Can installer enable windows features? - installation

We have a setup made with Bitrock Install Builder.
Before installing the main application, it checks if Framework .Net already installed, and installs it if needed.
But we encountered problems running the setup on windows server 2012, because the framework is already installed but disabled.
Does anyone know how can I fix this issue ?

The only way I'm aware of is with Powershell, this kind of thing:
http://geekswithblogs.net/Wchrabaszcz/archive/2013/09/04/how-to-install-windows-server-features-using-powershell--server.aspx
But I think Powershell might be optional on some server systems anyway.

Related

Installing VS2005 on Windows 7

I'm trying to install Visual Studio 2005 on a Windows 7 box but am repeatedly getting the same error. When I run the installer it starts to run then pops up with a message saying:
"A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Canceling setup."
Various suggestions has said that maybe the install is corrupted so I downloaded a fresh copy of the ISO from MSDN today, same issue. Another suggestion is that installing from the ISO may be the issue so I extracted the contents of the ISO to a folder on my HDD, same issue. I have also tried running the files as administrator and in XP compatability mode, same issue.
Searching for this issue the most common responses I've found have been about installing SP1, however I cannot get the base product to install and therefore cannot apply SP1.
Does anyone have any further suggestions as to what I can do to fix this issue and get VS2005 installed? If anyone wants any log files of any variety I am happy to supply so long as you tell me where to look as I'm not sure.
As for why I am using VS2005 and not a newer product, it is required for the ongoing support and maintenance of some older applications we manage. These cannot be easily migrated to a newer version of Visual Studio without some considerable investment of time and that would probably be longer than the time it will take to develop newer, replacement applications (which is currently in progress). Until the new applications are available though we need to maintain an environment to use.
Did you try running setup.exe in compatibility mode with Windows XP? Some discussion here on how to do this.
Another alternative since you alluded to having an MSDN subscription. Download Windows XP and install it into a VM. (If HyperV isn't already in installed with your Win7, you can add it from Control Panel->Programs&Features->Turn Windows Features on/off). Then install VS2005 from there.

VS2010 web setup project needs IIS6 (metabase) compatibility on IIS7. Consequences or other issues for the application?

When trying to install a web setup project (MSI) created in Visual Studio 2010 on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 2008 Server the setup will fail, with some generic error.
According to http://devio.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/pitfalls-installing-web-setup-msi-on-iis-7/ this is because of a compatibility problem between the setup project en IIS7.
To resolve this I've to enable/install IIS6 metabase compatibility in my windows configuration. This workaround did fix the problem, but raises 2 questions:
Does this have any (negative) impact on functionality of IIS 7?
How can I notify a user running the installation of this problem so he or she can take proper action and install the metabase compatibility component? Is it possible to pop-up the windows component configuration dialog from this install, to make life easier for the user?
I don't think this will have any impact on the application itself, as long as it's implemented the way to talk to IIS7 via its native API. Otherwise, if it doesn't support IIS7 you'd have to enable IIS6 compatibility anyway.
The standard approach to search for anything on a target machine is searching registry and file system. I don't know how it is possible in VS setup project, but e.g. WiX has special elements for this (RegistrySearch, DirectorySearch, FileSearch). Basically, this post to WiX Tips and Tricks thread shows how to check for IIS6 compatibility in WiX and block the installation if it's not enables/installed. It's rather straight-forward even if you don't know WiX, but know the concepts of Windows Installer, and it can help you translate the code into the similar thing in VS setup project.
We seem to be having one negative impact on our servers.
Everytime we roll out a .NET 4.0 application with a msi made in Visual Studio, We get a recycle of ALL our application pools, even the ones not affected by the install.
Apparently the root cause of this is the IIS 6 compatibility. ( This was reported to us by a developer of microsoft in response to our support question about this.
At the moment we have no solution. It's impossible to convert all our installers to Wix.

MS Windows server 2008 installation

Im installing windows server 2008 on my Windows 7.
It seems like I will need to reinstall all programs after installing MS windows server 2008. I dont really want to do that, is there another way around it?
And how can i find out whether I already have Windows Server installed on my computer? Thanks.
The two operating systems do not support an upgrade path. You could do some unsupported things, IE exporting registry entries and importing them manually, but you're not likely to get things working the same way. Further, some of your applications may not actually be supported on 2008.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979563(WS.10).aspx

How to install powershell as a prerequisite?

I am using Visual Studio 2010 setup project
I don't think you are allowed to redistribute PowerShell. And at any rate, it is built in to Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. All the other platforms have separate installers as well. I think it would be best to just notify your customers that they need PowerShell 2.0.
I had a similar problem in the StudioShell installer - wanted to make sure PoSh 2.0 is installed. I did a cursory check for the executable with a minimum version number, and added a launch condition that notified the user of the missing prerequisite and offered to open a web page to the PowerShell download. Seemed like the most legally helpful approach.
There is a way, albiet requiring you to build some MSI thing manually that will get it from MS and install it for you. I know the exchange install used that technique. You can also get a license/permission from MS to redistribute the official installers.

installing a program on w7, .NET version 2.0 required

I am tryng to install a program on windows 7 but when i run tha installer i get a error message sayng: Please install .NET Framework Version 2.0 before installing the tool.
As i know the .NET 2.0 should be installed with w7 allready. So what might be the problem? Maybe there is a way passbye the checking in the installation.. or extract it or do something.
Just for more info i think its a installshield setup launcher. I tried to extract it but its not possible, getting the .net 2.0 missing error. So what i managed to do is to extract the msi from exe. And now when i run the -msi with /passive option from cmd the it indeed bypasses the .net check and everything gets installed. Now the problem is that im getting all kind of errors in the application so looks like its still not installed correctly.
My first guess is the program you install doesn't detect .NET 2.0 correctly. As you correctly mentioned, .NET 2.0 is pre-installed on Windows 7. See this article for complete picture.
While .NET is part of Windows 7, it's an optional component, though - you can turn it off.
Open the "Windows features" dialogue (by pressing start and typing/selecting "Turn Windows features on or off"), and make sure the "Microsoft .NET framework 3.5.1" is indeed installed.
If you're seeing errors in your app then maybe there's a problem with your .NET installation, or you have a client profile or partial install. What's the application you're installing - is it a server application?

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