Answer by TJR for Detect if Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 is installed

I came across this question looking for an answer in the context of checking for the Visual C++ redistributable as part of an MSI installer created by WiX.

I didn't like how the GUID's change with version and operating system, so I ended up creating a custom action written in C# to check for the Visual C++ redistributable.

Everything below is specifically for Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64), but it can be easily modified for any version.

using Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller;using Microsoft.Win32;namespace CustomActions{    public class DependencyChecks    {        [CustomAction]        public static ActionResult IsVC2015RedistInstalled(Session session)        {            session.Log("Begin Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable installation check.");            var dependenciesKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Classes\\Installer\\Dependencies");            foreach(var subKey in dependenciesKey.GetSubKeyNames())            {                var dependency = dependenciesKey.OpenSubKey(subKey);                var displayName = (string)dependency.GetValue("DisplayName");                if(displayName != null)                {                    if (displayName.Contains("Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64)"))                    {                        session.Log("Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable is installed.");                        return ActionResult.Success;                    }                }            }            session.Log("Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable is not installed.");            session.Message(InstallMessage.Error, new Record(1, "This application requires Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable. Please install, then run this installer again. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53587"));            return ActionResult.Failure;        }    }}

Then in the wxs file

<Binary Id='VC2015RedistCheck' SourceFile='!(wix.ResourcesDir=resources)\CustomActions.CA.dll'/><CustomAction      Id='VC2015RedistCheckAction'      Execute='immediate'      BinaryKey='VC2015RedistCheck'      DllEntry="IsVC2015RedistInstalled"      Return='check'/><InstallExecuteSequence><Custom Action='VC2015RedistCheckAction' After='InstallInitialize'/></InstallExecuteSequence>

EditI'm updating this answer with some basic info on creating and using a custom action.

To create the custom action in Visual Studio 2017 with the WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2017 extension installed, I used the project template to create a custom action (C# Custom Action Project for WiX v3).

I checked the generated project and it seemed to already have the changes listed at the beginning of this article: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/132918/Creating-Custom-Action-for-WIX-Written-in-Managed so I picked that article up at the section Adding Custom Action to the Installer and followed it through with some tweaks.

One other thing that I did was change the version of the .NET framework the project is built against to 3.5.

I didn't find it really useful but you can also see http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/wixdev/extensions/authoring_custom_actions.html