Odd restart manager behavior

[andrewcardy]

Hi all,

Got a couple of questions:

Firstly, every now and again when our product is being uninstalled, we get Restart Manager logging error 1610 and showing a dialog saying:

"The setup must update files or services that cannot be updated while the system is running. If you choose to continue, a reboot will be required to complete the setup."

So this is all fair and well, infact the process which must have a file or registry etc in use is splwow64.exe. Either way, we click ok to continue.

This causes Restart Manager to attempt to stop the process, but it can't and we get this in the logs...

"Application 'C:\Windows\splwow64.exe' (pid 1608) cannot be restarted - Application SID does not match Conductor SID.."

followed shortly buy this in the event logs...

"Machine restart is required."

The odd thing is, even though it's been logged that a restart is required, at the end of the install, there is no restart request to the user and we get this in the event logs...

Product: [Product name] -- Removal completed successfully.

So my questions:

[LIST=1]

What does "Application SID does not match Conductor SID" mean? Can't find any information on this anywhere!

Why does it log that a restart is required, when the user isn't prompted to restart at the end?

Why doesn't the failure of splwow64.exe to close cause a second error 1611 (Setup was unable to close all processes) to log/show?


If anyone could shed any light on this I'd very much appreciate it!!

Also, here is the installshield log:

[CODE]MSI (s) (44:D4) [11:29:47:009]: RESTART MANAGER: Did detect that a critical application holds file in use, so a reboot will be necessary.
MSI (s) (44:D4) [11:29:47:009]: Note: 1: 1610
MSI (s) (44:D4) [11:29:50:321]: RESTART MANAGER: The user chose to go on with the installation, although a reboot will be required.
MSI (c) (5C:78) [11:29:47:040]: Font created. Charset: Req=0, Ret=0, Font: Req=MS Shell Dlg, Ret=MS Shell Dlg

The setup must update files or services that cannot be updated while the system is running. If you choose to continue, a reboot will be required to complete the setup.
MSI (s) (44:D4) [11:29:50:321]: Note: 1: 2727 2:
MSI (s) (44:D4) [11:29:50:321]: Doing action: RemoveExistingProducts[/CODE]

So you can see from above, restart manager is being very confusing, is claims a reboot will be required, but a reboot is not offered to the user at the end!

[DemonPiggies]

Try this or this but no snark is intended...

This thread seems to suggest that the installer is in a place that shouldn't be executed from (if I read it right tho I'm not too sure).

But other threads of people having similar issues have gone through a Clean Boot to help determine the issue. At least that's what most of the thread replies say (non-MS and MS threads).

Another suggests doing a complete uninstall of the application, restarting and doing a "clean install" to see if that clears it up (I mean not restarting after uninstallation or not allowing it to restart for you, clearing any left over files and then restarting, installing and uninstalling).

😕 I hope any of this helps...

[andrewcardy]

DemonPiggies wrote:
Try this or this but no snark is intended...

This thread seems to suggest that the installer is in a place that shouldn't be executed from (if I read it right tho I'm not too sure).

But other threads of people having similar issues have gone through a Clean Boot to help determine the issue. At least that's what most of the thread replies say (non-MS and MS threads).

Another suggests doing a complete uninstall of the application, restarting and doing a "clean install" to see if that clears it up (I mean not restarting after uninstallation or not allowing it to restart for you, clearing any left over files and then restarting, installing and uninstalling).

😕 I hope any of this helps...

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, but I don't think you've really answered any of my questions. Your link to 'google that for me' is actually quite patronising. I have indeed googled to see if anyone else has any information about this, but they do not.

Your link the the second paragraph doesn't really have any bearing at all on any of my questions.

I think you may have miss-understood what I was asking maybe. I understand and appreciate which process is holding onto my files, and why. What I don't get is what the error means when attempting to restart the process and why a restart isn't requested to the user when it's logged that a restart will be required.

Once again, I do appreciate the time you took to reply to my message, but I think you could at least have cut out the first two links! 🙂

Thanks,

Andy.

[DemonPiggies]

Your link to 'google that for me' is actually quite patronising. I have indeed googled to see if anyone else has any information about this, but they do not.

My apologies if you felt I was being rude in any fashion. I was not. I linked to "Let me Google That For You" because I didn't know of any other service similiar. I used it to just to show you what string(s) I used to achieve those search results in case it was helpful at all.

I also used LMGTFY because of what you wrote in your original post:

What does "Application SID does not match Conductor SID" mean? Can't find any information on this anywhere!

... and I'm pretty sure that there was a post or two from those who have/had the same or at least similar issue as you. I myself have had that once before and all I did was remove every piece of my application off the system and restart and everything was fine.

Many posts go answered and unsolved so if my help was not helpful then just say so. Chances are if I misunderstood your thread then maybe others have too.

From what I know, Splashwow64 is apart of the Print Manager. Have you tried to stop the Print Manager > perform your work > restart Print Manager? When installer one of our drivers when need to stop the PM then restart after a certain point otherwise there are issues.

This error could be similar to things like Tortise SVN that requires a restart but you only need to restart explorer.exe and not a machine restart or there's an issue with your application and the PM. I use InstallScript so obviously there are differences but in IS I have to actually querry (in order to ask the user) whether or not a restart is required. Maybe it's similar in MSI?

Also Microsoft just released a hotfix for Splashwow64.exe just recently but I don't know if this will help you nor does that particular link really explain what and why.

[andrewcardy]

So I guess when I said this:

What does "Application SID does not match Conductor SID" mean? Can't find any information on this anywhere!

I may have been slightly inaccurate. As you rightly pointed out, there are a couple of odd posts about the subject, but they all seem to be just hearsay and guessing. The best I've got from them is that it could be to do with my Installer running with elevated privilages and splwow64.exe running without elevated privilages.

I guess I just wondered if someone actually knew of a concrete explination for this line (MSDN documentation or similar). Someone knows, even if it's only the damn developer that wrote the code which returns it!!! 🙂

I think you may still be missing the point slightly in what I'm trying to get out of the post though (which is fine, maybe I haven't been thorough enough).

I'm not trying to get rid of the error for one particular install, I'm just trying to understand why it happens in the first place. This way I can advise whether if it's an issue that needs resolving vs one that needs documenting. As a developer I need to know why things are happening so I can fix them, rather than just how to get rid of them.

I also understand that splwow64 is part of the Print Spooler, I believe that it's some sort of x86 wrapper around the x64 Print Spooler service, but I can't be sure as there doesn't seem to be much Microsoft documentation around it. Not that I've seen recently anyway.

Anyhow, thanks for your replies, they've given me some bits to think about!