I have Visual C# 2008 Professional and have developed the first half of a C# application (console mode) with the second half in progress now (GUI).

I'm looking for an easy path to creating an installer for it. What are the steps that need to be taken to produce a professional installer?

There's a similar question here regarding the Express edition but I have Pro, and I would like as much as possible to stick with just the standard VS stuff (if you think you can convince me that a third party installer creator is much better than a VS-only solution, give it a shot, by all means).

Keep in mind that I have no interest in upgrading to VS2010 yet, even if it's a hundred times easier to create an installer. That can come later, when the revenue starts rolling in :-)

Also be aware that the GUI component of this application is a totally separate executable from the console part. The console part is a simple "open file 1, do some work on it, write file 2" type and the GUI is a fairly standard "open file, do some stuff" beast so there's no tricky or wildly undocumented behaviour happening.

Basically, I'm looking for (at least) the following:

• professional looking installer.
• ability to specify where the application files go.
• changes to the registry to allow double-clicks on my file extension to open the GUI app with the file as an argument.
• needs to install everything required (my stuff, .Net if required, and so on).