I have a WPF app that I am planning on deploying with the Windows Application Packaging Project in Visual Studio that makes the MSIX bundle for installations and future updates. The installer automatically installs the app in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps. This is fine until the program needs to cache some data or it needs to modify the appsettings file since the app does not have permission to get to these resources.
Is there a setting I can change in the packaging properties/manifest so it can install somewhere else so I can avoid these problems?
Indeed, only the Windows can write in %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps when installing the msix package (by design). If your app is writing log files or other data inside the installation folder it will crash.
You need to either update your code to write to %AppData% or, if you don’t have access to the code, use the Package Support Framework to fix it. You can read more about here:
Package Support Framework (aka PSF)
The PSF brings support for API redirection and hooking. Thus, you can fix an app that failed to write a file in the installation folder (this is no longer allowed) and redirects it to a recommended location, or maybe simply update the app’s working directory.
As mentioned above, you cannot write in the install location of an MSIX package - this is by design.
For apps that are no longer under active developer indeed using the Packafe Support Framework is the only way to fix them. However, from what I see you are preparing to launch the app, so you have access to its code.
In this scenario, it is recommended you save all your app settings in the AppData\Roaming folder. For apps deployed as MSIX Windows will automatically redirect it under the Packages folder, but that is handled automatically by the OS, so you don't need to worry about it. More details below.
How to save data under AppData\Roaming instead of AppData\Local\Packages
Related
I have read in some threads that MSIX will start to support also windows services from the January build. But I only seem to find information of how to migrate an existing installer containing a service to MSIX. How should I do if I want to create a completely new MSIX bundle from scratch, containing a UWP project and a Windows Service? I can´t seem to find no information about this no matter how much i search. If someone have succeeded in this it would be vary appriciated to hear how you did this!
I have a sollution in visual studio containing a UWP project and a Windows Service Project. I try to simply add those two projects to a new windows application packaging project but no matter how I do this I only manage to install the UWP app from the created bundle. Is it still not possible to include the Service project in my MSIX? I get no errors when I build my sollution. I have simply added the UWP project and the service under "Applications" in my windows Application Packaging project.
I have also read that background tasks may be prefered to services in msix packages. But I am afraid that a background task may be a bit too limitied for my intentions. My main requirement for a service is not to have something running in the background, but to access functions outside the UWP sandbox. Like USB storage and other functionality. But maybe this can be achieved by a background task as well?
Maybe the MSIX sollution is a bad idea in my case, do you think I need to relay on some other packaging sollution for my projects instead? Like Wix or similar? I have very little experience in packaging installations so I prefer a tool that is as simple as possible.
The recommendation for apps in development is to use background tasks instead of trying to add a Windows Service.
For the case where you're trying to access content outside the UWP container, you can consider adding a desktop extension component to your UWP package and then using that for your required functionality. Have a look at this blog post for more details - https://stefanwick.com/2018/04/06/uwp-with-desktop-extension-part-1/
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.
I’m writing an application that should save user specific data into AppData. This application has an installer. Now I’m not sure, what is the best way to provide the folders in AppData.
Should the installer create (and delete) the folders, or should the application itself create (but probably never delete) the folders.
Also, if multiple user on the same computer use the app, the folders probably doesn’t exist, if another user installed the application.
I didn’t found anything that really explained this to me.
Thanks in advance.
I'll answer for Windows Installer, MSI files, and basically you shouldn't need to worry about it in the installer; just install files to their required locations, and the folder will be created automatically and removed at uninstall if it's empty.
In addition to Phil's correct answer:
If the files from the AppData folders used by your application are created only by the application, at run time, there is no need to configure the installer to create the empty folders. Those folders will be created the moment your app writes down the files.
Also, even if your installer is creating the folder, on uninstall it will not remove if in that folder are files created by the application. Windows Installer keeps track (should do it in a correctly configured package) of every file it installs and only removes the ones it installed (by default, it can be configured to force remove a folder and files which it did not install).
Regarding other users of the app. In this scenario, the simplest method is to use your application for creating the initial default files in the AppData folder, at the first launch of the app for each user.
If you need to install files to AppData from your installer then you could try one of the following approaches. These techniques can be applied with any setup authoring tool that can create MSI packages.
I have an installer implemented with "Packages" which contains the payload and after running some plugins and a post install script it successfully installs the product.
The same package bundle is used for making updates too, as we run it in background with root privileges and it overwrites the current/old installation files.
We now have the requirement to make a lightweight installer having the components (different Packages inside the product) in a web location to be downloaded and installed.
As I know that this is possible in other systems as Windows/InstallShield with "Releases of Web Type", I would like to know if this is possible in OS X. Otherwise, I will have implement it all from scratch (packages management, download, packages versions compare to make selective updates, privileges escalation, etc).
Well, it was long ago and I almost started doing a web installer from scratch but then I found out that the option is in Packages itself. Hope this helps.
It is the "Package Reference" option.
According to the Packages documentation
A Package Reference lets you use a package that is hosted on a web
server or a removable media and to which you may not have a direct
access. This package will not be built during the built phase.
I think that any referenced package will have its own pre-post-scripts so there would be no problem because of the limited options in the Package Reference. But I need to test it.
I need to create a release / install package. There is a drop down box in VS that lets me create a release version for the project. So I hit the publish button and choose the CD option. Sure enough it publishes the a setup I need. I installed the application everything goes fine though I have no idea where on the target machine where the application ended up??? Trouble is my application has signed XML file that stores the public keys my application uses to enable features depending on what a customer is licensed to do. I would like the key file to be part of the package that is installed so I don't have to send it seperately. I have to send the license file but I was hoping to avoid confusion by only requiring the user to only have copy the license file to the local directory. Which brings up another question were is application installed I did a search and found nothing with my application name???? But thereis an icon onthe star menu and the applicaton seems to run just file
You probably deployed your application as a "ClickOnce" Application. It installs the program to an obfuscated folder in your users folder. On Windows 7 it winds up in something like "c:\users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\somefoldername\somefoldername". If you need more control of the installation, the free InstallSheild LE that comes free with VS2010 is not a bad choice. It will let you add additional files as well.