Hi I have created a MSI installer using WIX. I am having a problem with my custom actions. I have a custom action that fills a text box and it only seems to work when I run the MSI from the command prompt with cmd run as administrator. Is there a connection and how do I run my custom action with privileges. My custom action is run as immediate on a button click. Thanks
Filling a text box shouldn't require any privileges, so from the information you gave, this shouldn't occur. Chances are it does require elevation, say in order to acquire the text it puts in the box, and that's why it's having problems. The UI sequence is only elevated if the .msi is launched from an elevated context. The deferred sequence can be elevated even when the .msi is not, but it will not help with your UI.
Here's some required reading on the subject:
Installation Phases and In-Script Execution Options for Custom Actions in Windows Installer
It took me a few reads to understand it. Basically you need to sequence a custom action between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize and schedule it for Deferred with No Impersonation. You may also need to schedule a custom action for Immediate if you need access to the MSI session. You
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We are populating the IIS websites to a drop down list based on the instructions provided here: Bind IIS local websites in dropdown list of wix installation?
The custom action works when the msi is launched from admin command prompt, however there is a failure when the msi is launched with out admin rights. Having the Impersonate value to no in the CA does not elevate the custom action execution with administrator privileges.
Is there a way to launch the msi with administrator privileges? How to execute immediate custom action in UI sequence with elevated access rights?
Thanks.
It's unfortunate that the IIS API (ServerManager class in .NET) requires elevation. What I do in this situation is create a bootstrapper for the MSI and mark it to require elevation.
In order to resolve the issue of running the Immediate custom action with admin rights, we had to embed the msi into an exe and display the error message if exe is not run as administrator.
ChilKat Zip 2 Secure Exe creator software was used to create an exe. https://www.chilkatsoft.com/chilkatsfx.asp
Added the following snippet in wix project: <Condition Message="Launch installer with admin rights!">Privileged</Condition> in order to display error message if the it is run in non admin mode.
My installer has a license dialog, so I don't see the need to display one in the bootstrapper. This earlier question had an answer which doesn't display the license agreement, but still requires the user to click the install button. I'd like to immediately extract and run .msi without requiring any user input. Is there a way to skip the dialog completely?
There is option called /passive which should do what you want: start installation automatically, showing the user interface.
However, the problem is that it can't be set by default - you'd have to wrap your .msi into some kind of .exe which calls the msi with specific command line.
http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Burn-Launch-using-passive-option-as-default-td7591613.html
I'm making a installer, a strange issue was on my way.
I use a custom action to call the sc.exe to install my service, and the MSI is already built.
But If i click the installer to install, the installation failed, the log says that the sc.exe installation failed.
But the wired thing is that if I use a CMD in administrator privilege and use msiexec to run the installer, it'll succeed.
Why?
In question itself you have answered your question.
Windows vista onward by default runs most applications with least privilege access (non-admin) in an attempt to keep both malicious virus code and inexperienced end users from damaging the system.As your application is trying to modify the system, it needs to be elevated to Admin privilege in order to run successfully.
Go through Services permissions.
To run your custom action with elevated privileges set Impersonate as No and Execute in custom action as deferred.deferred Indicates that the custom action runs in-script (possibly with elevated privileges).refer this for more info.
Let Me know if it worked for you
I have built a Windows Installer package using WiX 3.6 that embeds a custom managed (C#) action.
At this stage, the installation requires that
The installer be run using a specific local administrator account (in this case, the SharePoint installer account, which is a local administrator)
User Account Control be disabled
There really isn't a way I can bypass requirement #1, because the managed action can only perform certain steps if it runs in the context of the SharePoint installer account.
I would like to remove requirement #2 and let the installer properly run even if UAC is enabled.
I've researched the issue quite extensively but still can't get it to work. I have set InstallScope="perMachine" in my package, which seems to properly prompt for UAC elevation, but the installer still fails with the infamous 2869 error.
The main problem is that my custom action is configured with Impersonate="yes" because it has to run in the context of the current user, not the local administrator account. When I search online, almost all "fixes" point to Impersonate="no" in the custom action, but that's not an option for me.
My question therefore is: is there a way to run a custom managed action with the identity of the current user without requiring UAC to be completely disabled?
When you use Impersonate="yes" your Custom action runs without administrative privileges with the credentials of the currently logged user.
When Impersonate="no" your Custom action is run in System context. When running in system context, the custom action has full access to the system.
From WiX CustomAction element documentation, Impersonate attribute:
This attribute specifies whether the Windows Installer, which executes as LocalSystem, should impersonate the user context of the installing user when executing this custom action. Typically the value should be 'yes', except when the custom action needs elevated privileges to apply changes to the machine.
Where are you referencing the custom action?
Having the .msi running with elevated privileges might not be enough.
To be sure that your custom action works with elevated privileges you also have to use a deferred custom action and reference it in the InstallExecuteSequence. This might not solve your problems, but the articles linked at the bottom goes in detail in explaining the UAC logics during an msi installation.
Basically, not everything the installer does carries the privileges with it, an you have to be sure to run the custom action when the installer is using the elevated privileges.
Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rflaming/archive/2006/09/30/uac-in-msi-notes-when-general-custom-action-mitigation-fails.aspx
I hope you find this information useful, I might be of more assistance if you share your custom action code.
I have a WiX installer project that utilises a custom dialog box to ask for parameters to update a web.config file and run a database script on install. Everything works correctly and the application is installed and runs correctly.
However, the custom dialog box is also displayed when I uninstall the software and it certainly doesn't need to be (as I'm not updating a web.config file).
Is there a way to suppress the custom dialog when the application is being uninstalled?
(I should also remove the sql procs I install, at uninstall time but that is outside of this issue).
The solution to your question is to condition the custom action with the condition (Not REMOVE="ALL"). This will make the action run on fresh install and maintenance install, but not on uninstall. If you don't need to run on maintenance install, but only on a fresh install you can set the condition to be: (Not Installed AND Not(REMOVE="ALL")). Full list of MSI properties and brief descriptions here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370905(VS.85).aspx.
The sequencing and custom action logic in MSI files is VERY complicated. It really pays off to avoid custom actions whenever you can.
There is more - all MSI files have built-in support for silent installation. This means that the entire GUI sequence can be skipped, and the MSI file installed without user interaction. This is a crucial feature for corporate deployment via SMS / SCCM or other deployment mechanisms. Showing a custom dialog box when the setup is run in silent mode is a violation of this basic MSI feature. You can work around this by properly conditioning the display of the dialog based on the property UILevel: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372096(VS.85).aspx. Just to keep things interesting and confusing Microsoft has defined 4 levels of GUI during an installation ranging from completely silent, through various options such as progress bar only etc... See the link for details.
I could add a lot of details here about MSI sequences, conditions, custom actions and similar, but it wouldn't answer your question. Please add any follow-up questions.
Wix snippet to show the creation of a custom action and its insertion into the InstallExecuteSequence:
<!--Custom Action Sample Section-->
<Binary Id='VBScriptCustomAction.vbs' SourceFile='VBScriptCustomAction.vbs'/>
<CustomAction Id='test' BinaryKey='VBScriptCustomAction.vbs' VBScriptCall='Hello' Return='ignore'/>
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="test" Sequence='4111'><![CDATA[NOT REMOVE~="ALL"]]></Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
<!-- End of Custom Action Sample Section-->