Unable to launch application using shortcut

[sriranjanik]

We are trying to do minor upgrade of our product using InstallShield 2010. The basic MSI based ism file has "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008" redistributable package. This issue is not faced by all the users. Only a few of them face it. It occurs in Windows 2003 alone.

Following are the steps followed:
- Install the setup.exe in machine1 and we are able to launch the application
- From another machine (say machine2), we are accessing the machine1's installation path as follows: \\\C$\
- Choose "Copy" option on right clicking the product exe in the installed path and choose "paste shortcut" option in the machine2
- Try launching the application using the created shortcut in machine2. We are getting the following error:
This applicaiton has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Already tried the following:
- Tried installing/reinstalling MS Visual C++ 2008 redistributable package
- In machine2, the properties of the shortcut is pointing to the installation path of machine1
- Able to launch the application using the created shortcut in machine1

[Tetsuo]

I've only ever seen this error when there is a missing VC runtime dependancy. The error may not relate to the runtime version you mention but could instead be that machine1 has *another* VC runtime version on its build that machine2 doesn't.

Suggest checking that the VC Runtimes installed on machine1 match those on machine2.

Failing this, I'd install setup.exe on the machine2 and check if it works - If it does work then the problem may be related to how happy the application is at being run from a shared location; are there any other dependancies installed that the application requires to run, i.e installed outside of the program directory?

[sriranjanik]

Thanks for your input.

We already tried installing the setup.exe in the machine2 and uninstalled the same. Then we were able to launch the application using the shortcut. We initially thought it was a dependancy on VC++. But we are not able to replicate the same. In our local machine with same OS, I was able to launch the application using the shortcut without installing the exe!!

Can you please throw some lights on how can we check if there is any dependancy with the application and outside environment?

[Tetsuo]

There's a few dependency scanners included with InstallShield that can be accessed from Additional Tools > Dependency Scanners. These scanners will only show for Basic MSI, InstallScript, InstallScript MSI & InstallScript Object project types.

I haven't used them much but the Dynamic scanning wizard will allow you to run your application and see if additional dependencies are required for your application.

Other things to look at is whether there are any files being instaled outside of INSTALLDIR? (dlls etc) If so, you may need to also install these on the other machines or look at application isolation if you use Admin Studio.

Also, is there any reason you can't just deploy the setup.exe directly to all machines that require?

[Alex1969]

Hello sriranjanik,

sriranjanik wrote:
Thanks for your input.

Can you please throw some lights on how can we check if there is any dependeancy with the application and outside environment?

I think you've to check the whole environment and you should build up a complete picture of your systems.

If you're starting your app from "machine2" the code is executed on "machine2" and so all the used dependencies have to be available on "machine2". By installing your app on "machine2" you've installed the VCR on the "machine2". By removing or uninstalling your app the VCR isn't removed and so your app works.

I think you just have to install all the dependencies on "machine2" and your app is running.

HTH Alex