Is Advanced Installer taking Customer Issues Serious?

[Zsolt Kollarits]

Dear Advanced Installer Support Team,


Currently we have a large number of open issues with your product. It seems, that the quality of the product is dropping and new features a more favored instead of growing existing features or caring for your customer’s problems. Another obvious proof of this fact is the recent release of Advanced Installer 14.0 on May 7th, which was followed by a special bugfix release to solve important issues just two days later on May 9th. Currently we never consider a dot-zero release of Advanced Installer for productive use, because mostly there are some broken things, making this version unusable for us.


So we decided to gather all our open Advanced Installer issues we have already reported to you (see below). The list is sorted in order of our importance for a potential bug fix.

Issue: Customers are not able to modify the installation and add/remove features due to UAC dialog with red header appears. Programs and Features/Modify Installation is unusable.
Forum Thread: "Single EXE: “Repair” option causes red elevation prompt without Yes button" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 220#p93220)
Waiting since 2017 March

Issue: There is an issue with the reboot mechanism of AI, causing some customers to lose data because of unexpected and unwanted reboots.
Forum Threads:
- "PC is rebooting without any confirmation after an update is installed by Auto Updater"
- "How to detect if reboot is needed by a silent update"
- "Prerequisites either not recognized or reboot is missing" -> Problem 2
Links to forum thread:
- http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 577#p92577
- http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 181#p90181
- http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 444#p93444
Details:
The source problem is the same in the 3 threads: Reboot mechanism of AI must be improved since our customers can lose data because of unexpected reboots. AI should determine (even in silent mode) if a prerequisite or the product itself requires a reboot due to some reasons (e.g. files are in use) and tell the user that a reboot is needed. The users has to confirm the reboot on a confirmation dialog, without confirmation no reboot should happen. Neither suppressing reboots nor rebooting the PC without a confirmation from the user is an acceptable solution here.

Waiting since 2017 Febr

Issue: Our product cannot be installed due to broken Custom Launch Condition in AI 13.6
Forum Thread: "Launch condition is not working after upgrading Advanced Installer from 12.8 to 13.6" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 995#p92995)
Waiting since 2017 March

Issue: After upgrading the product some features are installed but the relevant files are missing.
Forum Thread: "Files missing after installation, but feature is installed" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 075#p86075)
Waiting since 2016 Febr

Issue: Public properties have wrong values, depending if a prerequisite was installed or not (AI 13.6)
Forum Thread: "Properties are modified by the installer if using AI 13.6 (they are working in AI 13.4)" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 184#p93184)
Waiting since 2017 March

Issue: Missing notification at the end of an upgrade using Auto Updater.
Forum Thread: "Auto Updater: Notification is needed at the end of a successful update" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 085#p84085)
Waiting since 2015 Oct

Issue: Skip button is invisible on "Pre-Install Updates" dialog. It becomes visible only if you move the mouse over it.
Forum Thread: "Problems with "Pre-Install Updates" feature" -> Invisible SKIP button (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 958#p92958)
Waiting since 2017 March

Issue: Patch cannot be installed due to missing disk1.cab (file has wrong file name)
Forum Thread: "Patch cannot be installed due to missing disk1.cab" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 834#p90834)
Waiting since 2016 Nov

Issue: Some files remain on hard drive after uninstallation
Forum Thread: "Some files remain on hard drive after uninstallation" (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 126#p82126)
Waiting since 2015 Jun


Maybe there are some issues already fixed in later version, but you forgot to mention it in the version history or forum threads. But the first 4 issues are really important for our customers, we can´t just roll them all the time.

What is your statement to these issues?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Zsolt

[Daniel]

Hello Zsolt,

First of all I want to thank you for your feedback and to apologize for all the inconveniences you faced with due to our application issues. I've forwarded your feedback to the entire Advanced Installer team and even it is not quite a positive feedback we all appreciated it. For sure we will try to allocate more resources to improve and make more robust the current features of our application.

Please check below the resume of your current problems status.

Issue: Customers are not able to modify the installation and add/remove features due to UAC dialog with red header appears. Programs and Features/Modify Installation is unusable.
Forum Thread: "Single EXE: “Repair” option causes red elevation prompt without Yes button" (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33663&p=93220#p93220)
Waiting since 2017 March

We have tried to investigate what would cause this strange issue, but without any luck. Most likely this is due to a Windows 10 UAC prompt issue, because recently we discovered that starting with Windows 10 Creators Update version the issue no more occurs. So, probably Microsoft fixed this in their latest update.

