Installed fonts require reboot - Win10

[GlenT]

Noticed recently that our installed bitmap font file now requires a reboot (in Win10) before it becomes usable by our application. AI is set to register the font. This seems to be a change in Win10 behaviour.

Installers generated by AI 12.1 also require a Win10 reboot. When the installed font is examined in Explorer, Win10 says that it is "not a valid font". But it is OK once the Win10 is rebooted. Did MS change something recently with fonts in Win10?

[GlenT]

Adding to my previous question, does Win10 now require some new kind of font registration process or procedure that AI is not executing properly? Or is it simply mandatory to have to reboot the machine after installation of a font under current Windows 10?

[Daniel]

Hello,

I'm not sure why this happens. From what Microsoft says after installation the font file should be available to applications even before reboot (unless you are using a terminal server).

As a workaround, in order to avoid this situation you can set the "Reboot behavior" field, from "Install Parameters" page, to "Force Reboot after install".

All the best,
Daniel

[GlenT]

As a workaround, in order to avoid this situation you can set the "Reboot behavior" field, from "Install Parameters" page, to "Force Reboot after install".

That is my fall-back position, but I am reluctant to do this unless it is really necessary. I guess I could make the reboot conditional on a Win10 install?

[Daniel]

Hello Glen,

Yes, you can conditionally trigger the reboot. Our "Restart the machine after the installation" user guide article exposes an example of how this can be done. You should just set the "REBOOT" property to "Force" when the "VersionNT" property is equal with 1000.

All the best,
Daniel

[GlenT]

Yes, you can conditionally trigger the reboot. Our "Restart the machine after the installation" user guide article exposes an example of how this can be done. You should just set the "REBOOT" property to "Force" when the "VersionNT" property is equal with 1000.
Daniel

Hmm... didn't really see the example on that page. I'm not sure that it is possible to do with the Professional version? That is, I can see that I can filter for the Windows version, but I'm unclear about how to set up a conditional reboot without the code editing features of the Enterprise version.

[Daniel]

Hello Glen,

You should be able to achieve what you need using a "Professional" project type too. For instance, you can use a "Set installer property" custom action to set the "REBOOT" property to the desired value.

All the best,
Daniel

[GlenT]

You should be able to achieve what you need using a "Professional" project type too. For instance, you can use a "Set installer property" custom action to set the "REBOOT" property to the desired value.

Selecting a reboot condition for a specific OS is a two-click item in InstallShield Express...

[Daniel]

Hello Glen,

Thank you for your feedback. Maybe we'll consider such an improvement in a future version of Advanced Installer, thank you for your suggestion.

All the best,
Daniel

[GlenT]

Can someone please give me a hand with this? What I am looking for is a custom action that looks something like this:

IF (VersionNT = 1000 AND MsiNTProductType = 1) THEN (REBOOT = TRUE)

That is, if the target OS is Windows 10 (32bit or 64bit), then request a reboot upon successful completion of the installation. I'm trying to do this with the Professional version of AI.

[Daniel]

Hello Glen,

To achieve what you want you can use a "Set installer property" custom action like this:

• Property: REBOOT
  Value: Force
  Condition: VersionNT = 1000 AND MsiNTProductType = 1

Please take a look on our "Restart the machine after the installation" article which may be useful for your scenario.

All the best,
Daniel

[GlenT]

Hello Glen,

To achieve what you want you can use a "Set installer property" custom action like this:

• Property: REBOOT
  Value: Force
  Condition: VersionNT = 1000 AND MsiNTProductType = 1

Please take a look on our "Restart the machine after the installation" article which may be useful for your scenario.

Daniel, I am completely confused about what is, and is not, allowed in our version of AI (Professional). Please note the following from the article that you have referenced:

The following article uses options that are available starting with the Enterprise edition and project type.

I have tried various combinations of the three parameters that you have quoted, and AI keeps telling me that the syntax is incorrect or that the function is not available. Please confirm that this can be done using the Professional version of AI.

[Daniel]

Hello Glen,

I apologize for my incomplete reply. You should use only the "Custom Actions" page to set the REBOOT property.

Yes, you should be able to achieve this using a Professional project type too. Just go to "Custom Actions" page and add a "Set installer property" custom action with sequence configured like this:

• Property: REBOOT
  Value: Force
  Condition: VersionNT = 1000 AND MsiNTProductType = 1

Let me know if it worked for you too.

All the best,
Daniel

[GlenT]

I will try again and let you know how it works out.

In the meantime, one of my co-workers made an observation about our font installation that I had not noticed before. We are using the AI environment variable that points to the Windows FONTS folder. What my co-worker noticed is that following the successful installation of our software on Windows 10, when he browses to the FONTS folder, our font appears with a Windows shortcut overlay on the icon.

Does this indicate that AI is actually not installing the font to the correct location in Windows 10? Is it going to a virtualized or deprecated location that Windows 10 then corrects after a reboot? We are using the AI option to register the font, but perhaps the procedure is not correct for Windows 10?

Ultimately, I would prefer to not have to require our Win10 customers to reboot at all after installing our software, just like it is under all other versions of Windows.

[GlenT]

My version of the Custom Action (see pic attached) did not work. I tried moving the SetProperty to after the Finish Execution stage, but that did not help. I'm not sure that the FORCE action exists in AI Pro.
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AIForceRebootAction1.png (53.48 KiB) Viewed 30866 times