I've created a patch with Advanced Installer by using an old (target image) msi and the new one (upgrade image). Inspecting MSP file I've discovered that it contains both modified and completely new files. The problem is that during the installation it installs only the "added" files. Existing files are ignored. I've already tried MSIEXEC switches like:
REINSTALL=ALL
REINSTALLMODE=sumo / aums / omus etc...
UPGRADE="Yes"
IS_MINOR_UPGRADE = "1"
..in different order and combinations (i.e. "REINSTALLMODE=aums REINSTALL=ALL"), so don't reply or comment just by telling me to try REINSTALLMODE=omus or something similar.
When creating a patch there is a set of rules that need to be followed, have you checked those? Breaking one of those can lead to unexpected behavior, such as the one you are now encountering.
To check for the rules you can start with a diff between the project files, as they are standard XML ones, and check for their product code, component GUIDs, etc... For example folder synchronization is a common problem encountered when a patch is created, as this changes the component GUIDs.
For some odd reason all the core components (exe, dlls) I wanted to update were set to "Do not register this component with Windows Installer".
I suppose this is some kind of project bug, because it's very old and was migrated through different Advanced Installer versions (7, 8 and 9).
Anyway, I was not able to update my application correctly even with a fixed patch. Windows Installer kept on asking me to browse to target image msi file (cached installer of the previous version).
However not all of my customers keep those files (usually this cached files are stored in %APPDATA% folder). So I found a workaround:
I've applied "Hash files" option in order to create a MsiFileHash table
I've packed my msp patch in a bootstrapper (exe file) that starts it with the TWICE with following command-line parameters:
first time:
"myPatch.msp" /n {150F6CE2-8C12-414B-9377-F087A62E6B67} REINSTALLMODE=c /qb
second time:
"myPatch.msp" /n {150F6CE2-8C12-414B-9377-F087A62E6B67} REINSTALLMODE=dep /qb
REINSTALLMODE=c switch forces file compare algorithm based on hashes, so it doesn't require the original setup sources anymore
REINSTALLMODE=dep restores all the other missing files, files with unknown or different (from target) version
I hope this workaround will be useful to people that use MSI/MSP authoring tools other than Advanced Installer
Related
I have a fairly large application (~750k LOC) that I distribute using the Package and Deployment Wizard. I fully understand that it would be nice to migrate to .NET (that ain't happening - see the code size above), and that the PDW is deeply flawed. However, for the most part I've made it work well for my end users, by customizing the Setup1 application, writing a menu-driven wrapper for the Setup application, and by running it in silent mode. (Note that the problem I'm about to describe occurred even before I started using silent mode.)
The issue I'm having is that my application requires quite a few auxiliary files, which I've added to the PDW project in the "Included files" section. When a user does a clean installation (either from scratch, or after un-installing a previous installation), everything works fine. However, if they simply run the installer to update the existing installation, the executable file and any OCXs I've updated get copied over the previous versions just fine, but my auxiliary files don't - I have to have the user manually delete them, and then the Setup1 program will re-install them as it should.
I've checked in the Setup.lst file, and all of the files are listed there, with their current date stamps. In fact, in my "BuildAll.bat" file, I do the Windows equivalent of a "touch" (copy /b "TheFile.dat" +,,) to force the date stamp to be current. However, if the file exists on the target machine, it won't be over-written even though it's older. There are no errors reported, either visibly or in the .LOG file (which is required if using the silent option).
A couple of additional points: Some of the auxiliary files are themselves VB6 applications - just the .exe files. Those do get copied correctly if they're newer than the existing files. Other than being files with internal versioning information, there's no difference between them and the other auxiliary files (which are things like media files, or text-based .txt or .dat files).
So, what's going on, and how do I fix it (besides moving to Inno or some other solution that won't work for me...)? Thanks in advance for any help!
