[wix-users] Bundle: MSI Detects Installed=00:00:00

[Bryan Dam]

I have a bundle with a custom BA that allows the user to, among other things, select if one of the bundle's MSI packages gets installed.

The chain looks something like this:
<Chain>
<ExePackage Id="NetCore3.1" ... />
<RollbackBoundary />
<MsiPackage Id="Server" ... >
<ExePackage Id="RestartIISAppPool" ... />
<MsiPackage Id="Proxy" ... InstallCondition="InstallProxy ~= "True""  />
</Chain>

Everything works just fine except for one scenario: If InstallProxy does not equal true then the Server MSI package doesn't install correctly.  In this case the Server MSI log shows "PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding Installed property. Its value is '00:00:00'" indicating that it's already installed (?). Which doesn't make any sense because this is a fresh OS where none of our tools have ever been installed. It's a VM that I revert for each test.  We have a bunch of logic to make sure we only configure IIS on initial install (ie: NOT Installed).  If InstallProxy is true then the Installed property doesn't exist in the server MSI log and the Server MSI properly runs our IIS configuration and everything works.

The bundle log shows that character-for-character it's calling the Server MSI the exact same way.  The InstallProxy variable has nothing to do with the Server install; it's not a condition or passed to it as a variable.  And yet it impacts it somehow.

This makes no sense to me.  Anyone have any ideas?

        Thanks,
               Bryan