How to use the Repair feature

[blue]

I am trying to make the Repair function to work and I'm having problems.

Here's what happens:

I open Add/Remove programs then select our software then click Change then click Next then Click Repair then click the Repair button on the bottom I eventually get this message: "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package 'package.msi' in the box below".

Can you please let me know what can I do to save "package.msi" somewhere on the hard drive at installation time so that the Repair feature to find it?

Thanks,
Joe

[ciprian]

Hi Joe,

The problem you are encountering resides in the fact that Windows Installer doesn't have access to the MSI source file during the repair process. It's place has probably been modified.

When you are prompted with the error message, the displayed dialog has a field that contains the path to the MSI file (the folder from where the installation was installed). If that path had been modified in the period between the installation and the repair process please browse to the new network location of the MSI.

A suggestion would be to download the MSI file your computer. Install the application using the downloaded MSI and do not change it's place on your drive afterwards. The repair process should work.

All the best,
Ciprian

[hpxjeff]

After doing a search in the Forum I see that a number of people have had a problem with something that is now troubling me.

I need to distribute software via Web & CD. For the web distribution a single compressed Setup.exe is desired, whereas for CDrom bulk or multiple files is not a factor.

The single file Setup.exe version places a decompressed MSI in %temp% and installs from there. This causes a problem if the user then wishes to use the Repair feature, as the msi is no longer available. (network resource unavailable error)

Trying the repair feature on some other software that i have installed on my machine, I see that it works because the installer has placed a copy of the MSI in the WINNT directory.

Is there a way that I can set up Advanced Installer to put a copy of the MSI on the users PC, such that any attempts to repair it work without the above error?

Maybe this would be a good tick a box to add as it seems quite a few people ask about the same thing. In the meantime is there a way of defining that this occur using the current version of A.I.?

Thanks
Jeff, Melb. Aus

[Mike]

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for your suggestion. We already have on our ToDo list the possibility to specify a place for the MSI to be extracted. It will be present in a future release.

In the meantime, in order to perform a repair you have two possibilities:

1. Run the EXE again
2. Use the /extract option when running the EXE. For more information on this please visit:

http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-g ... -file.html

This will extract the MSI at the location you have designated. Then you can use this MSI when trying to do a repair.

I am afraid that for the moment these are the only possibilities.

Regards,
Mihai

[Hop]

Since you've almost certainly implemented MSI caching in the 12 years since this topic opened, please provide a link to that documentation.

[Catalin]

Hello,

For more information about this, you can have a look on the following article:

https://www.advancedinstaller.com/user- ... n-tab.html

"Extract location" and "Do not delete extracted MSI and CAB files" option.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Catalin