Modify installation fails

[jezcooke]

Hi, we're seeing an issue when a user tries to modify the installation of our product. So far it seems to be 100% reproducible (i.e. it fails every time and is not machine specific).

The error given is:

Source file not found:
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\{CompanyName}\{ProductName}\{ProductVersion}\install\5813C3D\{Filename}.exe. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.

The filename in question is a file that wouldn't have been installed originally but would be required now that the installation parameters have been changed.

The folder referenced in the error message exists and contains a single .msi file named the same as the original setup exe with ".x64.msi" replacing the .exe extension. The file is quite small (1.7 MB) compared to the full setup package installed originally which is about 40 MB.

We are using Advanced Installer Professional 11.8, the package is a mixed 32/64 bit single exe.

Any suggestion as to what would cause this failure?

Many thanks.

[Dan]

Hello,

The folder referenced in the error message exists and contains a single .msi file named the same as the original setup exe with ".x64.msi" replacing the .exe extension. The file is quite small (1.7 MB) compared to the full setup package installed originally which is about 40 MB.

When Windows Installer installs an MSI file, the MSI is stripped of any files it may contains for saving a significant amount of space required by large packages.

Can you please tell us if the bahaviour still persist if you enable the "Do not delete extracted MSI and CAB files" option from "Media -> Configuration tab -> Bootstrapper Options" group?
If Yes, can you please send us the .AIP (project file) to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can investigate it? If it contains confidential information you can send us a small test project which reproduce this behavior.

Best regards,
Dan

[jezcooke]

Can you please tell us if the bahaviour still persist if you enable the "Do not delete extracted MSI and CAB files" option from "Media -> Configuration tab -> Bootstrapper Options" group?
If Yes, can you please send us the .AIP (project file) to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can investigate it? If it contains confidential information you can send us a small test project which reproduce this behavior.

Great, thank you for your help, if I enable the "do not delete..." option it works correctly, it does mean that it leaves about 83 MB of files in that folder but that shouldn't be a major issue for this product.

Is this normal behavior? It just seems that if so then the modify option in add/remove programs would always fail with this option set to default (unticked)?

[codesynergy]

I want to add to this, since I recently came across this issue for patching. It is my understanding that:
- Prior to windows installer 5.0 (prior to Windows 7), the cab file is stripped from the msi when windows caches the MSI to C:\windows\installer.
- This means, on all operating systems before Windows 7, the option "Do not delete the extracted MSI and CAB files" is necessary for modify/patching/repair support.

When selecting "Single EXE setup (resources inside)", you cannot choose the option to include the cab file in the MSI database. This means, on Windows 7 and later, you are still forced to check the "Do not delete the extracted MSI and CAB files", since the cached MSI (C:\windows\installer) will not contain the imbedded cab file. Assuming I understand this correctly, I think the option to embed the cab file in the MSI should be available (feature request) when selecting "Single EXE setup (resources inside)". I believe InstallShield allows this. I think it would be better to have the cached msi (with the cab file) in c:\windows\installer, instead of a separate cached directory.