~~
Mark Moulding
I have a visual studio installer (vs2015) that installs an application. I want it to also install a set of configuration files, the contents of which vary by physical install location, that will be delivered as a cab file in the same directory as the msi. The cab has a known set of files that will be distributed across 2 folders in the install location and is created by a different project than the installer. How do I get the msi to install both its internal contents and the contents of the external cabinet file?
Wise Package Studio
I actually successfully updated MSI files with new files to install using Wise Package Studio back in the day. It added a CAB file to the Cabs table (I don't know if this table is actually a Wise "view" or a real MSI table - it seems missing from Orca if all CABs are embedded in the MSI). There is a corresponding entry in the Media table where the LastSequence value (in the Media table) describes which CAB contains what files. In the File table you will find a field called Sequence which specifies the "order" of the files listed. Essentially your new files will be at the end of the "order" and hence in a new CAB. A bit involved the whole thing.
However, I successfully got Wise Package Studio to both embed a new CAB file, and to use an external CAB file to install the new files during installation, but I don't have the procedure documented and don't recall all the steps. Moreover I don't recommend the procedure - in fact I would never use this approach now. It was just used at the place I worked at the time. In most cases we used a transform to add this content to the main package, rather than hacking the MSI itself.
MSI SDK: Including a Cabinet File in an Installation
The procedure to add a CAB file to your MSI is documented in the MSI SDK here: Including a Cabinet File in an Installation. Quite involved - as I said, but definitely possible. As you will see the lack of a # flag at the start of the CAB name in the Media table indicates an external CAB file.
So I suppose, in short:
Add a new entry to the file table, set the Sequence number to +1 from the highest sequence File entry already there. I would add a new, corresponding entry in the Component table as well.
Add a new row to the Media table, specify the number you set for the file in the LastSequence column. Add the name of your cabinet file to Cabinet. Make sure to not prefix the CAB name with #.
Wise would also add entries in the MsiFileHash table. Not sure if this is required or not. Pretty sure it is not required to add entries here.
As you will see in the linked MSI SDK article, you can embed the whole cab following the last few steps listed in the linked MSDN content.
I wish I had time to test all this, but I don't. Which brings me to the next point:
Default / Instantiate Your Settings?
When I see questions like these I invariably ask myself: what is in these files? Are they "trivial settings" that could actually be defaulted instead of hard coded in config files? This has saved me a lot of work, many times.
The deployment of settings and data files have always been problematic with both MSI and legacy style installers. My philosophy of deployment for such files is to treat what you install as "read-only" and then you copy them to per-user locations or set them in HKCU on application launch, using some sane process of obtaining appropriate values (from settings written to HKLM during installation, retrieved from the user, retrieved from the Internet, etc...). Please see this longer answer on the subject: Create folder and file on Current user profile, from Admin Profile. The best approach, in my opinion, is to retrieve settings on launch from an online database (as you will see if you read that linked content), but that is involved.
It's not clear precisely what you mean, but you cannot alter the MSI to unpack all the files in your separate CAB as if they were in the MSI as the other files are. There is too much internal data on the files inside the MSI file, in the file table, component table, and so on.
So if the CAB file is in the same location as the MSI file then you could create a custom action to copy it to the target system, and unpack if you want. The copy can be told where the MSI location is by using the [SourceDir] property or the [OriginalDatabase] property OriginalDatabase property
You'd parse that location to get the path and then do the copy to the TARGETDIR location.
I have a written a setup script for my own Windows EXE using InstallShield Premium 2012. My EXE, however, ultimately relies on the presence components provided by a Microsoft EXE called AccessDatabaseEngine.exe.
In order to run this AccessDatabaseEngine.exe executable with my installation, I added it as an embedded binary resource then used the Custom Action Wizard to launch AccessDatabaseEngine.exe as "Deferred Execution in System Context" as an "After PublishFeatures" Install Exec Sequence. This worked as expected: The AccessDatabaseEngine.exe launches after my Setup completes most of its work.
