WiX toolset 5 to 7 coordinated bump #31

What to build

The installer builds, ships, and loads with the WiX toolset on its current major (7.x) instead of the three-years-old 5.x, and the project has a written rule for how WiX moves in future. WiX versions live in three coupled places that must move in lockstep: the wix CLI entry in the dotnet tools manifest, the versioned WiX SDK reference in the installer project, and the WiX UI/Heat packages the installer project references. A bump that moves only one of them breaks the installer build — the Build job proves it red.

Acceptance criteria

• All three WiX surfaces (CLI tool, versioned SDK reference, installer NuGet packages) sit at matching latest 7.x versions and the CI Build job is green, producing the MSI
• The MSI installs on a live host and the plugin loads in both Smart Client and Management Client (open a workspace; single browser reuse per MC-1)
• A short documented rule records the lockstep: which surfaces move together, and that partial Dependabot WiX PRs must not be merged alone (add ignore-conditions only if partial PRs prove misleading)
• Any partial WiX bump PRs opened meanwhile are closed with a pointer to this ticket, or merged as part of it

Blocked by

• The Dependabot setup ticket (its ignore/grouping decisions and the WiX-major PR it produces are the input to this work).