Is there any way in InstallShield to show the prerequisites which is being redistributed along with the setup.exe are already installed on the target system, like the image below, which shows what is pending on the target system. What if I want to show that this is already installed?
There's nothing in the UI that shows this. You can run setup.exe /debuglog and read through it to figure out what was skipped:
Q105473: INFO: Setup.exe Command Line Parameters
FWIW, I get in the habit of also implementing the check in the MSI ( AppSearch / LaunchConditions tables ). This way if the setup.exe is bypassed and the MSI directly invoked you'll still make sure to not get into a bad state of missing prereqs. If this is too much work for you, you can use the SETUPEXEDIR property to enforce that the MSI was launched by setup.exe.
Related
I use silent installation for msi product using command line. When the installation finishes, there is an information wizard dialog appearing. My problem is why does that dialog appear even though I used silent installation command. The silent installation in my case handles only the next button prompts. Is there someway to also handle the last information dialog that appears after installation. the command I used for this is (msiexec /i Product.msi /qn )
If you ran the msi with /qn and still saw a dialog appear then the UI isn't coming from MSI it's coming from a custom action. It is a violation of best practices to author UI to appear in a silent installation but odds are the person who wrote the MSI doesn't know that and didn't test the silent install.
The only thing you can do is examine the MSI using ORCA and create a transform to eliminate the custom action. I can't tell you exactly how to do that because I would need to look at the exact MSI to know what needs to be changed.
Our installer has a setup.exe file which internally contains the Msi.
Once installed, the option to repair is available from the programs and features right click context menu.
However when repair is selected, a dialog is shown which gives the option to browse for the msi.
Since the msi is nested in setup.exe, and since the installer was not able to find any appropriate msi in appdata, this has rendered the repair functionality all but useless.
Is it possible to change the installer, so that it can repair from setup.exe?
You have three main options, depending on which scenarios you want to support:
Just double-click the setup.exe, and if the msi is already installed it will run in maintenance mode. You can select to repair it from there. This is good for a one-time scenario.
Run setup.exe with the /a argument, which creates an administrative installation point for the install. This can just be a folder on your desktop, or anywhere you like. This is also good for a one-time scenario, and should be compatible with launching repair from Programs and Features.
Configure your installation to cache the .msi package by using the setting in the Releases view. This should enable all maintenance scenarios for everyone, at the ongoing cost of some hard drive space.
For reference, I am using InstallShield 2015 and the project is a Basic MSI.
I know the uninstaller is created automatically, what I do not like about it is how I'm always shown the "Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?" warning.
Is there a way to sign the uninstaller the same way I do with the program itself so that users don't need to see this warning?
Assuming Basic MSI and Windows 7, I don't know why you'd get this message.
In Windows NT/2K/XP/Vista, MSI stripped the storage out of an MSI and stored it in c:\windows\installer. This was for space considerations and it would resolve the full MSI if content was needed.
In Vista they added UAC and the complaint was uninstall would say unknown publisher because stripping the storage invalidated the cert.
In Windows 7 and beyond they cache the full MSI. So this shouldn't be an issue. A further examination of your environment and uninstall log file would be required to give a better answer.
I am very new to Installshield 2010. I have created a basic MSI setup for my application.
I need to check a few prerequisites for my application those are as below.
Microsoft frame work 3.5 with SP1.
Sql Express 2005.
Visual C++ redistributable
If any of the above things are not installed before means, I have to install while installing my application.
Can anyone guide me How I can install all these prerequisites before I installing my application?
Take a look at "Setup Prerequisites" and "Feature Prerequistes" They are the same except that the former are installed by setupe.exe before calling your MSI and the latter are installed by setup.exe (conditionally) after your feature selection and prior to the execution of the execute sequence in your msi.
If you go for the former, you probably also want to author AppSearch/System Search and Launch Conditions to block your MSI in case the user doesn't enter through the setup.exe.
InstallShield has predefined prereqs ( .PRQ's ) for each of those although I will caution you to atleast use SQL 2005 SP3 as there is a nasty bug in SP2 that can blue screen an XP machine. I'd actually really consider going with SQL 2008 R2.
Also found more info here in this page: http://kb.flexerasoftware.com/doc/Helpnet/InstallShield2011/IHelpSetPrereqCustom.htm
This one took me quite a while to find, hopefully I'll save you some time.
If you just want to force your user to have some applications installed (e.g. 'Visual C++ redistributable') or some specific configuration (e.g. specific Windows version/ reg value etc.)
You can use 'Behavior and Logic -> System Search' add the search for what you need (file/folders/registry entries/ini files values/XML file values),
On "What do you want to do with the value?" dialog select Store the values in the property and use the property in an Install Condition".
This will cause the Search to be executed when your installation package starts and will display an error popup to the user saying what ever message you've entered for the condition.
Few notes:
- If you're looking for a x64bit registry entry - mark the "Search the 64-bit portion of the Registry" check box.
- Did not find a way to edit the Condition once created, when tried to edit it it just lets me see and change the search parameters, but for the condition it only allows to enter it from scratch; as a workaround you can save the project as XML file (Installation Information -> General Information -> Project File Format) and edit the XML externally.
Good luck.
I have a setup which has been created using InstallScript MSI project type. This problem is encountered by our client and he wants a quick solution.
Let's assume I have initiated the installation from a path like
C:\Setup_V_1.0.0931.1
Inside this folder I have Setup.exe through which I will install the product. After installation or after some days pass I will change the path to:
C:\New\Setup_V_1.0.0931.1
and this time I want to modify the setup. Actually we are supporting 3 features: Server, Client and Service.
This time I want only Client and not Server. So I will click on the Setup.exe or click on Uninstallation Icon in the Startup Menu which will lead to Maintenance Mode there you have an option to Modify, Repair or Remove. I choose Modify and select the feature, but as the installation progresses, this error message will pop up:
Setup could not find a file on the specified path or Disk. Please check
that the proper disk is inserted or specify a new path. Unable to
locate file c:\New\Setup_V_1.0.0931.1\setup.msi
Then, another popup will be shown saying:
Error: 1706. No Valid Source could be found for product. The Windows
Installer cannot continue.
The next error message is:
Error: 1603. Fatal error during installation. Consult Windows Installer
Help (Msi.chm) or MSDN for more information.
But if I change the path to its original location, it works fine.
How can I solve this?
I event checked in this registry path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\{Product-Key}
This key contains a lot of information inside InstallProperties. There is a key called InstallSource and its value is C:\Setup_V_1.0.3909.1\. Even after changing this value installshiled is still showing errors.
I found the same registry information for Uninstallation Information:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{Product-Key}
In your properties change ReinstallMode (or maybe Reinstall I forget which) from omus to vomus
the v means cache your install, so it will put your .msi file in c:\windows\installer so it can be used later.
When installing a MSI, Windows Installer saves the original MSI path in registry (the InstallSource entry you mentioned). When running the MSI in maintenance mode, Windows Installer will use this path to find the installation data (CAB files).
When you move the MSI, the path stored in registry is no longer valid, so Windows Installer cannot find the installation data.
A possible solution is to use "Add or Remove Programs" or "Programs and Features" in Control Panel to modify the installation. This way the cached MSI is used.