[wix-users] Weird and unwanted advertising behavior

Sun Aug 28 21:09:15 PDT 2016

Just to wrap this up, I didn't realize CreateFolder was not in the
InstallExecuteSequence. For some reason Wix did not autodetect that from
the merge module for this particular installer project, but it was able to
automatically add it for a simpler installer project. Thus, the component
failed to install (silently), and then when my program ran, those resources
in the folder were trying to be accessed, but the components were missing
and the installer attempted to automatically repair each time one of the
resources was requested. Thanks for letting me externally process using
this email thread :)

Ben Zuill-Smith

On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Benjamin Zuill-Smith <bzuillsmith at gmail.com
> wrote:

> I've figured out I'm getting an error that doesn't show up during install.
> The event viewer shows the error below just after the install completes:
>
> Detection of product '{A5049505-F086-4A0F-B5D0-0C5C506AFEB8}', feature
> 'ProductFeature', component '{421E21EC-A79D-2584-1F99-AFFB51045B8B}'
> failed. The resource 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VectorDraw\Common\images\'
> does not exist.
>
>
> The component it refers to is a component from a merge module that creates
> a folder. After that, there are supposed to be a bunch of images files put
> into that folder. I'm thinking the installer is attempting to repair when
> it doesn't find the resources that should be in that folder when the
> program starts. The perplexing issue now is that I do not get an error in a
> simpler install project with the same merge module, so I'm still not sure
> what's causing the component to fail to install.
>
> The folder is created from a CreateFolder action. What might cause that to
> silently fail during install?
>
> Ben Zuill-Smith
>
> On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 11:14 PM, Benjamin Zuill-Smith <
> bzuillsmith at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Actually I found later in the log, the assemblies ARE published (see
>> below) so I'm not sure how to figure out what is being installed as an
>> advertised component and triggered on application load. Any ideas how to
>> diagnose this?
>>
>> This log seems to show the details of MsiPublishAssemblies (there is more
>> to this, this is just the start of it).
>>
>> MSI (s) (00:38) [10:45:02:972]: Executing op:
>> ActionStart(Name=MsiPublishAssemblies,Description=Publishing assembly
>> information,Template=Application Context:[1], Assembly Name:[2])
>> Action 10:45:02: MsiPublishAssemblies. Publishing assembly information
>> MSI (s) (00:38) [10:45:02:972]: Executing op:
>> AssemblyPublish(Feature=ProductFeature,Component={1CAFFD75-
>> 22D5-A83A-EBA0-19D68B7A76E7}[~]2,AssemblyType=1,,
>> AssemblyName=stdole,Version="7.0.3300.0",Culture="neutral",
>> PublicKeyToken="B03F5F7F11D50A3A",ProcessorArchitecture="MSIL",)
>> MsiPublishAssemblies: Application Context:Global, Assembly
>> Name:stdole,Version="7.0.3300.0",Culture="neutral",PublicKey
>> Token="B03F5F7F11D50A3A",ProcessorArchitecture="MSIL"
>> MSI (s) (00:38) [10:45:02:972]: Note: 1: 1402 2:
>> UNKNOWN\Installer\Assemblies\Global 3: 2
>> MSI (s) (00:38) [10:45:02:972]: Executing op:
>> AssemblyPublish(Feature=ProductFeature,Component={C2DDED36-
>> C8E0-8CCF-B00E-97D23E655B44}[~]2,AssemblyType=3,AppCtx=C:\Program Files
>> (x86)\VectorDraw\Common\vdRegTLB.exe,AssemblyName=vdRegTLB,
>> Version="7.7005.1.1",Culture="neutral",PublicKeyToken="54EAC
>> 14E23C9EE53",ProcessorArchitecture="x86",)
>>
>> Ben Zuill-Smith
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 10:41 PM, Benjamin Zuill-Smith <
>> bzuillsmith at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>
>>
>