Therefore when running your setup packages on Windows 10 machines you will have to make sure your customers are using the latest Windows 10 update (Creators Update). This way the issue should not occur anymore.

Issue: There is an issue with the reboot mechanism of AI, causing some customers to lose data because of unexpected and unwanted reboots.
Forum Threads:
- "PC is rebooting without any confirmation after an update is installed by Auto Updater"
- "How to detect if reboot is needed by a silent update"
- "Prerequisites either not recognized or reboot is missing" -> Problem 2
Links to forum thread:
- viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33983&p=92577#p92577
- viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33460&p=90181#p90181
- viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34190&p=93444#p93444
Details:
The source problem is the same in the 3 threads: Reboot mechanism of AI must be improved since our customers can lose data because of unexpected reboots. AI should determine (even in silent mode) if a prerequisite or the product itself requires a reboot due to some reasons (e.g. files are in use) and tell the user that a reboot is needed. The users has to confirm the reboot on a confirmation dialog, without confirmation no reboot should happen. Neither suppressing reboots nor rebooting the PC without a confirmation from the user is an acceptable solution here.

Waiting since 2017 Febr

I'm afraid this happens because you silently install the setup packages. During a silent installation Windows Installer automatically reboots the machine (if a reboot is required) after the installation ends. Unfortunately Windows Installer doesn't have support to prevent the silent reboot during a silent installation. You can configure it to either reboot the machine silently or not to reboot it at all, when a reboot is required. To avoid the silent trigger of the machine reboot operation we will have to search for a workaround (if exists) outside of the Windows Installer service area, and for now we cannot say if a workaround could be implemented.

In what regards the rest of the reported tickets, they are still not resolved by now on our side. As soon as we will have a resolution for them we will update the forum thread where a ticket was reported to.

Thank you for your understanding.

All the best,
Daniel

[R.Mueller]

Hi Daniel,

I'm afraid this happens because you silently install the setup packages. During a silent installation Windows Installer automatically reboots the machine (if a reboot is required) after the installation ends. Unfortunately Windows Installer doesn't have support to prevent the silent reboot during a silent installation. You can configure it to either reboot the machine silently or not to reboot it at all, when a reboot is required. To avoid the silent trigger of the machine reboot operation we will have to search for a workaround (if exists) outside of the Windows Installer service area, and for now we cannot say if a workaround could be implemented.

Just to make sure, that you got this questions in the right context: We are using the Advanced Installer Updater to check and install the updated package. For sure, the main installation including the installation of any prerequisites is running silently, but the process is triggered and controlled by your updater. There would be quite easy the option to implement a reboot check only by checking return codes from Microsoft Installer and add an option to it to ask the user before actually rebooting.

Otherweise, what options do we have:

• No restart -> leaves the product in an unusable state due to pending changes for some files
• Unexpected restart -> data loss situation with unsaved changes the user might have with other applications

So, at the end the request does basically not target a Microsoft Installer behavior. The problematic part is the proper handling of the installation after being triggered by the Advanced installer Updater.
Furthermore, if there is no restart required, an optional success message for the user is also needed. Currently the updater window is just vanishing in this case. We covered this also in one of the threads above.

Kind Regards,

Roland

[Daniel]

Hello Roland,

Yes, I was aware that you are using our Updater tool. But as I said the behavior is completely generated by the Windows Installer service. Every setup package installed silently which triggers a reboot after installation will automatically reboot the system silently too.

We will try to find a solution to handle this scenario from our Updater tool.

All the best,
Daniel

[codesynergy]

I may be stepping into a conversation that I don't belong in, but I kind of feel like I should give share my thoughts on this topic.

First, I want to say, I think Advanced Installer is a great product. Other than InstallShield, I believe Advanced Installer is the only viable UI-based alternative for creating complex installations. And, for the most part, I prefer Advanced Installer over InstallShield (that's why I switched). I think it's important to mention the good things AI does over the competition, as it's always nice to hear good things about your product:

1. Advanced Installer can actually create "advanced" installations. AI is a very powerful tool.
2. Good documentation.
3. IMHO, easier to use than InstallShield.
4. AI encourages (and documents) WiX DTF for custom actions. InstallShield - you better use InstallScript, or else.
5. Every post on the AI forums receives a response. And they are quality responses. They will even look at your project file if you send it to them. Have you ever tried getting an answer to your question on the InstallShield forums? Good luck.

Ok, now to the negatives, and why I felt the need to respond to this post...

It seems, that the quality of the product is dropping and new features a more favored instead of growing existing features or caring for your customer’s problems.