However, once I see the UI for the AccessDatabaseEngine.exe and acknowledge its UI prompts, I see "Error 1500", which states that another installation is in progress.
I understand that two MSI packages cannot be running at the same time unless you tweak the registry to allow it, which I do not want to do on my customers' workstations, which are Windows 7 32-bit machines.
I would like to successfully implement one of these options:
OPTION ONE: Have the user launch my Setup.exe program, which will at some point launch the Microsoft AccessDatabaseEngine.exe without generating any error message. I just don't know how to do that without causing the Error 1500 to appear...
OPTION TWO: If it's possible to somehow wrap my Setup.exe along with Microsoft's AccessDatabaseEngine.exe into a single EXE, then I could provide my end users with that single EXE and it would first execute the embedded Setup.exe and, once that's done, it would execute AccessDatabaseEngine.exe.
I realize that I could implement OPTION TWO as a .bat (batch) file, but I want to deliver only a single EXE to my end users and have that single EXE install everything needed for my software to operate properly.
Any ideas?
What you describe here is exactly what InstallShield's prerequisites are designed for. Launch the prerequisite editor from the Tools menu and add files, command lines, and conditions that carry, install, and detect the installed footprint of the AccessDatabaseEngine.exe; then use the redistributables view to include that new prerequisite in your project.
Once you've done this correctly, InstallShield's setup launcher will check to see if the prerequisite footprint is present, and, if not, it will run the prerequisite as described. Since this is done before it launches the main .msi file, it avoids having two .msi files installing at the same time.
See Defining InstallShield Prerequisites, Creating an InstallShield Prerequisite, and Setting Installation Conditions for an InstallShield Prerequisite in the help for more details. For defining where these end up in your built installer, see Specifying the Run-Time Location for InstallShield Prerequisites at the Release Level or Specifying a Run-Time Location for a Specific InstallShield Prerequisite. Note that when dependencies of a prerequisite are added, they often use the release-level setting, so unless you really want a mix of locations, you're best off specifying this in the release.
Apparently there are TWO settings that determine if a prerequisite ends up in its own, separate folder (a release folder below the folder that contains setup.exe), or if it gets embedded into a single setup.exe file.
The first setting is available in the Installation Designer under Application Data | Deliverables. Find your PRQ prerequisite listed there with a check mark, right click it, and view Properties. You will see a Build Location dropdown--one of the options is Extract From Setup.exe. That's the way mine was set.
But then there is SECOND setting, and that's in the Installation Designer's Media section, under Releases. In my project, I had a Releases root, then a PROJECT_ASSISTANT branch, then a SINGLE_EXE_IMAGE branch. I left-clicked SINGLE_EXE_IMAGE and viewed its property sheet. In that list is an entry near the bottom of the list that says Setup Prerequisite Location. Double-click the right column (where its value is listed) and you will see a selection there that also says Extract From Setup.exe.
This second setting OVERRIDES the one specified in the deliverables section, and that's why it wasn't working as specified in the prerequisite setting. That's because I was using the "Copy From Source Media" setting.
So if you have multiple prerequisites and you want all of them to be included in the setup.exe then it's okay to use the Extract From Setup.exe settings. But if you prefer to configure where the prerequisite ends up, then choose the Follow Individual Selections options in the Releases' Setup Prerequisites Location section and then ensure that you've selected the correct option for each of your prerequisites.
Even if others had suggested doing this in previous answers, those explanations weren't clear to me and I wasted a lot of time before ultimately discovering what's actually going on.
I've been looking at various different ways of making an installer (see How to create a robust, minimal installer for Windows? for details), and I've run into the same thing in a couple of them (WiX and the visual studio installer creator); there doesn't seem to be a way to say "When you build the installer, include every file matching c:\somefolder\*.xml".
I can go and select *.xml and add all the files that match to the project at once, but then if I add another .xml file to my program later, I'd need to go and add that to the installer myself.
