I used the Wix tool in Visual Studio 2015 to generate an msi in a custom directory - not in Program Files. The software got installed alright (only for current user) but I am unable to uninstall it.
The error shown is: The specified path 'H:\Config.Msi\' is unavailable.
However, a folder with name exists at the specified path. Also, the uninstallation succeeds when I delete the contents of the folder created by the installer.
Any ideas on how I can get the software to uninstall cleanly?
The problem was that the referenced path H: was a virtual drive that caused the error. Mapping TARGETDIR to reference the correct path was a work-around. For my use case, this was sufficient.
Related
We have 2 installer sources in WiX to create installer for a single product with same Product Version, GUID and Package GUID also.
Those 2 installer projects will yield different outputs, one output being just a single MSI file (File1.msi) and other project output is a CD-ROM structure having different MSI file name (File2.msi).
So now issue arises when we installed the product using single MSI file, upon that if we invoke MSI from the other CD-ROM output, we end up getting below mentioned error.
I tried keeping same MSI filename for both kind of installer output, then this above error dialog was resolved but repair functionality isn't working.
If some files were deleted in the product's destination folder, it says source file not found error pointing to CD-ROM installer source folder.
Please help where I'm going wrong. I want to support Repair installation without this errors.
The dialog is expected. You can't change the name of the MSI except during major upgrades.
After that, if you rebuilt to create the different layouts, each MSI probably has a unique PackageCode and that makes them unique packages. That is most likely why repair isn't working. A verbose log file should tell all.
Updated: Compile your main MSI, then run administrative image on it and put the extracted files and MSI on the CD? Put the compressed
version on there as well - just in case they prefer that kind of
release (happens).
I am not sure what will happen when you run both setups this way, but
I think the MSI flagged as an administrative image extract might be
detected by the engine. I am not sure. Should work. Built-in approach for MSI, and you are not fighting wind-mills.
User Accounts: Are you creating any NT User Accounts? Did you set the FailIfExists attribute to yes? Please check here:
User Element (Util Extension). What is the setting for UpdateIfExists? (if any).
Other Issues: There might be other issues as well as Rob mentions. You can not use the same package code for both release types because a package code by definition identifies a unique file. All kinds of X-Files-like problems occur if you try to "hack" this. Not a fight you want to take on.
Administrative Installation: Why would you want to distribute different setups on CDs these days? Corporations that use your setup will run an administrative installation on your setup extracting all files - which is a much better concept. It is essentially a glorified file-extraction, and it is a built in Windows Installer concept intended to make a network installation point for software - among other things. It essentially extracts all files and translates the Media table to use external source files.
List of Links:
What is the purpose of administrative installation initiated using msiexec /a?
Extract MSI from EXE
I need to change an entry of a .NET config file.
The problem is that the App.config in the project folder needs to stay untouched, because otherwise the application won't work within the IDE anymore.
I need the installed .NET config file changed after its installation.
Whenever I try to reference that file and build my installer, i get an error that the file can't be found. Of course it can't be found there, because the installation folder doesn't exist, when I build the installer.
How can I achieve that goal?
You are not saying how you are editing it, but WIX has two facilities for doing this properly. You can use XmlFile or XmlConfig. These are scheduled at the proper time by WIX for you. You can set the path to the file a few ways as they accept a formatted string, so you can use an expected installed path or the file id.
I had an app A for which I created an installer A1. This has been in use for many months.
We now realized that AI used to package some files - d1,d2,d3 which are not needed.
Therefore we removed them from our project and created an installer A2 which does not package the above mentioned unwanted files. (atleast thats what we expect)
Things are ok when I use this installer the usual way...but when I use this for a silent install, I get the following error:
Error 1334. The file d1 cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file 'myMedia1.cab'. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package.
I googled this and saw that people usually encounter this whn u release a patch or some installer release where some files are removed or moved around.
Apparently, msiexec tries to reference some cached version of these variables and since it still looks for the missing files in the new installer, install fails.
Is there a way to tackle this? - like some way to have msiexec use just the .msi file I provide in the input rather some cached version.
Thanks...
It sounds like you could receive this error if you haven't updated the PackageCode, ProductCode, or UpgradeCode for your A2 installer. If A1 is installed, and then A2 runs with the same PackageCode, ProductCode, and UpgradeCode the system thinks you are running the A1 installer again and will look for the cached A1 msi under C:\windows\installer.
For anyone else like me that is experiencing the same problem (Error 1334) when building a Setup project and didn't find any explanations or solutions, here's a thread that solved my problem:
https://www.itninja.com/question/1334-error-tried-just-about-everything-i-can-think-of-anyone-know-of-some-obscure-causes
Basically, the solution to the problem is to “touch” all the files referenced in the Setup project (that is, all the dependencies - DLLs and all else). You can find the list and path of all the files in the build output, on lines like these:
2> Copying file from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\Microsoft.NET.Build.Extensions\net461\lib\System.Threading.dll" to "C:\Path\To\Your\Project\bin\Debug\System.Threading.dll".
To “touch” the files, you may use this technique or you may use some third-party file manager like Total Commander. You'll just need to run as administrator / accept UAC warning, because some files are in system folders.
EDIT: in my case, the problem with the Setup project began after updating some NuGet packages used by the main project.
P.S.: although I'm not using WiX, but Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects, the symptom was the same, so I hope this answer will be helpful for someone.
I have an MSI that setups my application. It has a single component and installs only to %PROGRAMFILES% (no shared binaries). Simplified, it looks like this
Msi file, Monday build:
Program.exe (v1.0.0)
ThirdPartyLibrary.dll (v2.0.1)
Now, if I discover a bug in the program caused by my upgrade of the ThirdPartyLibrary dll from v2.0.0 to v2.0.1, and thus revert the reference to v2.0.0, it seems my MSI doesn't automatically replace the file in the installation directory?
Msi file, Tuesday build:
Program.exe (v1.0.0)
ThirdPartyLibrary.dll (v2.0) <- downgraded
What is the best practice here to ensure that the program folder always contains exactly the binaries in my setup? Should I a) wipe everything from the setup directory before copying the new files? Is there an option (in Wix) I can use that makes the msi force an overwrite of all files regardless of version?
What if I remove a file from the setup (a file that would cause errors if present at runtime), then the only way to have a working program after the setup, would be if it deleted all files first?
You can use a msi trick. In the File table in the msi database edit the Version column and enter a higher version, 3.0 for example. This way you will take advantage of the file versioning rules.
I have created an installer with Visual Studio 2012 and WiX 3.7. When I try to install this on a terminal server where the local disks are hidden, I need to be able to choose a network path for installation of a file. If I choose a network disk now, I get a message box saying "Installation directory must be on a local hard drive.".
I have tried to add this line to the WiX source:
<Property Id="WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH" Value="1"/>
but without any luck...
Definitely possible at least in 3.10. Add following property to your main product.wxs ...
You must TYPE IN the path you wish to install to fully.
If you try and change it change the Change Folder dialog you will get the error "installation directory must be a local hard drive"
This is a WiX bug and is scheduled to be fixed in WiX 4.0 - https://github.com/wixtoolset/issues/issues/4737
Healy
I don't think it will be possible. You need to map out the network location to make it work.
Check out FW: Issue Regarding Install on mapped/shared drives.