How do I create an installer for my project that allows for variable data entry like a server unc path?

Question

Hello All,
I have a questions and a few hours of scouring the internet hasn't brought me much closer to an answer.
Here's what I want to do. I have created a visual c# wpf application. I want to have an installer that during install time will have a text box or something where I can enter a server path as a string. Basically my application needs to know where to look
for a server unc path \\server\somesharedfolder that it will be accessing primarily for its work. Secondly, how do I reference said information from within my code.
I have come across application/user scoped settings, which appears to be what I'm looking for. However I can't find a way to have the installer prompt for a value "Server Path:" __________ that I could type into during installation. So far it appears
the only way would be to edit the config.deploy file before running the installer, which isn't a big deal but you'd think there'd be an easy way to take in variables during install.
EDIT: Apparently I can't edit the config.deploy file as I get an error message about the hash not matching.
Thanks for your help!
Lance

Answer 1

Hello,
The forums I found confusing, didn't know the best place to put this question so I put it here.
I have found the answer over at stackoverflow and will detail here for anyone who may stumble across the same problem.
The problem is ClickOnce seemingly doesn't support this feature. Installshield LE either doesn't or does but its incredibly too complicated if all you need is one variable passed to the registry during installation. And it seems the words used for googling
this particular problem will never lead you to the solution.
So here's how to do it (we will be first adding the Visual Studio Installer Add-on to restore original installer project functionality):
1) Inside of visual studio 2013 go to Tools -> Extensions and Updates
2) On the left-hand side click on Online -> Visual Studio Gallery
3) In the upper-right search box search for "Visual Studio Installer"
4) Download the extension labeled "Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects"
5) Install, then open a new project under Templates -> Other Project Templates -> Visual Studio Installer -> Setup Project
6) Now for the gold. In the solution explorer there are icons in a bar just below its title bar, highlight till you see "User Interface Setup" and open it.
7) Now you can right click on Start, Progress, End etc any Category heading and hit Add Dialog.
8) From here for my purposes, I used TextBoxes A
9) Once you add it, click on it and observe its properties window. You will see Label, Property, and Value. Make a note of the property name as it will be used to store the data directly into the registry. *Note: there appears to be no way to perform data
validation using the built in textbox dialogs, users can enter whatever they want and move on.
10) Go to the registry editor on the same icon bar under solution explorer.
11) Specify your registry folder, make a new value (I used string) and name it whatever you like. In the value section enter the property label formatted as such   [EDITA1]   depending on your value. 
12) Now when you run the installer for your project, it will take data into that field and place it into the registry provided it has access to that key with the permissions you run the program under.