how to make an installer..

[stav]

hi,
i've made a c++ application that i want to publish.
the problem is that i cant just compile and distribute my exe since its dependent on a bunch of DLL's

so i searched a bit around the internet and found out that i have to make an installer first..

so i searched a bit more around, looking for a program to create an installer for me, and found out that installers are basically huge pains in the ass
(i dont get why there isn't one that just requires you to input the exe and the DLL files and then outputs the installer.exe, oh well..) .

so now i'm trying to create my own installer since it sounds pretty simple since all i have to do is just somehow embed my DLL's in to the exe...
and then put them on the users computer and then edit the windows PATH variable to the location of them.

problem is that i have no idea where to start and im not even sure if that's actually the proper way doing it..

so could someone give me a link to read up on:
1) how to embed a DLL in a exe
2) how to edit the windows PATH
3) the proper way of making an installer (if mine isn't)

thanks so much! :)