[wix-users] Chained MSI error messages

[Smith.Bradley]

If I have a misconfigured MSI (say the XPath on an util:XmlFile element is incorrect) and I run just the MSI, I get a nice descriptive error that says what I did wrong (Could not find element at path X...) before it rolls back the install and goes to the end screen.

If I now run that MSI as part of a custom BA, I lose this error information. I tried the following in the handler for ExecutePackageComplete:

string errorMessage = new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()).Message;

But that just gave me something about a pipe.

string errorMessage = new Win32Exception(e.Status).Message;

Gives "A fatal error happened" (or something like that).

I would like to have the full descriptive error message so it is easier to debug failures without having to run the MSI by itself. How do I get that error message in my custom BA?


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