Has anybody been able to figure out a way of getting the window handle to the installer? I want to move away from my InstallScript which currently passes this parameter to my .Net custom action.
In InstallScript this always (even in deferred mode) return the proper value: hWindowHandle = GetWindowHandle( HWND_INSTALL );
In .Net, I am trying to call msi.dll apis or go from Process.GetCurrentProcess() and find my way back to a visible window but no luck. I was suggested to use FindWindow or EnumThreadWindows, I can't use FindWindow because it needs the window title and I may not have access to that, EnumThreadWindows for some reason can't seem to find my window...
InstallShield were not allowed to disclose the inner workings of GetWindowHandle so I don't have much to go on. I know that HWND_INSTALL is a constant equal to -2. Perhaps this is a parameter sent to a Windows api???
Did some more digging and found out that msiexec does sandboxing for certain things. My dll runs in a different sandbox than where the UI resides. So if I get the current process through Process.GetCurrentProcess() this pid is not representing the process which holds the windows so that explains why EnumThreadWindows does not work.
1. Our installer currently already uses this method of showing messages/dialogs and it would be a big change in the code if we were to try to do this as a pure msi dialog. Actually I don't even think it would be possible.
2. This handle will allow me to display messages and other boxes that will be modal to the install wizard. I don't want them to be able to play with the wizard unless they have dismissed my dialog.
