3 replies to this topic

[elektrobank]

I have been having the same installer problem for several months with almost every client using my software. The full installer runs fine and the software works properly for a while. I distribute hot fixes for my software which are essentially installers which simply overwrite the existing exe for my application as well as add any additional dlls needed for the update I'm doing. I do hot fixes like this because I can't distribute my full installer everytime I want someone to do an update. The hotfix installer only adds new files, it never touches any files that were part of the original installation other than the exe. After a few weeks of using my application the user will suddenly start getting a Windows Installer message when they try to run my program. The installer won't go away unless they keep clicking cancel a ton of times. If they can get past the installer window they can run my program just fine and it will only give them that problem again when they start up the program the next time. I have checked the event log on every computer that has had this problem and it's always something different. Sometimes it has to do with MSDE, other times it has to do with Crystal Reports, but it has happened to almost everyone. The only thing I can do is reinstall the whole program from scratch using the full installer and that solves it.
How can I figure out what the problem is and how to fix it? This has been driving me crazy. I'd like to just disable the auto-repair feature for my installer,but so far have not found a way to do this. Any suggestions?

[Glytzhkof]

There is the DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS=1 setting that can be applied to a setup during installation, this will prevent self-repair starting when launching the application using a shortcut I believe. However, there are many reasons why self-repair may kick in. Some are described here:
http://www.installsi...ifaq/a/1037.htm

In general self-repair can be triggered using advertised shortcuts, file associations, COM servers etc...

[Glytzhkof]

Another common problem is components being installed to the TEMP folder or the USERPROFILE folder. TEMP files are generally deleted at some point, and userprofile files can be hard coded to a specific profile that may not be accessible for the currently logged on user. The result will be a self repair on every application launch.

[Stefan Krueger]

Are you using MSI for the update installers, too? You should use MSI Patches (.msp files) to do the updates.
By simply replacing the EXE with another MSI installer you are breaking MSI rules, which can cause all sorts of problems.