COM Server Registration Failures On Windows 7

[sjeslis]

We are still on AI 14.4.2 and haven't modified our installers for a while. I have several Custom Actions to register COM servers:

CIFSBClient_Reg.png (17.54 KiB) Viewed 11007 times

All of a suddenly in the last month or so these COM server registrations are failing on some Windows 7 machines and a Windows 10 machine, e.g.:

MSI (s) (40:FC) [11:47:54:834]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=Register_CIFSBClient.exe.1774B61E_82C4_4E8C_8FBA_A705BBC46365,ActionType=3154,Source=C:\Program Files (x86)\Cicero Inc\CIC\Bin\CIFSBClient.exe,Target=/regserver,)
CustomAction Register_CIFSBClient.exe.1774B61E_82C4_4E8C_8FBA_A705BBC46365 returned actual error code -1073741819 but will be translated to success due to continue marking

P.S. After the install completes (as I don't abort when these CAs fail) I can run:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Cicero Inc\CIC\Bin\CIFSBClient.exe" /regserver

from an Admin command prompt with no issue.

[sjeslis]

No further info then what's above at the moment.

[sjeslis]

The DLL these depend on appears to be registered after the product is installed. That's registered via selfreg.

Almost seems like the deferred CAs aren't picking up the registration.

[sjeslis]

This started happening to us on this merge module with limited changes when we upgraded our AIP from 13.5 to 14.4.2.

[Daniel]

Hello Scott,

I am not so sure why this happens. Please give us some time to test and investigate this scenario and I will get back to you as soon as I have a conclusion.

Thank you for your patience.

All the best,
Daniel

[sjeslis]

As an aside, the COM DLL and EXEs being register all reside within a Merge Module.

[Daniel]

Hello Scott,

We have further tested and investigated this scenario by using AI 14.4.2 but we are unable to replicate any such registration error within a "Launch attached file" custom action.

Can you please send us the .AIPs (project files) of your setup and merge module projects and a verbose log of the failing installation to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can investigate them?

If you cannot share with us your project file, then you can try to isolate the behavior in a buildable sample (.aip + its referenced files) which we can build and test on our side.

All the best,
Daniel

[sjeslis]

Thanks Daniel. We are looking into some things on our end.

[Daniel]

You are welcome Scott.

All the best,
Daniel

[sjeslis]

I am trying AI 15.5.1 :

Bug fixes

Solved issues with the "LaunchFile" custom action when using the options "Hide program's window," "Run under the LocalSystem account with full privileges" or "Wait for custom action to finish before proceeding."


to see if this makes the issue go away. We are using Launch File custom action and what we "think" we are seeing is that they are not running as Administrator.

[Daniel]

Hello Scott,

Indeed in our recent version of Advanced Installer we ran a redesign of our "Launch file" custom action and this generated two Launch file custom action issues which we fixed since AI 15.5 version.

Also, currently if you are using our support to launch your application at the end of the installation, more exactly the "Finish Actions" tab of the [Finish] button from "ExitDialog" on "Dialogs" page, then please keep in mind that our implementation has changed. Now the application is launched without elevation (admin rights) even the whole installation process runs elevated. We changed the implementation this way after getting quite a few requests for this behavior from several of our customers.

In the future we plan to add an option in the "Finish Actions" tab to configure the app being launched at the end of the installation to run as admin or not. For now, the only workaround will be not to use our "Finish Actions" tab and instead call a "LaunchFile" (with the "Run as administrator" flag set in "Custom Actions" page) custom action from an "Execute action" published event added on [Finish] button from "ExitDialog".

EDIT: Starting with our 15.9 version of Advanced Installer, on the ExitDlg there is the option to launch the application with admin privileges, regardless the package has the run as admin flag from the Install Parameters or not.

ExitDlg.PNG (5.62 KiB) Viewed 10048 times

Hope this helped.

All the best,
Daniel

[sjeslis]

Yes my server install uses the Finish Actions tab (doesn't explain why on my 2016 Windows Server VM it appears to work, but not on the 2012 & 2016 Windows Server machines in QA).

This doesn't answer why I'm having a LaunchFile issue with COM Out-Of-Process Registration (e.g. dscserver.exe /regserver) on Windows 7

[sjeslis]

This Windows 7 related issue was detected on 14.4.2 I believe.

[Daniel]

Hello Scott,

I cannot say why the COM registration fails. We would have to further investigate this. For the beginning can you please send us the .AIPs (project files) of your setup and merge module projects and a verbose log of the failing installation to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can investigate them?

Or any small sample which could help us replicate the behavior.

All the best,
Daniel

[sjeslis]

Strangely enough this turned out to be a TFS merge issue with one of our code files.

Thanks!