we are having an issue using Visual Studio installer project 2017.
We are preparing a setup for an application, and previously we were using InstallShield LT with no issue.
The previous setup is working correctly, as well as updating older version to newer ones.
Trying to reproduce the same behavior with the new tool seems to be quite challenging though.
At the current point, we are able to generate the setup but when we try to install the new version
over the previous one (made with InstalShield) the final folder is empty.
Starting Windows Installer via command line to enable logging, shows that the final phase of the installation
procedure is the remove of previous version, which quite clearly remove the newly installed files.
Installing the same setup file without older version present, or staring after the first update (which
perform a repair) work perfectly, which appear clearly in the log files since there is no RemoveExistingProducts performed.
This is a very small extract with the order of ending Install and THEN Removing the previous version:
Action ended 16:05:03: InstallExecute. Return value 1.
Action 16:05:03: RemoveExistingProducts. Removing applications Application: [1], Command line: [2]
Action start 16:05:03: RemoveExistingProducts.
This behavior seems quite odd to me, and the lack of documentation is not helping.
The development machine (which is also the one we are testing on) is Windows 11.
Any idea is welcome.
Best regards
Related
We made some changes to the installation and updating process of our Windows app recently, and some users are now complaining that Windows sometimes automatically deletes the main application .exe file.
It usually occurs after users update app using built-in web update feature. The feature is implemented using .msi built in Advanced Installer tool.
We are struggling to figure out what is causing this, and haven't found a way to consistently reproduce the issue (though we've seen it happen as well).
Here's what changed with our installation and web updating process:
The main installer for our application is now a standard .msi, which becomes a part of the Windows installation system and is natively manageable by Group Policy and other system features, such as rollback or versions. In previous versions that did not have this problem, our installer was a .exe built with the SetupBuilder tool.
We introduced the redesigned web updater feature inside the app (to update to new versions within the app). It uses the same .msi as the main deliverable as for installation. .msi is downloaded from our server in a form of .exe which is then extracts MSI and starts it. MSI then updates file in our installation. These .exe and .msi is built with Advanced Installer tool which provides such a web update feature to developers. In previous versions that did not have this problem, our web update feature was developed with SetupBuilder tool which provided a custom web update files - .exe web updater that downloads a number of web update files containing patch to our app.
The goal of a transition to the standard .msi installer was to make it easy for our clients to deploy the app in organizations - say, mass deploy using group policies and other similar tools.
Has anyone else experienced a problem like this? Any ideas on how to troubleshoot and try to reproduce?
Theory: Before doing anything else: The first thing I would ask the people who report the problem is if they have re-packaged your older, legacy (non-MSI) setup to be their own MSI file? This can cause a well-known upgrade problem along the lines of what you explain (file missing). Please check first. Tell them to uninstall the existing version and then install the new one - that is the simplest way. Not always enough (some obscure problems possible).
Mismatched component GUIDs could cause missing files after upgrade, as could file version downgrade scenarios and various other technicalities. You could try to install to a new default location on disk to avoid these problems. The reason this can work is very technical and hard to explain tersely. Essentially you de-couple yourself from "the sins of the past". It is generally enough to change the name of the file in question: for example MyApp.exe to MyAppNew.exe or maybe add the major version: MyApp5.exe, but maybe try the folder change first ProgramFiles\MyCompany\MyApp => ProgramFiles\MyCompany\MyApp5.
How do you configure your upgrade? View "Upgrades", what is selected: "Uninstall old version first and then install new version" or "Install new version first and then uninstall old version".
Blog Entry:: Why Windows Installer removes files during a major upgrade if they go backwards in version numbers (might be of help).
Deployment Debugging: For open ended debugging of MSI and deployment problems in general one obviously needs to gather intel and that means logging and system inspection.
Logging: First try to get a proper log file for the systems where this problem occurs. In Advanced Installer you can tick the "Enable verbose logging" in the Install Parameters view to enable verbose logging for all package installations. This adds the MsiLogging property to the compiled MSI and every installation of the MSI will cause a MSI log file with a random name to be created in the TMP folder. View the folder, sort by date and the file should be at the top. Suggest you do this and then tell the users to send you the log files when relevant. Maybe you have this setting enabled already?
