BrowseFolder dialogue not working on Windows Server Core OS

[#1]

I have a Suite installer which has an option to change the install path of one of my packages. This feature uses the Suite 'BrowseFolder' call. This works absolutely fine on all Windows OS's except for Win2008 Core, Win2008R2 Core and Win2012 Core where the BrowseFolder dialogue is displayed with only the frame, buttons but no folder contents:



This is an extract from the install debug log:

[CODE]4-23-2013[11:54:05 AM]: Engine: property 'ISCurrentPage' value now 'InstallAgent'
4-23-2013[11:54:06 AM]: Engine: property 'SuiteInstallDir' value now '[ProgramFiles64Folder]Cristie\'
4-23-2013[11:54:06 AM]: UI DLL: Executing user custom action > {SetProperty BrowseInstallDir=[ProgramFiles64Folder]Cristie\}
4-23-2013[11:54:06 AM]: Engine: property 'BrowseInstallDir' value now 'C:\Program Files\Cristie\'
4-23-2013[11:54:06 AM]: UI DLL: Executing user custom action > {BrowseFolder BrowseInstallDir,IDS_BROWSEFOLDER_INSTALLTO}
4-23-2013[11:55:02 AM]: UI DLL: Executing user custom action > {SetProperty SuiteInstallDir=[BrowseInstallDir]}
4-23-2013[11:55:02 AM]: Engine: property 'SuiteInstallDir' value now 'C:\Program Files\Cristie\'
[/CODE]

The initialisation of the strings prior to the call of BrowseFolder is correct. I suspect this is a bug but wondered if anyone else had seen this or come up with a work-around ?

Many thanks...

[MichaelU]

I haven't specifically seen this, but I wonder if it might be a limitation of server core. If that is the case, I would suggest ensuring that you document the required properties, and encourage silent installations on systems running server core. For the one property you mention, this could look something like setup.exe /silent SuiteInstallDir="C:\Program Files\CompanyName\".

[#3]

Michael thanks for the response. In an enterprise environment yes I would expect our customers to roll out our installations silently so this isn't ordinarily a problem. We do have a few customers though who are trying out our software where it would be normal to install interactively even on Core.

I suspect there is a missing DLL on Core that supports the BrowseFolder functionality. If I get a chance I'll try to find out which one.

[phill_mn]

I do not know the answer, but is this issue related to whether the full GUI support is enable?

You might be able to 'enable' this feature, run your setup and then disable this feature using commands like:

c:\>Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer
doo stuff...
c:\>Dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer

[#5]

Thanks for the idea, but I suspect that be a little 'heavy-handed' just to get the dialogue to display correctly. All other aspects of the Suite installer GUI seem to work absolutely fine on Core.

Also standard non-Suite type Basic MSI installers run the BrowseFolder dialog fine on Core.

[#6]

Just to let everyone know the suggestion from phill_mn to add the GUI enhancements to Windows Core does indeed fix the problem.

Thanks for that.