InstallShield Triage and Preliminary Troubleshooting

[#1]

Providing the necessary information to allow a Support engineer to begin troubleshooting your issue is one of the best ways to avoid delays.  This article discusses what type of information to include and how to gather it when submitting an InstallShield case to Flexera Technical Support.

Version and Edition of InstallShield

Include the version and edition of InstallShield used to design and build the installer.  Going to Help > About InstallShield in the IDE is one of the easiest ways to verify this information.

IDE, Stand Alone Build, Integration with Visual Studio

Specify whether you are using InstallShield as a stand-alone product with its IDE, using the Stand Alone Build to build a project, or using InstallShield integrated with Visual Studio.

Project Type

There are several project types available in InstallShield.  Including the project type being used will clear up any ambiguity and allow the Support engineer to dive right in to troubleshooting.  With the project open in the IDE, the project type will be listed alongside the project name on the title bar of the IDE.  Otherwise, attaching a copy of the project file to your case will allow the Support engineer to quickly determine the project type.

When the Error Occurs

Most errors can be classified as either a “Design/Build Time Error” or a “Runtime Error” depending on whether the issue occurs in the process of creating your installer or when running your installer.

Expected Versus Actual Results

Describe in as much detail as possible what you expect the behavior to be and what the actual behavior observed is.

Screenshots

When applicable, including screenshots often provides valuable information that supplements the written description of the issue.  Screenshots comparing expected to unexpected or desired to actual appearance can be incredibly helpful.

Reproducibility

The best way to ensure a timely resolution to your issue is to provide a list of steps the Support engineer can use to reproduce the issue you are reporting.  Steps to reproduce that start with creating a new project in InstallShield are the best, though not always possible.  Detailed steps to reproduce the issue allow the Support engineer to understand the exact scenario and submit to Engineering if necessary.

Verbose Log File

Attaching a verbose log file from when the issue was reproduced is always a good idea.  See the following Knowledge Base articles for more information regarding generating a log file:

Logging an MSI Installation

Logging an InstallScript Project

Logging an InstallScript MSI Project

Logging an Express Installation

Verbosely Log a Command Line Build

Additional Pertinent Details

Providing any additional details you believe are integral to the issue being reported is most often helpful.  It’s often better to provide more details than necessary rather than providing too few.

[mkypuros]

Case number 01991764.

InstallShield Premier 2019 R3.

Suite installation.

[SVolpone9]

InstallShield 2016 - Premier Edition with Virtualization Pack Version 23

Using IDE stand alone with its IDE

Basic MSI Project

Trying to create a project that will install SQL Server Express. When I click on the "Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express RTM (x64)" Redistributable, I get a message asking if i want to download it. I click yes and I get this error:

I can't find where to download this on the website.  Can I even create an installer that installs SQL Server and let's me restore a database from a backup?

[edouty]

1. Installshield 2019 R3

2. IDE

3. Basic MSI

4. When running install, .Net 4.5.2 full pre-requisite is included, but does not install .Net 4.5.2, target machine has no  .Net installed.  Tried both "install before feature selection" and selected feature, neither one works.

5. Release is MSIX as setup.exe, .Net 4.5.2 included in setup.exe

[SarahBauer]

Used IS2016 for several years on a Win 7 PC. Updated computer to Win10 and IS2019. Reattached all files except Reg file initially (forgot about it) and when testing the install built/compiled in IS2019 it worked. All subsequent tests of these files (and others created under IS2016, but not yet updated to IS2019) the setup.exe won't launch now. Discovered the missed reg file and relinked, re-built and compiled and tried to test install and setup.exe still won't launch.

Uninstalled 2019, reverted back to 2016, tried to test install a setup file that was not touched under IS2019 and setup.exe won't launch.  At this point, not sure if the issue is IS, the Win 10 platform or something else altogether.

Any help would be appreciated.

