Rob Mensching and Bob Arnson recently announced the release of Windows Installer XML (WiX) 3.5, the installation package creator that integrates with Visual Studio. Contrary to previous reports, WiX was not bundled with Visual Studio 2010, but remains an open-source add-on that is now compatible with both IIS 7.0 and Visual Studio 2010.
This WiX release focuses on an updated version of Votive, the tool which allows developers to create WiX installers via the Visual Studio IDE. The developers had originally planned to include Burn, the bootstrapping tool, with WiX 3.5, but decided to delay it until the next version. Mensching states that WiX 3.6 should be released within a year, based on their recent timeline.
In addition to several bug fixes, WiX 3.5 features a few simplifications to the language. Arnson notes improvements to both Component Authoring and Major Upgrade functionality. It also supports IIS 7 custom actions, and includes several new languages.
Developers can download the WiX 3.5 installer here.