You shouldn't prompt from the execute sequence. There are ways of "running" MSI files where there is no user session to respond to the prompt and you would hang your install.
The best way to show a message box from a custom action (and the only supported way if you must do so from the execute sequence) is using the MsiProcessMessage API (or something that wraps it, like WcaProcessMessage or Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.Session.Message). -----Original Message----- From: Lukas Haase [mailto:lukasha...@gmx.at] Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 12:47 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Upgrading from other setup program to WiX/MSI Dear Blair, Am 22.07.2010 01:04, schrieb Blair: > 1. You can build MSIs with WiX that don't require running the setup as > administrator. Nothing that can be done outside of Windows Installer without > elevation requires elevation in Windows Installer to also do. In fact this is exactly what I do NOT want: I need to register a COM component which requires admin privileges. So I have <Property Id="ALLUSERS">1</Property> and <Condition Message="..."> Privileged </Condition> and I am lucky. In fact this is exactly what messed up my previous installations with SetupSpecialist: The old "viewer" did not need registering a COM, so some users installed as admins and systemwide, others not. Finally, SetupSpecialist lets you run the setup as normal user and when registering the COM the there is an error. The setup terminates and the a half installed system is left. In my opinion it is the best and consistent way to install the software just into the system (incl. Shortcuts for all users) > 2. Windows Installer has no built-in support for detecting/removing non-MSI > packages. However, if you know how to find/remove your SetupSpecialist > package (the Uninstall key, perhaps?) then you can detect presence and > automate removal as part of your upgrade (does the old installer allow > "silent" removal?) You may have trouble detecting/removing things installed > by other than the current user, however, but that is due to the nature of > how Windows treats user accounts/profiles, not do to any inherent limitation > in Windows Installer itself. Thank you for the hint. This is what I have done now. As written in a new post ("InstallExecuteSequence completely ignored") I face heavy problems concerning this right now. However, my approach is: <CustomAction Id='CheckingSpecialist' BinaryKey='CheckingSpecialist' DllEntry='CheckSpecialist' /> <CustomAction Id='RefuseInstall' Error='You must uninstall the old one first' /> <InstallExecuteSequence> <Custom Action='CheckingSpecialist' After='LaunchConditions' /> <Custom Action='RefuseInstall' After='CheckingSpecialist'>ABORT = "1"</Custom> </InstallExecuteSequence> <Binary Id='CheckingSpecialist' SourceFile='CheckSpecialist/Release/CheckSpecialist.dll' /> The DLL just opens the registry key in Uninstall and reads out the path to the uninstall program. Then it asks: "You must remove the old first, do you want to?". If the users answers with no, then ABORT = 1 is set. Otherwise, the process uninstall is started with ShellExecuteEx and waited for termination with WaitForSingleObject. Afterwards ABORT = 0 is set. If it fails to open the key (i.e. no old version found) just ABORT = 0 is set. Is this a good idea or did I break some best practices? Regards, Luke ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Sprint What will you do first with EVO, the first 4G phone? Visit sprint.com/first -- http://p.sf.net/sfu/sprint-com-first _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Sprint What will you do first with EVO, the first 4G phone? Visit sprint.com/first -- http://p.sf.net/sfu/sprint-com-first _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
