'The install location for prerequisites has not been set' error

I think I needed to make this post since I was struck by this problem 2 times in the last year. And I didn’t learn from the first time, so here is the error message I got along with 50+ others that looked the same when building a setup from Visual Studio 2008.

The install location for prerequisites has not been set to 'component vendor's web site' and the file 'dotNetFx35setup.exe' in item 'Microsoft.Net.Framework.3.5.SP1' cannot be located on disk.

At fist, I was thinking that I haven’t downloaded the right version of the framework so, I have gone mad trying to find one that was entitled “redistributable”. Can’t find. Humm maybe something has to do with Visual Studio not looking for the right folder (Program Files vs Program Files (x86)). No.

After a lot of questions and no answer, I found a lost notes in Evernote stating that I should read the VS 2008 SP 1 readme file…

Section 2.3.1.1 : Enable Samesite for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 bootstrapper package

Here is the section content for those who don’t want to search for their readme file.

Update the Package Data

1. Open the [Program Files]\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 folder or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 on x64 operating systems
2. Edit the Product.xml file in Notepad.
3. Paste the following into the < PackageFiles > element:
   < PackageFile Name="TOOLS\clwireg.exe" />
   < PackageFile Name="TOOLS\clwireg_x64.exe" />
   < PackageFile Name="TOOLS\clwireg_ia64.exe" />
4. Find the element for < PackageFile Name="dotNetFX30\XPSEPSC-x86-en-US.exe" and change the PublicKey value to: 3082010A0282010100A2DB0A8DCFC2C1499BCDAA3A34AD23596BDB6CBE2122B794C8EAAEBFC
   6D526C232118BBCDA5D2CFB36561E152BAE8F0DDD14A36E284C7F163F41AC8D40B146880DD9
   8194AD9706D05744765CEAF1FC0EE27F74A333CB74E5EFE361A17E03B745FFD53E12D5B0CA5E0DD
   07BF2B7130DFC606A2885758CB7ADBC85E817B490BEF516B662
   5DED11DF3AEE215B8BAF8073C345E3958977609BE 7AD77C1
   378D33142F13DB62C9AE1AA94F9867ADD420393071E08D6746E2C61CF40D5074412FE8052
   46A216B49B092C4B239C742A56D5C184AAB8FD78E833E780A47D8A4B28423C3E2F27B66B14A74B
   D26414B9C6114604E30C882F3D00B707CEE554D77D2085576810203010001 (REMOVE LINE BREAKS!)
5. Find the element for < PackageFile Name="dotNetFX30\XPSEPSC-amd64-en-US.exe" and change the PublicKey value to the same as in step 4 above
6. Save the product.xml file

Download and Extract the Core Installation Files

1. Navigate to the following URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=118080
2. Download the dotNetFx35.exe file to your local disk.
3. Open a Command Prompt window and change to the directory to which you downloaded dotNetFx35.exe.
4. At the command prompt, type:
   dotNetFx35.exe /x:.
   This will extract the Framework files to a folder named “WCU” in the current directory.
5. Copy the contents of the WCU\dotNetFramework folder and paste them in the %Program Files%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 folder (%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 on x64 operating systems). Note: Do not copy the WCU\dotNetFramework folder itself. There should be 5 folders under the WCU folder, and each of these should now appear in the DotNetFx35SP1 folder. The folder structure should resemble the following:
   o DotNetFx35SP1 (folder)
   • dotNetFX20 (folder
   • dotNetFX30 (folder)
   • dotNetFX35 (folder)
   • dotNetMSP (folder)
   • TOOLS folder)
   • en (or some other localized folder)
   • dotNetFx35setup.exe (file)
     You may now delete the files and folders you downloaded and extracted in steps 2 and 4.