6 replies to this topic

[the_force]

Hi,

I have the next problem:

I have developed a complete installer that uses some custom actions. This custom actions are functions of a DLL I have created. The DLL is included in the Binary Table (so my custom actions are Custom Action Type 1).

When I was developing it all worked fine (included Custom Actions). But now, I am testing my installer in other Windows versions and in other machines and it has come a kind of nightmare.

I am using Windows 2000, but in other computers using the same OS I get an error message: "There is a problem with this package. A DLL needed by this installation to complete could not be run. Please contact..." (or something like that). I have used log files to know that the error code for taht message is 1723. This error is very poorly documented and I can't find any (usefule) reference on Internet.

I have founded that the installer works properly on systems that have .NET Framework installed and fails on systems without it. But the problem is that I can't force my customers to download 23 MB of .NET Framework only to install the program.

I don't know what to do and I need to solve this problem soon. If anyone could tell me anything to end this nightmare I will be been thankful.

Thanks for reading this (it's a large explanation for a large problem, i think).


The_Force

[Stefan Krueger]

make sure your DLL doesn't depend on the .NET framework or any updates it installs.

[philipbm]

Hi, Stefan.

I received the same error 1723 on Win98 and not on other OSes.

I traced the problem to a DLL, included in the Binary table, which, when extracted on Win98, had a missing dependency on Shell32.dll's SHGetFolderPathA export. This DLL should rather have called SHFolder.dll's SHGetFolderPathA function, because that is universally present on all OSes.

My problem is now to find out whether this is an Installshield DLL or not and where to get a version (or total install) that is compatible with Win98. I don't have the DLL's name, but it exports the following 3 functions, as indicated in the attached bitmap: SetRootRegKey, DetectOldRelease and CleanUpOldRelease.

Any ideas as to whether this is an Installshield DLL or not, since the setup is actually a compressed Installshield Basic MSI setup.

Any help will be appreciated. I already read most of this forum for help, to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

Philip

[philipbm]

Sorry, the bitmap somehow got lost. :-)

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[Stefan Krueger]

You could extract the DLL from Binary table to a file, and then look at it's version info.

[Glytzhkof]

Why are you using .tmp as a file extension?

[philipbm]

Thanks for the reply.

I did extract the DLL, but it doesn't have any version info.

Glytzhkof, the .tmp extension and filename is given by the Windows Installer Engine when it extracts the files from the Binary table to the temp folder.

I have in the mean time figured out that the DLL is probably the software vendor's DLL and not Installshield's, because the custom actions that calls the DLL have conditions that were clearly added by the software vendor.

I'll now try to recreate this install without the DLL, while waiting for a possible new install package from the software vendor.

Cheers.

Philip