The Microsoft® Windows® installer works with files grouped as installer components. From a development point of view, a component is the building block of an installed application. Each component consists of one or more logically related files (and, sometimes, additional elements such as registry entries) grouped together.
In Microsoft® Visual Studio® Installer, every file added to your project belongs to a component. A unique file or registry key identifies each component. For information about component registry keys, see Manipulating the Target Machine Registry.
When you add a file to an installer project, you create a component with that file as the key file. After adding several files to an installer project, you can group them together to create multi-file components.
You can add files to the installer project in several different ways:
Tip To facilitate sharing projects between multiple development machines, Microsoft recommends you keep all source files you add to an installer project in the project directory (or its subdirectories) on your development machine.
To add files with the Project Explorer
Note You can also reach the Browse for Files dialog box by right-clicking the installer project name in the Project Explorer, highlighting Add, and then selecting File(s).
You can see the files you added listed in the installer project's Files node in the Project Explorer. Unless you regroup the files, each file is its own component and will be installed in the end user's application installation directory.
To add files with the File System editor
The File System editor displays the files you added in the folder you selected. The files are also listed in the installer project's Files node in the Project Explorer. Unless you regroup or move the files, each file is its own component and will be installed in the selected directory.
To add files with the Windows Explorer
The File System editor displays the files you added in the folder you selected. The files are also listed in the installer project's Files node in the Project Explorer. Unless you regroup or move the files, each file is its own component and will be installed in the selected directory.