When I launch an application, a windows installer from a previously installed program keeps popping up. The program still exeists in the Server and it's working fine. The installer popup, after clicking "cancel" will eventually dissapear.
I'm not interested in solving this problem, I'm just wondering how does the windows installer decides what to install? I mean to say, what's the mechanism? How and who triggers the windows installer?
Thanks for any reply!
This is the self-repair mechanism triggered automatically by the OS. Along with the above enumerated reasons it can also be triggered if:
A feature having been installed as advertised/install on first use/install when required
Files inappropriately shared between components, features, or products, which can lead to the resource being uninstalled while a product is still using it
A product with per-user data having been installed on a multi-user system by one user and then launched by another user
To investigate the resource whose absence triggers self-repair, look in the Application section of the system's event log. Self-repair events are displayed with source "MsiInstaller".
If the installer is indeed trying to add a resource required by another application the best solution would be to let it finish, and it should no longer appear after that.
Usually this behaviour appears when one of the following is true:
the install process was not completed successfuly
the registry entries for this program were deleted / corrupted
(not finding an appropriate registry entry is a trigger)
the install program's updatemanager was corrupted / disconfigured / cancelled on the previous run
The solution usually is to completely uninstall the program, to check that all folders and registry entries were indeed removed and then to re-install the program.
Related
I created a Windows installer for a Client-Server program by using VS 2013 and InstallShield LE 2015.
I log in to a computer as Admin and run the installer. All works fine.
Then I modify the registry for Local_Machine for some keys to define the database location etc. for the program (this was done by the installation initially as well, but due to certain issues discussed in At each login the program tries to configure installation parameters in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry, I removed the registry modifying section from the installer).
I then run the program by double-clicking the shortcut placed by the installer on the desktop and test it. All works well.
Then I log off the computer.
Another user with admin rights logins and clicks on the shortcut, and the problem comes: the program starts to reinstall itself!
Then it fixes itself and runs fine.
But If the first user logins afterward, she experiences the same reinstall operation so does the first user afterward ad nauseam!
So, even though the installer does not create any registry items by itself, somehow, as soon as the program accesses the registry, or whatever it thinks broken, the Windows OS intervenes and tries to repair whatever needs fixing.
The InstallShield LE does not allow setting shortcuts to be "Advertised Shortcut", or
I delete the shortcut created by the installer and recreate it manually after the installation and yet experience the same problem. So the nature of the shortcut possibly is not the cause.
This problem only happens for multiple logins to the computer. If many people login by using the same credentials, it never happens.
So, what's wrong? I studied many StackOverflow answers to resolve this issue with no success. Any help would be highly appreciated.
Stein gives a good set of instructions on how to diagnose problems with MSI programs in this StackOverflow answer. When I followed his instructions, I was able to check which component of my MSI program has a problem. It turns out, the serial bus controller library, MScomm32.ocx could not register under Win 10 properly. Once, I implemented the solution in this link, the above problem resolved and I could log in as two different users without initiating a reinstall process whenever the program icon was double-clicked to run.
One of our applications is VB6 app, which requires Tabctl32.ocx.
So I added "tabctl32.msm" (which contained it with the version 6.1.97.82) to per-machine based Wix. When I ran this per-machine MSI, it installed that OCX and the application worked fine when I as an admin logged in and launched the VB app.
However, if any person with a standard user privileges logged in and launched this VB app for the first time, it triggered an MSI self-repair. Once the self-repair completed for that user, it worked and didn't trigger the self-repair any more for that user. This self-repair didn't occur for the admin users.
When I examined the MSI with Orca, in "ModuleDependency" table, this tabctl32 module had the dependencies with COMCAT msm and OLEAUT32 msm, we installed them with the merge modules as well.
I don't understand why the self-repair doesn't happen for the admin-users but for the standard users?
Can anyone explain what's going on here?
It may be nothing to do with standard users or admin users or OCXs - it may just be different users.
If there is any resource in the MSI that is owned by a particular user (such as a user-oriented file in Personal folders or others, or registry entry in HKCU) then the first install will install all of these for the installing user.
If another user logs in and uses the app (installed per machine, hopefully) then repair triggers (such as using a shortcut) will notice that these user items are missing for this particular user and will install them. This should happen only once - it the repair happens repeatedly for the same user then it's something more serious.
