Windows Installer msi package - installation

I have a windows installer msi package with the setup.exe bootstrap. Works fine everywhere.
However the client has supposedly uninstalled the application and then tried to run the setup.exe again and gets the following error in the log file: Launching Application. Error: Unable to locate application file 'xyz.msi'.
Now the setup.exe and the msi file are in the same folder. Is this even possible in any scenario?

I think it is looking somewhere daft for your MSI, probably in the MSI cache or System32.
I'd suggest using procmon to capture the file system searches and then search that output for your MSI file name. You'll see it is not found a few times but that will show you where it is looking.
Ryan

If you're looking for a quick, one-time fix you could also just try to run the .msi directly.

Related

Upgrade scenario not working using Installshield 2013

I have created installer using install-shield 2013. Installer deploys the file and there is one executable file. I did some changes in executable file and created installer again.
When I upgraded using installer then I found my executable is not replaced with new one.
In Install-shield, I went to "Releases", go to the "Setup.exe" section and there's a field called "MSI Command Line Arguments" and provided REINSTALLMODE=emus REINSTALL=ALL but it did not work.
Please suggest for same.
Regards,
Rashi

MSI wrapper from command line

Is there any MSI wrapper that works from a command line? Or even an MSI creator that could be automated?
I have a client that requires an MSI file to roll out into their windows server environment. What I need to package is a .exe file (windows Zabbix agent) that installs itself as a service from wherever the file is located when you run it.
Currently I have a self-extracting .exe that runs a batch file, and then I use a free MSI wrapper to convert it to MSI.
I'm trying to automate this so my co-workers can change zabbix config files and then run a batch that creates the package for them. I can do everything up to creating the MSI.
Try to use http://www.suiviperf.com/zabbix/.
Or check Zabbix forum, it contains similar questions:
e.g. https://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22688
You can try Advanced Installer, it has a free 30 days trial for you to test. The Professional edition can help you create and MSI that wraps your EXE (one or many).
Also, it has a command line interface, so you can automate the build process for the setup package.

Installshield response file not being generated

I've built an installer using InstallShield 2011. I need to do a silent install so I ran the setup.exe with the -r flag to record the response file. However, the installer doesn't appear to actually generate a file (I've looked in the windows directory for the .iss file - in fact I've looked over my entire hard disk for .iss files)
I'm installing on Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate Edition and running from an elevated command prompt
Has anyone seen this before or have any ideas why the file isn't getting generated?

Visual Studio 2010: Windows Installer using msiexec.exe returns MSI Error 2727

I've got a Visual Studio Setup Project that uses the msiexec.exe file to create an Uninstall item as outlined in >> THIS << article on SO.
The Installer does not run.
When I launch the installer by double-clicking the setup.exe file, the "Please wait while setup launches" screen barely blips on the screen before I am confronted with my error.
The Text is (for search functions):
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2727.
I have found a set of MSI Error Codes, and Error Code 2727 translates to
The directory entry '[2]' does not exist in the Directory table.
Could someone guide me towards fixing this? What should I do?
[UPDATE]
At the suggestion of Cosmin Pirvu, I have created an error log for my installer. After looking it over, it appears my installation error could be the result of having a link to the Not Installed file msiexec.exe that I use in conjunction with my Project's [ProductCode] to create an Uninstall link.
The log file shown below appears to indicate that my installation fails when the installer attempts to create a temporary file for msiexec.exe, then it has another failure when it tries to display the Error Icon.
The file >> install.log on Google Sites << is my Error Log file's output (Hint: just do a search for Return value 3 to get to the errors).
[UPDATE 2]
I have an Uninstall link in the setup project that links back to the batch file uninstall.bat in my main project:
#echo off
%windir%\system32\msiexec.exe /x %1
The Arguments to the Uninstall link is only [ProductCode], since the /x switch is hard coded into the batch file.
[Solution]:
The Visual Studio Installer was not creating a folder that had some required DLLs in it.
The first step should be creating an installation log to see what triggers the error.
From the log you posted, it seems like your MSI tries to use a directory which is not in Directory table. Are you using any merge modules or special custom actions? If so, try to determine if they try to use a directory from your package.
You mentioned something about an uninstall shortcut. Can you give us more details?
Old question, I know - just wanted to add in some information that helped me with the Windows Installer project in Visual Studio 2015, in case anyone comes across this topic.
I got the same error message, 2727. My issue was that I was including my source code into an "src" folder in the installation directory. When looking at the output files for the source, I noticed several files like this:
\obj\Release\\TemporaryGeneratedFile_5937a670-0e60-4077-877b-f7221da3dda1.cs
Yes, it included that extra slash after Release. I had to add an exclusion (right click Source Files output -> ExcludeFilter) to exclude these files from installing. I added "*Temporary*" to exclude only these files.
Maybe someone else can explain why these temporary files were generated, all I know is that this fixed the issue. Hopefully this will help someone else looking for this topic.
I know its a Old question, but like #Riccaforte I was having some trouble to fix this in Visual Studio 2015. What I did was just delete all my Source Files inside my Aplication Folder, and I don't know why, but it did the trick.
If you remove a directory or directories from the Directory Table, This will cause an issue with other tables still using those directory variables.
My 2727 error message was the result of a *.png file I had added as a link to my project. "Copy to Output Directory" was set to "Copy if newer". Somehow the Visual Studio Setup Project was not able to resolve the path to the *.png file and added an invalid path to the installer.
LessMSI helped to find the problem https://lessmsi.activescott.com/ and removing the link in the project and adding the files in the installer project solved the problem.
Hope someone finds this helpful
regards

Setupbld not performing as required

I am using "setubld.exe" (by wix) to merge .exe and .msi file
It executes pre-requisite file .exe file and then it throws error that Setup.msi file not found.
Can anyone please guide me on this.
As i was not able to make it work as per my requirement, I switched to dotnetinstaller and was successful in merging msi and exe

Resources