Choice to Create Installer for windows application

I am creating an Installer for my application(which basically acts as an server). Now, there is an specific flow in which things needs to be installed on the system. Like

1. we need to check various things on the System, including if certain certificate exists or not and if any of these checks fail we need to 开发者_如何学Cexit.
2. need to create on SQL Server and insert certain data.
3. Need to copy two Exes and config it using their .config files.
4. Need to Deploy an Web Service on IIS.

Now Since I am new to creating Installers, my question is can all these things be achieved using "Visual Studio 2010 setup/deployment project" , I took a look at it and was finding difficult to have a flow in installer.

Also are their any other Tools freely available to create installer. ??

I was thinking about create custom application that will act as installer for my main application, is that a good Idea ???

Please help me out in taking the decision.

Thanks in Advance.

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Take a look at these two. Both allow custom actions.

http://wix.sourceforge.net/ - open source XML based. Not to hard to learn

http://www.advancedinstaller.com/ - free and proprietary versions, visual (GUI Based). Very efficient for installs that are not super complex.

I would NOT write your own program to act as installer. Custom actions give you the ability to write your own code and run it. Don't waste your time reinventing the wheel. Use what is there customize what is not.