Anyone who has experience with dotNetInstaller (http://dblock.github.io/dotnetinstaller/) I have a question. I've previously worked with the WiX bootstrapper which is horrible in many ways but that one that I find most annoying is the fact the instead of installing my .NET, DirectX, and my program as separate items (as far as Add/Remove Programs is concerned) it installs it as one item which causes all kinds of headaches. Originally, when the package would install it would take DX and .NET with it so I had to tell WiX those were meant to be permanent installs. However, when I did this is essentially makes the OS think that the package is still partially installed (due to the DX and .NET still being installed) even after my program itself has been removed.
What I want to know, is if I create a bootstrapper with dotNetInstaller, will I be able to uninstall the individual reqs and programs separately without the OS thinking the "package" is still partially installed?
The behavior you describe with bootstrapper/chainer in the WiX toolset (aka: Burn) is not the expected behavior and would be considered a bug. If you'd like to start a discussion on [email protected] mailing list, we'd love to get to the bottom of the issue.
The dotNetInstaller treats each installation package as a separate entity and does not register itself as the owner. This is in contrast to Burn which attempts to create a single integrated experience for installing all the software. It is possible that dotNetInstaller is more what you are looking for right now.
Note: You can get a very similar experience to dotNetInstaller with Burn but that requires a custom BootstrapperApplication that does not try to create a unified installation experience.
Again, we'd love to get to the root issue of any bugs you hit with Burn.