5

I'm trying to understand why a MSI file that was previously working perfectly has started failing.

The installer should write to %APPDATA% (which is on a network share), but it seems to fail when writing a cache of the install script to the Microsoft Installer directory also in %APPDATA%.

The log shows an error: Folder is not accessible: \\filesrv\home\mnuttall\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Installer\. However the current user during install definitely has permissions to create files and directories in this location, using eg. Windows Explorer.

MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:783]: Doing action: InstallFinalize
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:783]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action 14:04:53: InstallFinalize. 
Action start 14:04:53: InstallFinalize.
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:786]: Running Script: C:\Windows\Installer\MSI80CB.tmp
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:786]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding UpdateStarted property. Its value is '1'.
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:793]: Note: 1: 2265 2:  3: -2147287035 
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:793]: Machine policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:795]: Note: 1: 2318 2:  
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:800]: Note: 1: 2318 2:  
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:800]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2 
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:801]: Executing op: Header(Signature=1397708873,Version=500,Timestamp=1352102043,LangId=1033,Platform=0,ScriptType=1,ScriptMajorVersion=21,ScriptMinorVersion=4,ScriptAttributes=1)
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:804]: Executing op: ProductInfo(ProductKey={61728B55-2C51-401D-8CAD-791B201DE89A},ProductName=WidgetExcel Add-In,PackageName=WidgetInstaller-2.5.2.0.msi,Language=1033,Version=33882114,Assignment=0,ObsoleteArg=0,ProductIcon=ProductIcon,,PackageCode={C22C0F2F-54F0-491A-BDAE-7197DEC1A0C7},,,InstanceType=0,LUASetting=0,RemoteURTInstalls=0,ProductDeploymentFlags=1)
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:811]: SHELL32::SHGetFolderPath returned: \\filesrv\home\mnuttall\AppData\Roaming
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:814]: SHELL32::SHGetFolderPath returned: \\filesrv\home\mnuttall\AppData\Roaming
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:841]: Folder is not accessible: \\filesrv\home\mnuttall\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Installer\
MSI (s) (78:B8) [14:04:53:841]: Error: Failed to Create AppData Cache Folder
Action ended 14:04:53: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

Interestingly, the installer works as a MsiTrueAdminUser user, however fails with elevation of a regular user to admin (same error as above), and regular user.

I'd be very grateful for any ideas how to fix this - I'm completely stumped.

MarkNS
  • 3,811
  • 2
  • 43
  • 60
  • This looks very unusual. That file share is set up to be your "live user profile"? – Stein Åsmul Apr 23 '20 at 17:20
  • That's correct. I'm the developer of the application that we're trying to install, rather than the windows admin though, so please don't ask for an explanation why it's like this! – MarkNS Apr 24 '20 at 08:52
  • Haven't had the time to look at this. Just some thoughts: per-user deployment and user-profile deployment is a bit difficult with MSI. Files going here are supposed to be user-data and we tend to copy them to each profile on application launch from copies installed per-machine (shared files as opposed to duplicated per user). What application is this? Are these files ALL going to the user profile, or are most files shared and some go in user profile? – Stein Åsmul Apr 26 '20 at 13:21
  • [**MSIX**](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52788482/create-msix-package-manually-without-gui-or-msi-installer) and [**ClickOnce**](https://stackoverflow.com/a/51601083/129130) and similar technologies might be better for user-profile deployment. – Stein Åsmul Apr 26 '20 at 14:14
  • Hi Stein, thanks for the comments. It's an internal corporate application - an Excel add-in to be precise. All the files should go to %APPDATA%, which is on a network drive, together with some registry entries to tell Excel where the add in is. It seems to be just the caching stage which is failing though – MarkNS Apr 28 '20 at 08:08
  • AFAIK Windows Installer, running in the context of current user, switches to `LocalSystem` for certain operations, like setting/checking/changing permissions of `%APPDATA%\Roaming\Microsoft\Installer`. So I doubt it will work smooth with a network share. Worth noting that Windows Installer also fails for same reason if `%APPDATA%` is redirected via a junction - take a look at https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/86127, which has a reasonable explanation of this queer behavior. – AntonK Jul 28 '23 at 12:04

1 Answers1

4

We are experiencing this same issue with a company add-in used for imaging. We are running Windows 10 1809. Uninstalling April's cumulative update KB4549949-x64 resolved the installation issue. In our scenario only desktop users with folder redirection are affected.

I hope this helps. I appreciate you posting your installation log because it help us identify that we aren't the only company experiencing a similar issue in the past few weeks. This helped us narrow down what has changed and pointed us to the cumulative update.

Kevin
  • 41
  • 1