In any case, the application event log should have an MsiInstaller log entry with some data about the product and the missing component.
This may also depend on the VB6 app - it's old, has no manifest, and so may be interacting with UAC in strange ways. For example, if its behavior is virtualized to use a \VirtualStore location for the system folder then it may well need to reinstall the tab control into that virtualized system folder. Admin users wouldn't have the same issue.
The app I work on is written mainly in VB6.
Some users report that when they start up my app a different MSI installer will automatically run and try to repair its own installation. Often this is for AutoCAD but sometimes other programs also.
Usually this occurs every time they start the app.
What is a procedure that we can use to diagnose why this occurs? Since it is a third-party's installer which is running we don't have any visibility into what it is doing.
AutoDesk does have some info published on this:
Unexpected installer launches
Windows Installer displayed unexpectedly
but these do not directly provide enough information. Ideally I want to be able to completely prevent this from occurring to my end users, rather than just telling them how to avoid it or clean it up.
Your installer is acting on a directory, file or registry key that Windows Installer knows is part of the AutoCad installation.
First, I would turn on global Windows Installer logging. This means that any Windows Installer activity - including AutoCad's installer - is written to an external log file (in %temp%).
How to Enable Windows Installer Logging
Next, run your installer, and let the AutoCad installer run.
Now go to %temp% and you should find files MSIXXXX.LOG - one for your installer, one for AutoCad. Open these and you can work your way through them and identify which file or registry key the AutoCad MSI find is missing or changed.
You may find WiLogUtl.exe helpful for this:
Wilogutl.exe
With any luck you will identify that the directory, file or registry key triggering autorepair is also in your installer. If you're really in luck you can identify it as an item you should not be installing anyway - perhaps you are referencing a system component that would be present anyway, something protected by Windows File Protection.
If not, you will have to look at something like RegFree COM to move files out of shared directories into your private directory and reduce registry conflicts. Also, if you are using (consuming) the Visual C++ Runtime MSMs to make your MSI, consider using the Microsoft EXE installer instead or (best of all) placing the DLLs directly in your program folder, since I've found that the MSMs can cause just this sort of problem.
With regards to Peter Cooper Jr's comment on VB6 causing self-repair. Please check out the heat.exe documentation for Wix. You will see that there is a special switch the tool supports to suppress extracting certain registry values that are owned by the VB6 runtime itself (and hence shouldn't be messed with or updated by any other MSI): http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/overview/heat.html
Go down the list to the switch -svb6 and read the description to the right. (Reproduced here:)
When registering a COM component created in VB6 it adds registry
entries that are part of the VB6 runtime component:
CLSID{D5DE8D20-5BB8-11D1-A1E3-00A0C90F2731}
Typelib{EA544A21-C82D-11D1-A3E4-00A0C90AEA82}
Typelib{000204EF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
[as well as] Any Interfaces that reference these two type libraries
Does your installer write to these keys? If so try to exclude them - this is good to do even if it isn't the culprit in this particular case.
Other than that there is a lengthy description of what can cause Windows Installer self-repair here: How can I determine what causes repeated Windows Installer self-repair?. It is a long article because there are so many different ways self-repair can occur. The common denominator is that different installers on your system are fighting over a shared setting that they keep updating with their own values on each application launch in an endless loop.
I am working on a VB6 application which has many executable and an Active X dlls.
And there are to be updated in c;lient machines to lates version once in a while which i am asking the user to update manually.
Can you please suggest me a way using which i can update it automatically from the files that can be available online.
Thanks.
Windows Installer has features supporting Patching and Upgrades. Using those techniques you can create various levels of "upgrade" packages.
Your application would need a separate "update" utility that is spawned when the user approves updating, perhaps in response to a prompt your program raises after checking for new versions.
This updater would check the current version and the remote site's catalog of updates to pick the appropriate package, download it to a temporary location, start Windows Installer to process the package (or packages, sometimes you might need to run several Installer runs), and clean up the temp location. Then you might offer to restrt the updated application or on some occasions need to reboot.
This updater would be a fancy form of the common "installation bootstrapper." As you can tell it needs some "smarts" in order to tell what package or packages to download and install in what sequence, when it needs to request rebooting, etc. This would probably be based on a downloaded "rules script" it obtains as part of selecting a valid update option.
