Assuming that the error is occurring during an action like InstallFiles, and the package is being installed per-machine, do the security settings for this path allow access for the SYSTEM account? If not, this could explain the failure, since Windows Installer standard actions run in the local system account during per-machine installs. The following KB documents a similar cause for this error: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228658
You and your tester are both admins/non-admins? I realize you are running from the admin command prompt, but i wonder if certain actions bypass such settings?
Yes we are both admins on our machines/Win 7 VM machines, but I have sent a question to the tester to verify that he does in fact have permission to the folder in question. I am just awaiting their response.
One other thing I should mention here is that the tester was simply performing an admin extraction commmand - /a and therefore I am confused as to why this error occurred when the install should simply be extracting all files to the specified admin folder. Of course this could simply have been the validation portion of the install and that even though no files would have been copied there it still tried to validate the folder.
Anyways it would be nice to know what the issue is.
I am getting exactly the same error when installing my app on Windows Vista & Windows 7, both in a VMWARE Virtual Machine. I have seen the solutions where you right-click on Setup.exe and choose Run as administrator, or you change the permissions on the folders. I prefer to not require the customer to do this. Is there another solution transparent to the user? Is this a rare problem?
