Prerequisite being incorrectly marked as "found"

[zarquon5]

I have been trying for a week without success to get one of my prerequisites to install when building the installer with A.I. 22.9. No matter what I do, when I run the installer, the log says:

MSI (c) (D4:1C) [15:30:09:436]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding AI_FOUND_PREREQS property. Its value is 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable'.

Even though the prerequisite is not installed.

I have tried:
- setting up a condition, !(if registry key exists HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{9A25302D-30C0-39D9-BD6F-21E6EC160475})
- always installing the prerequisite without a condition
- installing before and during the Main package (after won't work, as I need this to be installed before my custom actions run)

none of these methods work - in each case, the installer decides that it's already installed and doesn't run the prerequisite's installer.

I searched the forum for another post about prerequisites not being installed, and found one where the user set up a custom action to run his prerequisite installer using that mechanism. I tried this too, but then I got the dreaded 1618 error return from the vcredist_x86.exe, because you apparently can't run it from within an msi while it's executing.

In that post, Caitlin asked for a minimal example; I've attached a stripped down .aip script that hopefully can help track the problem down. (I can't attach the redistributable .exe because it exceeds the 1Mb limit for your attachments.)

[Catalin]

Hello,

First of all, please accept my apologies for the delayed reply - it's holiday season and we are a bit behind on schedule on support due to colleagues being away.

I see that you are trying to install quite an older version of VC++ Redistributable.

Screenshot_51.png (4.3 KiB) Viewed 688 times

As we can see, it has only the 32-bit OSs selected.

Are you running on a 32-bit OS? Chances are that you are not.

Which means the prerequisite will not be installed, no matter the condition.

That being said, could you please try to also check the 64-bit versions and let me know if that helps?

Best regards,
Catalin

[zarquon5]

Hello Caitlin,

We are, in fact intentionally picking the 32-bit prerequisite, as we are compiling and running as a 32-bit application because our software compilation currently relies on a software library that is only 32-bit compatible.

That being said, I did eventually find the Predefined Prerequisites section of the UI; (the only way I found them was by clicking on "Packages" tree item above "Main Package"). However, when I select the desired tree element, (Visual C++ 2008 SP1 x86 (MFC Security Update), what I get presented with a popup that says

AI-prereq-popup.png (47.79 KiB) Viewed 684 times

This raises a few questions:

1. I initially clicked yes, but did not then find the downloaded file in the same folder as my script; does this action happen immediately, at installer build time, or at install time?
2. Is this being downloaded from Microsoft or Advanced Installer's site?
3. If I clicked No here, then what happens?
4. How would I select my own copy of the redistributable executable as the target?

(These are not merely academic questions; some of the installation sites will not have internet access, and so I need to ensure the installer to be self-contained, and would preferably not want to risk having that downloadable package go away at some point in the future, and so would prefer to have control here.)

[zarquon5]

Answers to my own questions:

1. It turns out that happens immediately, but puts them in a subfolder called Prerequisites, which I missed on my first check.
2. (I don't know, but I will trust that this isn't going away soon, but is hopefully less problematic, given (4) )
3. I think that "No" means "do the download at install time", (which we don't want.)
4. I was able to copy the downloaded prerequisite redistributable to overwrite my existing (older?) copy, and then point the "file from disk" option to that copy. (This was necessary to make the installer not think the install had failed after it tried to run the installer.)

(Please confirm on points 2 and 3.)

[Catalin]

Hello,

Thank you for your followup on this!

Please allow me to answer your questions below:

It turns out that happens immediately, but puts them in a subfolder called Prerequisites, which I missed on my first check.
(I don't know, but I will trust that this isn't going away soon, but is hopefully less problematic, given (4) )

The download folder of the prerequisites is defined in the "Prerequisites" page --> "Packages" --> "Global Prerequisites Options"

Screenshot_52.png (3.35 KiB) Viewed 669 times

I think that "No" means "do the download at install time", (which we don't want.)

This is indeed correct - if you select No, the prerequisite will not be downloaded and embedded into your main installer, but rather added as a web based prerequisite and handled at install time.

If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will gladly help.

Best regards,
Catalin

[zarquon5]

[deleted misdiagnosis of subsequent problem]

[Catalin]

Hello,

If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to let us know and we will gladly assist.

Best regards,
Catalin