[sandhu251282]

Case #02143166

We are using four digit product code like x.x.x.x. On changing last digit, it is not overwriting older version as windows installer do not recognize 4th digit. Is there any way or change that we can make in ism file, so that last 4th digit change can overwrite older version? It is important for our product upgrades.

Thanks in advance for help!

[DavidAtMstr]

Case#: 02148909

Edition: InstallShield 2020 Premier IDE

Project type: InstallScript MSI project

Error type: Build time error

Comment: Project worked fine with InstallShield 2015, upgraded to InstallShield 2020 R1, got inconsistent build result, 15 consecutive runs of the build without any changes,  11 error -4092, 3 error -6058, 1 success

[safsmash]

I'm running into errors on my installshield

[safsmash]

Case Number: 02182960

Please see the attachment on the ticket

and the explanation on the ticket.  

why do i  have to repeat the issue here?

[gtassin]

Case #02595460

Upgraded from InstallShield 2015 to InstallShield 2021. The installer created by InstallShield 2021 does not detect that there was a previous version installed (installer created by InstallShield 2015) and instead goes straight to install instead of upgrade. The Upgrade Code and Package Codes are the same between 2015 and 2021, the Product Code has changed (as is necessary), and the Product Version has changed from 4.1.12.9 to 4.2.1.7.

[mazumder]

Case #02633242

Need help regarding  how to include VC Redistributables 2015 with the release MSI. 

Using Install Shield 2022 , need help regarding how to use the SetUp.exe and resolving issues.

Using Basic MSI

[cgentile]

Case #02683183

InstallShield 2022 R1

InstallScript code project

Hi, through installScript code it is possible to determine if the partition where I am going to install is ReFS formatted (Resilient File System)?
Or, given a disk letter, for example D:, how can I tell if the file system is ReFS (Resilient File System)?

[cssb-installer]

case # 02708752

installshield 2022 R1

InstallScript MSI project

Installer custom welcome dialog html control(szTermsAndConditions) set by ctrlsettext() is invisible in some low memory windows 2019 machines(2GB,4GB):


If you use point to that black text and drag, the text will be shown.
We run following code in DLG_INIT case in the dialog message loop:

      SprintfMsiLog("DisplayEULA is running!");
      hFont = GetFont("MS Sans Serif", 9, STYLE_NORMAL);
      //LoadStringFromStringTable("TERMS_AND_CONDITIONS", szTermsAndConditions);
      szTermsAndConditions1 = "[html]<style type=\"text/css\">html,body {padding:0; margin:0; background-color:#F9F9F9} * {font-size: 9pt; font-family: \"MS Sans Serif\";} </style>";
      szTermsAndConditions2 = "I agree to XXX's <a href=\"https://XXX.com/client/ui/redirect.aspx?where=csb-carbterms-en\">terms of service</a> and acknowledge Carbonite's <a href=\"https://XXX.com/client/ui/redirect.aspx?where=csb-privacypolicy-en\">privacy policy</a>.";
      szTermsAndConditions = szTermsAndConditions1 + szTermsAndConditions2;
      SprintfMsiLog("DisplayEULA term text: %s", szTermsAndConditions);
      CtrlSetFont("SdCustomWelcome",hFont,TERMS);
      CtrlSetText("SdCustomWelcome", TERMS, szTermsAndConditions);

Log stopped at

"DisplayEULA is running!"

"DisplayEULA term text: %s" is not shown in log until go to next dialog or close this dialog. But on other working machines logs are same but the text is shown on dialog.
I tried:
1.put the html text in dialog text property,
2.loading text form string table,
3.change font-family to Microsoft Sans Serif
4.Add font-display: swap;
All attempts failed to work.

[harveyb2]

Can you have more than 3 digits in the first section of the product version?

[Revenera_Ian]

Hi @harveyb2,

Thank you for your post.

If you're referring to a Basic MSI project or an InstallScript MSI project, no, you cannot have more than 3 digits in the first field of the product version.

Here is a link to the official Microsoft documentation about the ProductVersion MSI property:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/msi/productversion

The maximum value in the first field of the product version is 255.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!