I agree with this, and I feel like it's the biggest issue hurting AI. Here are my specific issues:

1. AI seems buggy. I don't mean crashes, glitches, etc. I mean features not working as intended. This is the only piece of production software I've ever had to submit bug reports for, and I've had to submit quite a few. I mean, within a few days of upgrading to AI 13.8, I found two bugs with the Enhanced UI (EUI). Bugs that are preventing me from upgrading to a newer version of AI. Now, to be fair, I've spent more time in AI than most other pieces of software, and I'm doing some pretty complex things in AI. But, still, it's very frustrating.
2. It does appear the focus seems to be on adding new features that look good from a marketing perspective. It's discouraging when you see new features being added (that I'm not sure anyone actually uses), while bugs/feature improvements that have been/requested months/years ago go unresolved. Consider the MinorUpdateTargetRTM feature (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... tch#p78962). This property was implemented in Windows Installer 3.1 (released 2005?), reported to the AI forums in 2008 (and again by me in 2015), and support for this property still hasn't been added. Or how about a user interface for minor upgrades (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... ilit=patch) (I'm not sure if the new EUI addresses this)? Or, handling synchronized folders better (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... =1&t=34365) (which WiX and InstallShield appear to do). Instead, we get a whole major version release (12.X) focused on installer analytics (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/releas ... hancements).

Now, I'm not saying no user requested features are every implemented. I know I've submitted some feature requests in the past that have been implemented (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... ort#p79061). But, it kind of feels like some of these features should have already been in the product. I understand that you can't add every feature that is requested. But, it seems like a lot of obvious features are not being added. If WiX and InstallShield support a feature, it might be a good idea think about adding that feature to AI.


Anyways, I hope my comments don't come off as too negative. My goal is only to provide feedback that will help improve the product. There aren't many options out there for developing complex MSI installers. I'm over InstallShield, and I would really prefer not moving to WiX (I like a working in an actual IDE). So, I really want AI to succeed. But, there comes a point where I will be forced over to the world of command lines and XML (WiX). Honestly, with the recent EUI changes (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... hp?t=34215), I feel like that point might be fairly close.



Thanks.

[Daniel]

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

While it is true that marketing features are important for us (they bring in new revenue without which there would be no Advanced Installer at all), continuously improving and enhancing our existing product is most definitely a top priority. The trick is how to allocate our (always limited) engineering resources between them for each release. It is a delicate balancing act and while we try to do our best, we clearly have room for improvement...

Consider the MinorUpdateTargetRTM feature (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... tch#p78962). This property was implemented in Windows Installer 3.1 (released 2005?), reported to the AI forums in 2008 (and again by me in 2015), and support for this property still hasn't been added. Or how about a user interface for minor upgrades (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... ilit=patch) (I'm not sure if the new EUI addresses this)?

Indeed these features still have a pending status.

Or, handling synchronized folders better (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... =1&t=34365) (which WiX and InstallShield appear to do)

We already have on our todo list such an improvement for sync folders compatibility with patch creation and hopefully it will be available soon. As soon as this improvement will be out we will update your forum thread.

But, there comes a point where I will be forced over to the world of command lines and XML (WiX). Honestly, with the recent EUI changes (http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... hp?t=34215), I feel like that point might be fairly close.

Here we have good news, I hope. Recently our development team decided to bring back the option to disable the EUI feature for EXE setup package. As soon as this option will be available again we will update the above forum thread.

All the best,
Daniel

[codesynergy]

While it is true that marketing features are important for us (they bring in new revenue without which there would be no Advanced Installer at all), continuously improving and enhancing our existing product is most definitely a top priority. The trick is how to allocate our (always limited) engineering resources between them for each release. It is a delicate balancing act and while we try to do our best, we clearly have room for improvement...

I understand. I'm sure this is an issue most companies face, and it certainly is a challenge to find that correct balance between new features and improving/enhancing existing features.

Or, handling synchronized folders better (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34365) (which WiX and InstallShield appear to do)

We already have on our todo list such an improvement for sync folders compatibility with patch creation and hopefully it will be available soon. As soon as this improvement will be out we will update your forum thread.

I'm glad to hear this. I think this is a perfect example of a feature that probably doesn't "sell" the product, but I'm sure a lot of developers will appreciate this.

But, there comes a point where I will be forced over to the world of command lines and XML (WiX). Honestly, with the recent EUI changes (viewtopic.php?t=34215), I feel like that point might be fairly close.

Here we have good news, I hope. Recently our development team decided to give back the option to disable the EUI feature for EXE setup package. As soon as this option will be available again we will update the above forum thread.

This is great news.


Thanks.