[wix-users] System registry key started showing up in our MSI

Fri Dec 3 11:13:19 PST 2021

I don't know that I have an answer for that other than this was how I got it working after moving from Installshield?  I kind of take the approach that the install works so don't touch it except when needed.  Still doesn't explain why this recently started happening, nor why it doesn't happen with every build of the MSI.

And I am sure any real install developer would have a field day with this code as it is really my first and only install development I have done.  It works and we have been using it for years, but I am sure there are better ways of doing many things in this code.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Mensching <rob at firegiant.com> 
Sent: Friday, December 3, 2021 1:58 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>; Dennis Costello <dennis.costello at prudential.com>
Cc: Mike Henseler <m.henseler at simfront.com>
Subject: RE: System registry key started showing up in our MSI

Why not use a WiX built-in CustomAction that handles rollback and won't flash black boxes up on the screen: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwixtoolset.org%2Fdocumentation%2Fmanual%2Fv3%2Fxsd%2Fhttp%2Furlreservation.html&data=04%7C01%7Cdennis.costello%40prudential.com%7C828b00eba13f4c84353e08d9b68ed0fc%7Cd8fde2f5939242608a030ad01f4746e9%7C0%7C0%7C637741547210961183%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=AZmED7wFzYOhdOJC33IJkTP1EbdKigdaNBUaYFI6IUc%3D&reserved=0?

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Mike Henseler via wix-users
Sent: Friday, December 3, 2021 10:53 AM
To: Dennis Costello <dennis.costello at prudential.com>; WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Mike Henseler <m.henseler at simfront.com>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] System registry key started showing up in our MSI

Try running these cmds manually and see if any are deleting the key.
But of course this wont explain why it is intermittent.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Costello <dennis.costello at prudential.com> 
Sent: December 3, 2021 1:47 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Mike Henseler <m.henseler at simfront.com>
Subject: RE: System registry key started showing up in our MSI

Ok, we do have custom actions to run cmd and add 3 ports on install and uninstall the 3 ports.

    <CustomAction Id="AddPort1" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Execute="commit" Impersonate="no" ExeCommand="cmd.exe /c "netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:40266/ user=Everyone"" Return="ignore" />
    <CustomAction Id="AddPort2" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Execute="commit" Impersonate="no" ExeCommand="cmd.exe /c "netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:50266/ user=Everyone"" Return="ignore" />
    <CustomAction Id="AddPort3" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Execute="commit" Impersonate="no" ExeCommand="cmd.exe /c "netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:60266/ user=Everyone"" Return="ignore" />
    <CustomAction Id="DeletePort1" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Execute="commit" Impersonate="no" ExeCommand="cmd.exe /c "netsh http delete urlacl url=http://+:40266/"" Return="ignore" />
    <CustomAction Id="DeletePort2" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Execute="commit" Impersonate="no" ExeCommand="cmd.exe /c "netsh http delete urlacl url=http://+:50266/"" Return="ignore" />
    <CustomAction Id="DeletePort3" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Execute="commit" Impersonate="no" ExeCommand="cmd.exe /c "netsh http delete urlacl url=http://+:60266/"" Return="ignore" />

And then the InstallExecuteSequence:
        <Custom Action="DeletePort1" After="BackupDatabases">REMOVE = "ALL"</Custom>
        <Custom Action="DeletePort2" After="DeletePort1">REMOVE = "ALL"</Custom>
        <Custom Action="DeletePort3" After="DeletePort2">REMOVE = "ALL"</Custom>

This has been part of the code for years and again, that key doesn't show up in every build.  Any idea why it would affect the registry?

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Mike Henseler via wix-users
Sent: Friday, December 3, 2021 1:40 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Mike Henseler <m.henseler at simfront.com>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] System registry key started showing up in our MSI

Also watch for any activity like this cmd " netsh winsock reset" or any other action that may affect that registry without explicitly referring to it

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Rob Mensching via wix-users
Sent: December 3, 2021 1:33 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Rob Mensching <rob at firegiant.com>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] System registry key started showing up in our MSI

A verbose log file will show you what the MSI did and hopefully any Custom Actions in the MSI log their work as well.

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Hoover, Jacob via wix-users
Sent: Friday, December 3, 2021 10:31 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Hoover, Jacob <Jacob.Hoover at greenheck.com>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] System registry key started showing up in our MSI

Any custom actions?  Have you inspected a known bad MSI with orca?

Windows Installer isn't going to nuke a key if it isn't referenced in the authoring, which is why I suspect a CA or you are invoking an exe/script on uninstall that may be causing this behavior.

From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Dennis Costello via wix-users
Sent: Friday, December 3, 2021 12:23 PM
To: wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org
Cc: Dennis Costello <dennis.costello at prudential.com>
Subject: [wix-users] System registry key started showing up in our MSI

We have been using a wix project to build our deployment for several years now and very recently we started experiencing a problem with machines not being able to boot after our system was uninstalled. After several days of investigating it was found that our uninstall was removing the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\WinSock_Registry_Version registry key, thus disabling Windows completely. We do not have any references to this key, nor have we had this problem prior to about 2 weeks ago. We haven't made any code changes to our wix project since early August and that was a very minor change. We build and test our system daily so we know that this just started happening very recently, but here's the kicker for us, it doesn't happen every build! The same compile machine is used for every build, but using Orca I do not see the Registry entry in every msi!

We are at a complete loss as to where to even begin to figure out what is going on. I could say some how the registry key is being picked up from the compile machine, but it doesn't happen every build. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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