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I'm trying to test GPO deployment and came across this issue whereby the multi-language MSI failed to deploy. I have a multi-language Wix project and produced 2 MSIs (English and multi-language). I have two remote VMs with one acting as a server (Windows Server 2012 R2) which will push the GPO policies to the other one acting as a client VM (Windows 10).

Here are some clues:

  • The MSI package is setup under User Configuration > Policies > Software Settings
  • Via GPO, I was able to install English but not the multi-language one.
  • I was able to install both via manual installation.
  • I was only able to install the multi-language one via re-install (Install the multi-language manually then reinstall it via GPO without uninstalling first)
  • In the MSI log (Setup manually via registry with value voicewarmupx) the first 21 lines are similar for the installation of both MSIs via GPO. (view Appendix below)
  • In the MSI log of the multi-language one, at line 22, there is a line that shows MainEngineThread is returning 1605 (view Appendix). The error code indicates that the program is trying to take action on something that is currently not installed but I'm not sure what to make of it.
  • This WIX project contains custom actions so I have set a piece of code to log the session at the earliest possible time (create a Custom Action before FindRelatedProducts under InstallUISequence node) but it didn't appear in the logs so this could mean that the error happens much earlier.

What went wrong?

Appendix

These are the GPO setting that I have setup for both MSIs in the server under User Configuration > Policies > Software Settings. enter image description here

This is the log of the successful one (English)

enter image description here

This is the log of the unsuccessful one (Multi-language)

enter image description here

John Evans Solachuk
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2 Answers2

1

Update 23 June 2021

I forwarded the issue to Wix github page and someone was able to help find out the root cause. You may view their reply here.

You advertised the product {4AC8B148-A051-4CC4-86D4-8D2079A8CF54} and then tried to perform a transaction (I assume to transition it from advertised to installed) on the product {e4bedd32-4df6-475e-aef5-b12a58497a1c} (which doesn't exist on the system).

Basically, when advertising an MSI, any embedded transforms would appear to be ignored for purposes of the identification of the product(s) contained in the MSI file. Yet, when installing, embedded "language transforms" are automatically applied.

If you had installed the MSIs directly, without first advertising them, that may have worked.

The solution would then be either simply having a set productID instead of asterisk (*) OR sync the productID of all multi-language MSI's with the main installer's productID after the multi-language MSIs are generated.

Personally, I went with the second option and I use wirunsql + batch script like this:

REM Get the product ID from the installer that you want to make into a multi-language installer
FOR /F %%a IN ('C:\Windows\System32\cscript.exe .\wirunsql.vbs %RELEASEDIR%\en-US\installer.msi "SELECT Value From Property WHERE Property = 'ProductCode'"') DO ( SET ENUSGUID=%%a&& echo ENUSGUID )

REM Use wrunsql.exe to update the product ID of German language installer
C:\Windows\System32\cscript.exe .\wirunsql.vbs %RELEASEDIR%\de-DE\installer.msi "UPDATE Property SET Value='%ENUSGUID%' WHERE Property='ProductCode'"
...
REM repeat for other installers in other languages
...
REM finally extract the transform files from each installer and inject into the main installer

Old answer

Apparently, GPO deployment works only if the deployed MSI uses either neutral language (LCID = 0) or English language for installation. If not, GPO will choose the lowest Language Code ID (LCID) in your list of LCIDs as the default language for installation. If the chosen LCID's language pack does not exist in the targeted OS, the deployment will fail. I'm not sure how this is related to error code 1605 though.

I'm not sure how to do this in Wix Toolset but it can absolutely be done in an MSI editor such as Orca. Just go to View > Summary Information and add 0 to the list of LCIDs in the Languages field as shown below.

WARNING

Apparently, setting a neutral language in your MSI seems to make Windows Installer launch in English when running it manually. It doesn't follow the region format of the OS.

I

Source: https://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29094&p=76677#p76677

John Evans Solachuk
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  • Nice find. Try the "Languages" attribute under the "Package" element. – Stein Åsmul Mar 30 '21 at 14:10
  • Judging from this there are probably other common problems of a technical nature just like this with GPO and MSI deployment. Maybe there is a list to find somewhere. I don't have one. – Stein Åsmul Mar 30 '21 at 14:19
0

Disclaimer: I don't have the setup to test that this actually works, but please try this:

When you click the "Advanced..." button, please try to select the "Ignore language when deploying this package" option (source):

GPO

Links:

Stein Åsmul
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