.NET 1.1 pre-requisite crashes on Windows 7

[brianh]

Hi,

As the subject says, we have set up a pre-requisite for .NET 1.1 with the normal microsoft download link.
This works fine in Windows XP but the install crashes in Windows 7.
We have downloaded the dotnetfx.exe to the same machine from the same link manually and it installs fine on Windows 7.

Thanks,

Brian

[brianh]

We have found the cause but not a solution.

It appears that you cannot install .NET 1.1 as a "feature based pre-requisite".
It will only work as a global pre-requisite.

It also appears that global pre-requisites get installed before Package Launch Conditions are checked.
This means that .NET 1.1 (and any other global pre-requisites) will be installed even on systems where our launch conditions fail and nothing should be installed.

Is there a workaround for this bug?

Thanks,

Brian

[mihai.petcu]

Hi Brian,

It also appears that global pre-requisites get installed before Package Launch Conditions are checked. This means that .NET 1.1 (and any other global pre-requisites) will be installed even on systems where our launch conditions fail and nothing should be installed.

You could enable the "Check predefined launch conditions before searching for prerequisites" bootstrapper option but this will have effect only on predefined launch conditions, not custom.

Is there a workaround for this bug?

This is not a bug, but a Windows Installer custom launch condition limitation.

You could try to set the prerequisite as feature based, enable the bootstrapper from the Media page -> Bootstrapper tab and set it with "Require Administrator" execution level.

All the best,
Mihai

[brianh]

You could enable the "Check predefined launch conditions before searching for prerequisites" bootstrapper option but this will have effect only on predefined launch conditions, not custom.

Thanks, we weren't aware of this option - we'll give it a try.

You could try to set the prerequisite as feature based, enable the bootstrapper from the Media page -> Bootstrapper tab and set it with "Require Administrator" execution level.

Any attempt to set the .NET pre-requisite as feature-based resulted in a crash immediately after dotnetfx.exe unpacked its files and before it brings up its own licence agreement dialog. Even with administrator rights enabled in the bootstrapper. We later discovered that the crash was not limited to Windows 7 - our earlier tests on XP were done prior to changing the .NET pre-requisite to be "feature based"

Incidentally - do you know of any way to make the dotnetfx run silently? It is supposed to support the /Q command line argument but setting this had no effect.

Thanks again,

Brian

[mihai.petcu]

Hi Brian,

Incidentally - do you know of any way to make the dotnetfx run silently? It is supposed to support the /Q command line argument but setting this had no effect.

If you already tried to set the msiexec silent command line from this edit dialog with no success, you should contact Microsoft support for the package's command line options.

All the best,
Mihai