A new version of our product (a software package) has been released recently. To expand functionality, we developed a plugin afterwards. Now we would like to deploy these files (two new files and an updated version of an existing file) as hotfix (or update) with MSI patch (msp). I downloaded a blank PCP file from MSDN website and made some changes in it. The changes involve the following tables:
ImageFamilies
PatchMetadata
PatchSequence
Properties
TargetImages
UpgradedImages
All the other tables remain blank.
Then, I managed to create an msp file with this PCP file based on two versions of the admin image of the software package, both of which were built from Visual Studio setup project (VS 2010). The difference between these two msi packages are that I replaced a file and added two new files in, but nothing else. I didn't change the product code (GUID), the upgrade code (GUID), nor the version number.
Then I was trying to install this msp file on top of the released version.
The first screen appearing is asking to Repair or Remove the product. This is not what we want. We want the installer is like a fresh installation, including showing the licence agreement. How do I define the UI for MSI patch?
During the installation of the patch, I got an error message as below, then the installation failed:
Error 1001. Exception occurred while initializing the installation: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\WINDOWS\system32\Files\BPS\TestApp' or one of its dependencies. This system cannot find the file specified.
BPS is the folder where we install our product in [ProgramFilesFolder]. I wondered why MSI was trying to search in "C:\Windows\system32" for files installed in [ProgramFilesFolder]. In addition, the changed files in the hotfix are located in somewhere else ([CommonAppDataFolder]) instead of in this "BPS" folder.
Can anyone help me with these problems? If any more information is needed to identify the issues, please let me know. Any thoughts, advices, suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Dan
The first screen appearing is asking
to Repair or Remove the product. This
is not what we want.
In the upgrade package increase the Product Version. This way you will use a minor upgrade instead of a small update.
You can also try using the MSIEXEC command line to apply the patch:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367574(VS.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367575(VS.85).aspx
During the installation of the patch,
I got an error message as below, then
the installation failed
Is there something in your installer using that file? Perhaps a custom action? Try looking in the log to see what action tries to access that file.
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.
I have a Visual Studio 2010 Setup Project and I am trying to create an Upgrade to a new version of my software.
The upgrade process is running. I properly updated the Version Number, which caused an update of the Product Code. RemovePreviousVersions is also True.
My problem is that when I upgrade my software, there is one file that may have changed on the local filesystem, in the course of running the software. I'm finding that, because the file changed, the installer refuses to overwrite it.
I want my installer to force this file to be overwritten with the new version.
Is there something I can do -- within Visual Studio, with Orca, or otherwise -- to force a file to be overwritten even if it has changed?
UPDATE: In Orca, I noticed that the "File" table includes a "FileSize" column. I believe this might be the reason the file is being ignored. If the size of the file has changed, it doesn't match. Is there any way to override this?
You can't safely change the Windows Installer replace rules, but you are getting into this situation because the upgrade mechanism first installs the upgrade on top of the older product (invoking file replacement rules) then uninstalls the old product, ref counting down and removing the product. It's the "on top" that is the issue. If you move RemoveExistingProducts in the InstallExecuteSequence from just before InstallFinalize to just after InstallInitialize you will get a complete uninstall of the older product then the install of the new upgrade. That may not work if you are expecting to keep data files around.
Otherwise you could use the RemoveFile table with Orca. You'd add an entry targeting the Component name corresponding to the file (look in the File table, and there may already be some entries in the RemoveFile table as examples). You'd set the value to be Remove on Install. The RemoveFiles action occurs before the new files are installed, so it should work.
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.
I have an Installer created with WIX that installs a bunch of DLL and Config files. Once the installation is complete, obviously there are times when I would like to update JUST the DLL files and leave the configs as they were.
I've looked at the NeverOverwrite="yes" option and that looks promising, however I am now running into this issue. When I try and re-run my installer after an installation is complete, I get this error.
The problem is that I do not want to mess with Build Numbers or Product Ids. I just want the installer to re-run and overrwite the necessary DLL files. Does this make sense?
If you recompile to update the dlls you should really think about updating the versioning in your installer. If you have a build process that updates the build number every time you compile your dlls and your installer this shouldn't be a problem.
The reason you are getting the error is because the Product Id and version numbers match, but the package codes differ. To resolve the error you have the following options:
Update the version number and treat it like an upgrade.
Change the product id (and version) and treat it like an upgrade.
The product id and version can match if you set the package code, however this is not really recommended, especially if you are modifying the files in the installer. If you do set the package code to match the previous installer, you will get the maintenance dialog and if you do a repair or modify, I'm not sure if it will use the cached MSI or the recompiled MSI when performing the repair, so I'm not sure what results you can expect.
Like BryanJ says, the error indicates that you are installing a new package which has the same product code as a previously installed package.
The solution is most likely to just set the product Id attribute to *. You only need stable product ids when you want the ability to do minor upgrades.
A minor upgrade does not allow any reorganization of the feature-component tree, and AFAIK only has the advantage of being quicker for huge installations. We just do all upgrades as major upgrades, which are easier to manage.
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.