I may be missing something in your narrative but once you select EXE as your compilation option and add a pre-requisite, this enables the edit option for the wisescript stub and you can edit the wisescript code using the Wisescript Editor (and not the windows installer editor as you describe above).

I presume the objective of the exercise is to create a template stub which can be used with all your projects. One thing I would suggest is that you consider the benefits of writing your own wisescript wrapper for handling pre-requisite and MSI installs, as then you have total control over the functionality of the wrapper code, and also have no issues with accessing Installation Expert.

Creating your own wrapper also gives you the additional opportunity of handling the uninstall situation in more detail. The standard implementation makes no provision for uninstalling pre-requisites as these will appear normally in Add/Remove programs and the user will have to manage the uninstalls separately if required. Using your own Wisescript wrapper allows you to create a more comprehensive uninstaller and update the ARP settings to call that when the user requires an uninstall.

In case you are not already aware, Wise Installation Studio ceased shipping back in April and is no longer being developed, and no new support agreements are being offered. Any remaining bugs in the product will not be fixed so users are left to their own ingenuity in finding necessary workarounds.  Wise Package Studio 8 is now the sole product that continues shipping, and is marginally more up to date as VS2008 and .NET 3.5 are now supported. No timescales for VS2010 and NET4 support though.

Thanks for the reply.  I was trying to keep it brief.  I do have a custom WiseScript WSE for just the reasons you describe.  That script is based on the stock one of course and contain this section (simplified because WSE clipboard operations are horrible):

REM Execute the runtime stub
if STUBFILEPATH Equals "" then
  Set Variable STUBFILEPATH = %WORKINGDIR%\%_STUBFILENAME_%
  Install File %_STUBFILEPATH_% to %STUBFILEPATH%

  ...

 Execute Program %STUBFILEPATH%  /awm "%INIFILEPATH%"  %CMDLINE%

 ...

End
 

That Execute triggers a PCA event in Win 7.  That EXE seems to be built by the Installation Studio and I have no idea how to get a custom manifest in it.  If I don't use a prereq script I don't get a PCA window.  That will work for some of my installs but not others. 

I knew WIS was being neglected but I had not heard it was being abandoned.  I guess there is always Orca!

Thanks again,

Nathan

ORCA is a very useful tool, and is always part of my toolset. 

Having re-read your posting, I mis-read the problem as I now see you are referring to the PCA message and not a UAC warning.

I googled on Program Compatibility Assistant and there were many hits including to Microsoft documents outlining how to suppress the message.  Perhaps this route might offer an alternative?

This topic has been discussed before in the forum. Check this:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/pro...

So far no luck.  I removed all prerequisites and the custom script from the install in question and got around the problem for now.  That might cause problems for Windows 2000 users but I am not sure we still have any of those.  I have another install that REALLY needs a custom prerequisite script but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.  I guess I can scrap all of this and write my own MSI wrapper.  Or buy InstallShield.

JohanH-That article was my first stop.  For whatever reason changing the manifest in stub32.exe as suggested did nothing to change the behavior of my stub exe. 

Thanks for the replies!  If I ever figure this out I will post my solution.