After all, sometimes you can just apply a minor upgrade or patch upgrade, sometimes you need a more complete install or entire reinstall.
If your needs are extremely simple (just an EXE and maybe a few DLLs and OCXs - preferably using reg-free COM) you may not need to go to these lengths. However when you start adding in other considerations like multiple programs, data directory creation and security settings, possibly running a settings file conversion or even database conversion, DCOM, firewall, etc. configuration, database drivers or providers, etc. things get complicated quickly. Too complicated for simple snatch and grab updating.
And admin rights/UAC issues are a factor so you'll probably have to deal with privilege elevation.
None of this is trivial stuff. There are people who do little more than construct and test such deployment systems as their entire job.
If you use soemthing like Inno setup to install the application then an update is simple a matter of running that periodically.
You can either detect there is a new version available by checking a web site/local server, or just prompt to run the update after X days.
it starts up windows installer with random applications on my machine . . after i click cancel a few times, it loads vb6 fine.
any ideas why this is happening?
To stop this behavior:
Start VB6
Open the Add-Ins dialog
Uncheck the "Visual Component Manager" Add-In
Source:
After VS2010, SP1, VB6 launches VS2010 installer
This is what a Windows Installer repair looks like. It means that something is broken in one of the installed products on your system. Ideally it's a one-off repair so you might be better off letting it runs its course and do the repair, except of course if it asks for a install CD that you don't have.
The Windows event log (Application) will have MsiInstaller entries saying what product and component has the problem.
It's possible a previous installation has not completed correctly.
Use the utility at the following link to remove any rogue installations files:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 (broken link Aug.2017, leaving URL for "historical purposes").
As PhilDW has pointed out this is a Windows Installer Self-Repair issue, and can often be resolved by allowing the self-repair to complete once. At other times the problem persists and it should be fixed by other means. Even when the self-repair completes and the problem goes away, it can still resurface once you launch the conflicting application. Windows Installer is not easy to deal with.
In your particular case you might be able to get away with a "workaround" rather than a fix. By locating the main VB6 EXE file on disk (in its main installation directory) and manually creating a shortcut to it on your desktop, you might be able to successfully launch VB6 via this new shortcut without the self-repair kicking in. It might be worth a try.
This shortcut trick will not remove the underlying problem, but might help to "bypass it". Just for the record: the reason this might work is that the new, manually created shortcut is not "advertised" and will not trigger a key-path check of the installed product when launched. This is Windows Installer's way to verify that a product is correctly installed. Note that even if the workaround works, self-repair might still result during application use because of faulty COM data being detected (which is very likely the cause of the whole problem you are seeing, but give the manually created shortcut a try).
There is a rather comprehensive "article" on self-repair here: How can I determine what causes repeated Windows Installer self-repair? which might help to track down the cause of the self-repair kicking off in the first place, but fixing it can be a rather complicated process (so try the workaround first). It is a long article because there are so many different ways self-repair can occur. The common denominator is that different installers on your system are fighting over a shared setting that they keep updating with their own values on each application launch in an endless loop. The last application to launch will overwrite the registry or file system with its own setting.
This worked for me, for VS2010 RC:
"Please wait while windows configures Microsoft Visual studio 2010 Ultimate."
THe work around that fixes the issue for me was to run the following via the admin cmd prompt.
Md "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\common7\IDE\FromGAC"
from http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-SG/vsprereleaseannouncements/thread/572a0f8a-16b0-4e1d-b581-16be36a9b564
This was also happned to me.
Whenever i tried to open vb6, it started windows installer to configure "Autocad".
Autocad had not broken. and it was working fine.
I tried removing and reinstalling Windows Installer, But it did not solved the issue.
Then i installed Microsoft's "Windows Installer Clean Up Utility 2" from given link.
Using this utility i removed the autocad from "Windows Installers" Database.
After that VB6 never started installer again.
Keep in mind 'removing any entry from installer's database may be risky, but i had no choice. So do it on your own risk.
Download "Windows Installer Clean Up Utility 2" (this is a deprecated, unsupported and unsafe tool to use - Aug.2017. I will leave the link in for "historical purposes", don't use it).