setup package won't download missing files from vendor website

I have a setup and installer project in VS 2008. I am trying to make it download VC++ redist and .net 3.5 on target machines and isntall them from vendor website if the target doesn't have them. I go to the properties of the installer and select prereq's and select the programs and select "Install from vendor website" and build my installer. When i deploy this on a target VM, when ran it says VC++ redist needs to be installed, "OK?"

I click install vc++ redist and it throws an error because "VC++ redist cannot be found on the desktop" I told it to install from the vendor website so it should grab it from microsoft. Why does it look on the desktop 开发者_StackOverflow中文版instead of the website and how can i fix this?

Visual Studio prerequisites aren't very good. Most of them work, but some don't.

A good solution is to create your own custom prerequisite by manually generating the required manifests.

You can find the manifests structure here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229223(VS.80).aspx

These manifests can also be generated automatically with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator tool.

After generating the package manifests, you can add all these files (including the package) in a separate folder in the Visual Studio prerequisites folder, for example:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\

This way you control how the prerequisite is handled.