Is this a core limitation of windows installer, that I can't just tell it "sort all the XML files in this folder out and don't bother me about them"?
WiX toolset contains an utility called Heat. It can generate the WiX authoring for you based on your needs. The output can be further transformed by XSL templates (-t switch).
Hope this helps.
InstallShield also has this ( see Dynamic File Linking ) but honestly I don't like this pattern in general. It's non-deterministic in nature. I speak from 14 years of experience when I say that if a file is added or removed from my application I want to explicitly add it or remove it from my applications installer. Any magic to automate this has always bitten me in that it takes what should have been a build time error and turns it into a run time error.
My best practice is to write some automation that compares what was available to be consume against what was consumed by the installer. The two lists must match 100% or otherwise fail the build. When the build fails you must choose to either add the file to the installer or cease to archive the file to the directory. With the right tooling, it's trivial to add a file to the installer and the result is 100% accuracy of developer intent being applied to the installer.
I am developing a package using Installshield 2008 Primer Edition and Project type is Installscript MSI project.
The problem I am facing is during installation I am installing some of the files to the following location C:\Program Files\Company\SystemFiles from this location I am copying and adding the set of files into System32 folder, it contains DLLs and OCX files, copying into the System32 folder has been done using Installscript.
Due to this during uninstallation, the installed file is getting removed from System32 due to this other dependent application which requires the same set of DLLs have stopped working.
I have approached Installscript to copy files from ProgramFiles to System32 Folder rather than using built-in options because we have an issue during the upgrade in order to avoid that I am using Installscript.
Even I have tried several workarounds like setting the file attributes after file copies to System32 using Installscript like FILE_ATTR_SYSTEM which sets the system attribute but still files are getting removed during uninstallation.
Any idea how to give file attributes as PERMANENT or SHARED; will this help, and if it will, then how can I set it using Installscript?
I have 2 ideas
1)I think you can use SHARED option as this wont remove the files while uninstallation.
2)Also when i was facing similar issue , what i did was putting all the required files in the installation directory itself so that while uninstalling only the installed files will be removed.(I know this is not a best solution)
(NOTE:I have worked on Install shield some 6 years back and so remember only certain things)
You can also disable logging from Install Script. This will make the installer "forget" that it installed specific files groups or features.
You should make sure to enable logging once again after you have copied the files that you want to permanently leave on the system.
If you don't remember to enable logging after you have disabled it, your uninstall process may not work correctly.
Syntax is as follows:
Disable(LOGGING);
//Add code to copy your permanent files here
Enable(LOGGING);
For InstallScript projects:
To prevent the files in a particular Component from being removed during uninstall:
1-Select the Components view from within the Organization folder.
2-Select the component that contains the files you do not wish to remove during uninstall.
3-Change the "Uninstall" property in the right pane to a value of "No."
For MSI Projects:
To prevent the files in a particular Component from being removed during uninstall:
1-Select the Components view from within the Organization folder.
2-Select the component that contains the files you do not wish to remove during uninstall.
3-Change the "Permanent" property in the right pane to a value of "Yes".
I see this is an old question but I just came across this. Seems to be a common problem. One good solution is to stage the files to a private directory mostly program files and then have a custom action do the copy and register (ocx etc). Installshield remembers what it copied so it tends to remove them. Do not disturb anything else like logging (my recommendation). Set conditions on the custom action so that it doesn't run during Uninstall.
Although sometime back I did another weird implementation which only programmers are used to doing.. Packed the files as resources and created my own code to extract and deploy (Something that Process Explorer kind of tool does). There were certain use cases that warranted this kind of implementation. But again this is complicated and obviously reinventing the wheel. Unless you are good with C/C++ and Windows API this would be difficult. I would still suggest you stay away from this kind of implementation because it is also considered a "virulent behavior". Yet, so far I never got warnings from the Anti-malware products.