Further Logging: There are many ways to enable logging, and you can find a description here: Enable installation logs for MSI installer without any command line arguments. The MsiLogging property is just one possibility.
To log a single MSI setup: http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msifaq/a/1022.htm.
To enable global logging for all MSI operations on the machine: Please see this FAQ-entry from installsite.org, section "Globally for all setups on a machine" - for the exact procedure.
How to interpret an MSI Log File.
When I try and apply a minor upgrade to my application, I launch the installer and (depending upon the combination of settings I try) I get either a:
repair/remove dialog
prompt for the install directory
I don't believe I should get either of these prompts. I'm mostly expecting the installer to automatically apply the upgrade and not prompt for anything. I think I'm doing everything correctly in the Visual Studio setup project:
upgraded the version from 1.0.0 to 1.1.0
left the product code the same
updated the package code
left the upgrade code the same
launch the installer with the parameters REINSTALLMODE=vomus REINSTALL=ALL
I've tried just about every combination of codes/flags and techniques, but cannot seem to get the update applied.
Any ideas of what else I can try?
To get it to work I:
upgraded the version from 1.0.0 to 1.1.0
left the product code the same (said No when prompted by Visual Studio)
updated the package code (Visual Studio did this automatically)
did not change the upgrade code
launch the installer with the parameters REINSTALLMODE=vomus REINSTALL=ALL
Just as I had indicated in my question, and it seems to be working. I can successfully apply an upgrade. However, when I run the installer I am still prompted with a repair/remove option. But, that's a different question I guess.
Just first things first: Are you sure you haven't re-used the package GUID in both MSI files, or at some point during deployment work and testing?
Try rebuilding both MSI files with new GUIDs to "de-couple" them from any existing cached versions and then try test installing again. Change both the package code and product code. Better yet: test these new versions on a clean virtual machine to ensure a proper test environment unaffected by past sins. Your developer system could have gremlins in its Windows installer database due to package guid clashes. If this is the case package installation becomes total XFiles - the strangest things can happen.
More details:
If the package GUID is the same for two MSI files, Windows Installer will treat them as the same file by definition - no matter what they contain. This can cause all kinds of strange problems that are hard to clean up and debug. Note that this can happen even if you just forgot to update it once since installation of an MSI will cause it to be cached on the system in the C:\Windows\Installer folder (this folder is hidden and protected). This cached copy will be re-used if an MSI file with the same GUID is launched (at least this was the case for earlier versions of Windows Installer - there could be fixes for this now).
If you are using Installshield you should enable the "always generate packaging GUID" feature to ensure this never happens. Package GUID should always change for every single build - there is no reason whatsoever to keep it hard coded. I believe WIX takes care of generating the package GUID automagically, unless you specifically override it.
Hopefully I can explain this clearly:
I have a Visual Studio Setup Project (C++), my current build scripts do the following:
update the version numbers
update the PackageCode
update the ProductCode
This has worked without any problems in the past (approximately 20 releases).
I just did a new release where a custom action was removed (which was included in most of the previous releases). My build process was the same as above.
Now when I install I get a duplicate entry in Windows Add and Remove Programs.
ie:
previous version was 1.0.6.2 and is installed on the computer.
I then install new version 1.0.7.0 (has custom action removed)
Add and remove programs lists 1.0.6 and 1.0.7.
Any idea what I need to do to fix this? I expect what is happening is that the new version is causing the uninstaller for 1.0.6.2 to run, but is not getting it to remove the FeatureComponents that were removed as part of 1.0.7.0.
Is there a way to force their removal?
Make sure that both versions have the same installation type (per-user or per-machine). This is controlled through ALLUSERS installer property or InstalAllUsers setup project property.
Also, they should use the same UpgradeCode. You can check it in Property table by opening the MSI files with Orca.
If these conditions are met and the problem persists, try creating a verbose log and see what happens when FindRelatedProducts and RemoveExistingProducts actions are executed.
