[wix-users] Weird and unwanted advertising behavior

Benjamin Zuill-Smith bzuillsmith at gmail.com
Wed Aug 24 22:41:30 PDT 2016


I'm on Wix 3.10.3 using Visual Studio 15 with Update 1.

I am adding a merge module from a third party. Clearly it has some issues
because I have to add the following in order for the installer to compile:

<EnsureTable Id="Error"/>
<AdvertiseExecuteSequence>
  <MsiPublishAssemblies></MsiPublishAssemblies>
</AdvertiseExecuteSequence>
<InstallExecuteSequence>
  <MsiUnpublishAssemblies></MsiUnpublishAssemblies>
  <MsiPublishAssemblies></MsiPublishAssemblies>
</InstallExecuteSequence>

I also had to add some other things to InstallExecuteSequence, but I don't
think that matters.

The issue I have is that there are advertise steps that happen when I run
the program. I think the installer pops up and publishes some .NET
assemblies but it's not exactly clear because it doesn't give much info as
it performs the operation. The installer pops up multiple times while using
the program (different assemblies being loaded I think). Is this because I
add that action to the advertise sequence? Without it, Wix says it MUST be
there and errors out. The most odd part here is the merge module I am
adding does not contain anything in it's ModuleAdvtExecuteSequence, so why
would I need that there?

Just to help narrow things down, I checked the log of my installer and it
showed the following for the MsiPublishAssemblies step:

MSI (s) (00:38) [10:44:55:437]: Doing action: MsiPublishAssemblies
MSI (s) (00:38) [10:44:55:437]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText
Action 10:44:55: MsiPublishAssemblies. Publishing assembly information
Action start 10:44:55: MsiPublishAssemblies.
MsiPublishAssemblies: Application Context:Publishing assembly information,
Assembly Name:
Action ended 10:44:55: MsiPublishAssemblies. Return value 1.

It looks to me like no assemblies were published and I expect a couple
dozen or more to be published because they are listed in the merge module
table MsiAssembly and MsiAssemblyName. After running the program and
letting the installer do it's thing, the program seems to work properly.

So finally, my questions:

   1. Can I completely turn off the ability to advertise anything in the
   install process? I don't want anything to be advertised at all.
   2. What can I do to remove these advertising sequence actions?
   3. If I haven't provided enough info, what more do I need to provide and
   what can I do to further diagnose the issue?





Ben Zuill-Smith


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