I'm getting the same thing. Can someone from Flexera comment on this? ... View more

a) How to get this log name? I tried the MsiLogFileLocation property but it was empty. I've never had a problem with SprintfMsiLog, but then again, i haven't used the InstallScript MSI project type before either. Also, why do you need the log file name? The SprintfMsiLog function takes care of that for you. ... View more

Also, there is a "MajorVersion" and a "MinorVersion" value under that same key. You could just have two system searches assign those values to the properties [IIS_VERSION_MAJOR] and [IIS_VERSION_MINOR]. Then create a a "Set a property" CA to set your internal [IIS_VERSION_STR] property to "[IIS_VERSION_MAJOR].[IIS_VERSION_MINOR]" ... View more

1) I don't know. 2) I haven't seen it built into the product specifically, but you can certainly create a Custom Action that calls "net use..." 3) Yes you can install anywhere you'd like. The user can be presented with a dialog to set the destination folder or can set public directory identifier values on the command line. You could initialize INSTALLDIR to D:\ but it's best to initialize it to a subfolder of a predefined directory. 4) MSIs can't be merged, per se. You can make use of chained MSIs or prerequisites to link several dependent MSIs together. Alternatively, you can implement all of your logic in merge modules (.msm), and then create simple installations (.msi) which consume the merge modules. It all depends on what you really need. ... View more

In my case, (1)I don't really like using VS as an IS editor, (2)Developers don't have licenses for IS, and (3)I don't want to maintain dependency relationships among projects in more than one location; therefore (1) I don't add the .isproj to the solution, (2) i create a .vcxproj for each .ism instead (this is a lazy way to create a custom msbuild script. Just create a new "makefile" project in VS), (3) I add the .vcxproj to my main solution file, and set up project dependencies to enforce the build order. I then duplicate the "Release" configuration in the solution and name it "Release-Package." The difference between these configurations is that Release doesn't build deployments. This way i don't have to maintain the dependency relationships in multiple locations, I just use one solution for the build. Users without IS on their machines can still open the solution, and they'll only get errors if they try to build the "Release-Package" configuration. Also, with .isproj files included, the solution takes longer to open. I tend to just use one configuration and build in the .ism file, and i make everything else about the build generic enough that the build command line doesn't vary by anything but the project name. therefore all of my .vcxproj's have this as a build command line: "$(IS_CMD_BLD)" -v -p "$(ProjectDir).\$(ProjectName).ism" -r "Release" -c COMP -a "Configuration" -o "$(OutDir)MergeModules" -prqpath " \SetupPrerequisites, \..\Prerequisites" I don't know if that'll work for you, but it works for me. Also, I don't remember if I had to create the IS_CMD_BLD environment variable or if it gets created when you install IsCmdBld. ... View more

I eventually figured this one out. After banging my head against the keyboard for a day or so, the key to the solution finally popped out at me from the documentation. ServiceInstall entries are not so much associated with a component, but rather with that component's key file. If you create the component yourself instead of using the wizard, you have to remember to mark a file in that component as the key file, or the InstallServices action won't have anything to key off of. Hopefully, the solution makes a bigger impression in my head than did the keyboard so I don't forget to set a key file for every component from now on. ... View more

Wow... I've never seen a topic on here hot enough that replies roll in while I'm typing. Glad you got it to work. If the settings for your application require COM registration or something then that could certainly have caused the problem, especially if you were testing the simple executable on your local machine, and testing the installation on a QA machine. Good luck. I hope you get to the bottom of it, and if you do, please update teh thread with your findings. ... View more

Is the action scheduled to run sometime after InstallFiles? ... View more

The "other way" to do it would be to duplicate the entire site configuration under two different components, and then condition those components based on VersionNT64. I don't want to duplicate anything for maintenance reasons. That said, the team has decided to take advice from a talk from Richard Campbell entitled "Ten Web Performance Tuning Tricks in 60 Minutes" wherein he recommends using all 32-bit web apps running on a 64bit OS, so that terminated my investigation into this now non-issue. You know in New England we say "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." Sometimes at work I feel like if I run into a technical obstacle, I should just wait for the requirements to change. 😛 That said, if anyone has another solution, please suggest away. Someone down the line might want to ignore Campbell's advice and do this themselves, so the conversation is still valid. ... View more

Are you testing this install on windows Vista or after with UAC turned on? If you are testing on XP, or if UAC is off, and you are a user with administrative privs, then everything will run elevated. I assumed that this is not the case, but I'm trying to consider everything. ... View more

Some of this might be of interest to you if you want to avoid transforms (finite number of instances) and just let the installation run like new every time you launch it. Keep in mind that this solution would require you to come up with your own way to uninstall: Adding and Removing an Application and Leaving No Trace in the Registry What makes a windows service unique is the service name. This is quite literally a namespace issue. If you want your install to be super dynamic, you could write a custom action that modifies the msi at runtime. You would want to maybe create a loop to query the SCM for ServiceName , and when you find a value for n that is not already in use, change the name of the service in the ServiceInstall table to that name, and then continue as normal. That said, on each of these installations, are you installing a new set of files, or is this just to create multiple instances of a service from the exact same set of files? If it is the latter, then I think you're going about it all wrong. Adding instances of the service is something that could more easily be integrated in a GUI provided by your product rather than the installation itself. So I would say, install the product with the initial copy of the service. Write a quick little gui or command line app that creates new copies of the service. I've seen this done inside the service executable itself, calling it with a "--install" argument tells it to find a unique name for itself, and create a new service instance. If this is a .NET service, maybe look into TopShelf. That's what the devs use here. The trick then is to make deleting one service delete all the other ones. I'll leave that up to you. I hope I have given you enough information to solve the problem a couple different ways. Good luck! ... View more

1. Make sure that the service executable is in the component with which the service configuration is associated. 2. (This is the one that caused me to have a forehead/keyboard situation for a day and a half) Make sure that the service executable is the key file for that component. 3. check the logs during uninstall. Is the component being uninstalled? 4. Obviously the file is being removed, so we can skip number 4. 5. If all else fails, paste the sections of the log related to InstallValidate, StopServices, and RemoveServices ... View more

Try it in immediate mode directly after InstallFinalize. ... View more

I guess i was only addressing the "installation overhead" which i took to mean the size of the package. as i don't typically need to modify components once they are created, i don't see much of a maintenance hazard in having the duplicate components, and assumed that a compression algorithm would not store two identical files twice. Mr. Painter, as always, has a terrific idea. I think i need to play around with the DuplicateFile, MoveFile tables. ... View more