We have an installer solution written in Visual Studio 2005 Installer; that calls a C# custom action and we have hit a known issue, regarding the fact that on an upgrade - the old install code is run and not the new code, because Windows is running a cached version of the custom action dll. We know this and although not over the moon about it - we have moved on.
When we release a new version of the installer and a user runs it, we now want it to check to see if an ealier version is installed - if there is one; we want to display a message telling them that they have to remove the old version via Add/Remove Programs. We know if they do a manual uninstall followed by an install, then all is fine and dandy - BUT it doesn't matter how many times we tell our users, via documentation; that this is what they have to do - they will still try and just run the new installer, without removing the old version first.
Therefore, we would like to put up a message and thus force them to to what they are told !! I've seen some installers do this ( though of course not sure what installer package was used to create these ). We only have VS 2005 and of course orca !!
Cheers,
Chris.
This can be done through a custom launch condition:
create a search which determines if the old version is installed (you can search for a component, registry entry or file)
use the search property as a custom launch condition
For example, if the search property is OLD_VERSION, the launch condition can look like this:
Condition: NOT OLD_VERSION
Description: An older version was found. Please uninstall it using "Programs and Features" in Control Panel.
When OLD_VERSION property is set to a value (an older version is found), this launch condition will show the message and stop the install process.
This doesn't quite make sense. Have you remembered to change the package GUID in your new setup? The package GUID identifies a specific setup file, and if two MSI files have identical GUID they will be treated as the same file regardless of whether they are or not. This could trigger a cached version of the MSI to be invoked and all sorts of hell breaks loose.
I would recommend reading up on "major upgrades" which will allow automatic uninstall of the existing version before the new version is installed. You also need to make sure you understand the basics of the technology before deploying to the wild. You must NEVER use identical package GUIDs for any MSI files. It's practically always wrong, and will lead to very mysterious problems.
I can't write up the whole major upgrade solution here, but basically it involves authoring the "Upgrade" table of your MSI to detect versions to uninstall. You need to change the package code, product code and version number (only 3 digits matter) and keep the same upgrade code (two MSI files with the same upgrade code "know" they are related - i.e they are from the same product family). Check MSDN for samples of major upgrades.
NB! If you have deployed MSI files with duplicate package GUIDs to your developer machine, it could have stray installs that must be cleaned up with MSIZap or similar. Use caution, or better yet test your new installer on a clean test system. Developer systems are full of junk and not generally good for MSI testing.
I've got an MSI based install that I've wrapped in an EXE file as per my installation packaging software (which is Wise Package Studio 7.0 SP2).
I've made many changes to the install, and every time I've tested them, they've worked just fine... up until now.
I changed some text on a dialog box for when the installation finishes and now it seems that no matter how/where I run the installation from, it won't take my "new" version. It continues to "think" it's already installed and even shows an older iteration of my dialog text at then end of the removal/repair/modify.
It's almost like it's cached that MSI/EXE somewhere and instead of running the one I've recompiled (and fixed the message/made changes) it continues to run the "old" one from somewhere.
Any idea what to check for/what could be going on here? Is there windows folder I need to go check? I'm on XP SP2.
Try running on a different machine, this will definitely rule out any local caching.
Check that the changes you have made are actually in the MSI. (use Orca to do this.)
Okay, so I tried this using an XP VM and taking a snapshot before installing. Looks like somehow the previous install was corrupt and was somehow caching itself on the original test computer I was working with.
By going to a clean and fresh PC, my changes were there and the script worked as expected. Now, I don't know what happened to cause the installation to cache like that somewhere on the PC, but at least I found a resolution.
I'll update this question with the location of the cached files if I can track them down...
To remove any cached Windows Installer information, you can use MSIZAP. My guess is that you haven't changed the package code so windows sees it as the same version of the installer (I'm not sure about WISE, but InstallShield is usually configured to automatically change the package code each time you rebuild.)
As far as the location of the cached files, this is configurable so have a hunt around in WISE and you should find it.