this applies to WiX v3.0.4415.0 or later.

First you need to download the WiX source and locate the UI code in the folder 'src\ext\UIExtension\wixlib'. Next copy the UI you want your code based on to your project, in my case this was WixUI_FeatureTree.wxs (the others are WixUI_Mondo.wxs, WixUI_Minimal.wxs, WixUI_InstallDir.wxs and WixUI_Advanced.wxs). Also copy the any dialogs you want to customise to your project, e.g. WelcomeDlg.wxs.

To customise the dialog, edit the Dialog/@Id e.g. <Dialog Id="WelcomeDlg" ...> becomes <Dialog Id="MyWelcomeDlg" ...> also edit any other references to this Id in the file to match the new Id.

Edit the template UI e.g. WixUI_FeatureTree.wxs, change the UI/@Id e.g <UI Id="WixUI_FeatureTree"> becomes <UI Id="WixUI_MyFeatureTree">.

Now change any references to your customised dialog to it's new Id.

To add your new dialog edit the <Publish> elements to modify the sequence of the "Back" and "Next" control attributes.

Finally, if you want to support localization add a wxl file to your project and enter the customisation strings.

Removing the License Dialog.

Another common request I have seen is to remove the license dialog from one of the standard templates, this can be achived in a similar way. Copy the template you want from the source folder, in this case I will edit WixUI_Mondo.wxs. Edit the <Publish> elements to modify the sequence of the "Back" and "Next" control attributes to skip the license dialog. Edit the UI/@Id to something unique e.g. <UI Id="WixUI_MondoNoLicense">. Then just include you new WixUI_Mondo.wxs in your project and reference the new dialog, <UIRef Id="WixUI_MondoNoLicense">.

A complete example of a mofified WixUI_Mondo is shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
    Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
    
    The use and distribution terms for this software are covered by the
    Common Public License 1.0 (http://opensource.org/licenses/cpl.php)
    which can be found in the file CPL.TXT at the root of this distribution.
    By using this software in any fashion, you are agreeing to be bound by
    the terms of this license.
    
    You must not remove this notice, or any other, from this software.
-->
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
  <Fragment>
    <UI Id="WixUI_MondoNoLicense">
      <TextStyle Id="WixUI_Font_Normal" FaceName="Tahoma" Size="8" />
      <TextStyle Id="WixUI_Font_Bigger" FaceName="Tahoma" Size="12" />
      <TextStyle Id="WixUI_Font_Title" FaceName="Tahoma" Size="9" Bold="yes" />

      <Property Id="DefaultUIFont" Value="WixUI_Font_Normal" />
      <Property Id="WixUI_Mode" Value="Mondo" />

      <DialogRef Id="ErrorDlg" />
      <DialogRef Id="FatalError" />
      <DialogRef Id="FilesInUse" />
      <DialogRef Id="MsiRMFilesInUse" />
      <DialogRef Id="PrepareDlg" />
      <DialogRef Id="ProgressDlg" />
      <DialogRef Id="ResumeDlg" />
      <DialogRef Id="UserExit" />

      <Publish Dialog="ExitDialog" Control="Finish" Event="EndDialog" Value="Return" Order="999">1</Publish>

      <Publish Dialog="WelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="SetupTypeDlg">1</Publish>

      <Publish Dialog="SetupTypeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="WelcomeDlg">1</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="SetupTypeDlg" Control="TypicalButton" Event="NewDialog" Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="SetupTypeDlg" Control="CustomButton" Event="NewDialog" Value="CustomizeDlg">1</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="SetupTypeDlg" Control="CompleteButton" Event="NewDialog" 
               Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>

      <Publish Dialog="CustomizeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="MaintenanceTypeDlg" 
               Order="1">WixUI_InstallMode = "Change"</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="CustomizeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="SetupTypeDlg" 
               Order="2">WixUI_InstallMode = "InstallCustom"</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="CustomizeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>

      <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="CustomizeDlg" 
               Order="1">WixUI_InstallMode = "InstallCustom"</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="SetupTypeDlg" 
               Order="2">WixUI_InstallMode = "InstallTypical" OR WixUI_InstallMode = "InstallComplete"</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="CustomizeDlg" 
               Order="3">WixUI_InstallMode = "Change"</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="MaintenanceTypeDlg" 
               Order="4">WixUI_InstallMode = "Repair" OR WixUI_InstallMode = "Remove"</Publish>

      <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceWelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" 
               Value="MaintenanceTypeDlg">1</Publish>

      <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="ChangeButton" Event="NewDialog" 
               Value="CustomizeDlg">1</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="RepairButton" Event="NewDialog" 
               Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="RemoveButton" Event="NewDialog" 
               Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>
      <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" 
               Value="MaintenanceWelcomeDlg">1</Publish>
    </UI>

    <UIRef Id="WixUI_Common" />
  </Fragment>
</Wix>