wix, managed code custom action may fail when temp folder is compressed

msi installer was created by WiX 3.5. VM with Windows Server 2003 SP1 32 bit, Windows Installer 4.5, .Net 3.5 SP1.

It had a c# custom action named Managed_PutFeatureState. That custom action was failing with not many clues in the log (see below). Added logging to c# code, added try\catch constructs to prevent any possible failures and it still was failing. Noticed that it fails maybe 80% of times which was even more annoying.

I thought that it had something to do with files it creates in %TEMP% folder, by some reason I suspected that it either couldn't unpack or couldn't find an unpacked .dll file with the custom action itself.

Ran ProcMon.exe from sysinternals to see what is going on on the disk. And it stopped failing when ProcMon was capturing the events!

This started me thinking about disk i\o. Played with various virtualization settings, host i\o enabled\disabled, etc to no joy. Still it was failing.

Solution: disable "compressed" attribute on %TEMP% folder!

ran via command line with logging like this:

msiexec /l*vx! install.log /i MySetup.msi 

The log:

MSI (c) (50:54) [13:02:15:952]: Doing action: Managed_PutFeatureState
Action 13:02:15: Managed_PutFeatureState.
Action start 13:02:15: Managed_PutFeatureState.
MSI (c) (50:54) [13:02:16:046]: Creating MSIHANDLE (5) of type 790542 for thread 3924
MSI (c) (50:E8) [13:02:16:046]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\MSI9.tmp, Entrypoint: PutFeatureState
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:108]: Creating MSIHANDLE (6) of type 790531 for thread 4080
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:124]: Closing MSIHANDLE (6) of type 790531 for thread 4080
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:186]: Creating MSIHANDLE (7) of type 790531 for thread 4080
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:186]: Closing MSIHANDLE (7) of type 790531 for thread 4080
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:327]: Creating MSIHANDLE (8) of type 790531 for thread 4080
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:343]: Closing MSIHANDLE (8) of type 790531 for thread 4080
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:374]: Note: 1: 2727 2:
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:389]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: MsiAssembly
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:389]: Note: 1: 2228 2:  3: MsiAssembly 4:  SELECT `MsiAssembly`.`Attributes`, `MsiAssembly`.`File_Application`, `MsiAssembly`.`File_Manifest`,  `Component`.`KeyPath` FROM `MsiAssembly`, `Component` WHERE  `MsiAssembly`.`Component_` = `Component`.`Component` AND `MsiAssembly`.`Component_` = ?
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:389]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.4 3: 2
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:405]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: _RemoveFilePath
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:405]: Note: 1: 2727 2:
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:514]: Note: 1: 2727 2:
MSI (c) (50!F0) [13:02:16:546]: Note: 1: 2727 2:
MSI (c) (50:E8) [13:02:16:577]: Closing MSIHANDLE (5) of type 790542 for thread 3924
Action ended 13:02:16: Managed_PutFeatureState. Return value 3.
DEBUG: Error 2896:  Executing action Managed_PutFeatureState failed.
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2896. The arguments are: Managed_PutFeatureState, ,
Action ended 13:02:16: WelcomeDlg. Return value 3.
MSI (c) (50:58) [13:02:16:608]: Doing action: FatalError
Action 13:02:16: FatalError.
Action start 13:02:16: FatalError.
Action 13:02:16: FatalError. Dialog created
Action ended 13:02:17: FatalError. Return value 2.
Action ended 13:02:17: INSTALL. Return value 3.
MSI (c) (50:58) [13:02:17:686]: Destroying RemoteAPI object.
MSI (c) (50:9C) [13:02:17:686]: Custom Action Manager thread ending.

tools or utilities to edit Windows Installer msi files

• Orca - part of Windows Installer SDK. Free
• SuperOrca - from Pantaray Research. Free. Allows viewing \ editing binary tables along with other features not present in Orca.
• InstEd - Free version. With InstEd Plus - Commercial version.

WiX, Maximum recommended length of Tooltip attribute is 50 characters

When building an installer with WiX (Windows Installer XML) 3.5, you may encounter the following warning:


warning LGHT1076: ICE03: String overflow (greater than length permitted in column); Table: Control, Column: Help, Key(s): ....


This is because the Control@Tooltip value is too long. It stops giving out when the length is 50 characters or less.

Interesting fact that even with the warning, with string longer than 50, it still adds it to installer and uses the tooltip in UI.

WiX, Troubleshooting "Verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services" error message

When running an installer created by using WiX (Windows Installer XML), you may sometimes get the following error: Service 'Service Display Name' (ServiceName) could not be installed. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services.

This error message, like many other in WiX is totally misleading - it is not about YOUR privileges, it is about how service account is resolved

The WiX ServiceInstall element is used to install Windows services. Its Account attribute should contain the name of the windows account that this windows service is supposed to run under.

This windows user name must be fully qualified - either as a domain or as machine name. This is true even for local accounts.

The solution is to set Account attribute like this:  <ServiceInstall ... Account=".\MyWindowsUser" .... />

Not like this: <ServiceInstall .... Account="MyWindowsUser" .... />