How to Install Files to an Arbitrary Location Outside "Program Files"

By default WiX installs your application files into a folder under "Program Files". This is because normally you have a few lines of code like below:

      <Directory Id='TARGETDIR' Name='SourceDir'>
         <Directory Id='ProgramFilesFolder' Name='PFiles'>
            <Directory Id='MyDir' Name='TestProg' LongName='Test Program'>
               <Component Id='MyComponent' Guid='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'>

The above WiX example deploys your files to %SystemDrive%\Program files\Test Program. However, sometimes you don't want this behavior and need to install files to an arbitrary folder. To achieve this, you can try these:

Don't worry about TARGETDIR

Create a public property (like MYAPPPATH, or INSTALLDIR) to set the new application installation location

Add a Directory node with Id="MYAPPPATH" and Name=".". Note: Name="." overrides the parent folder

      <Property Id="MYAPPPATH"><![CDATA[c:\mydir\]]></Property>             <!-- New property -->

      <Directory Id='TARGETDIR' Name='SourceDir'>
         <Directory Id='ProgramFilesFolder' Name='PFiles'>
            <Directory Id="MYAPPPATH" Name=".">                             <!-- Overrides the parent folder -->
               <Directory Id='MyDir' Name='TestProg' LongName='Test Program'>
                  <Component Id='MyComponent' Guid='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'>

Now you can have what you want, enjoy WiXing!

How to Install Files to an Arbitrary Location Outside "Program Files"

See also