Modify and Repair not Working from Control Panel / Software

[casic]

Hi,

when I click on "Change" in Control Panel / Software to modify an installation, the Setup starts correctly. If I select Modify or Repair the installer pops up with a directory dialog to locate the setup. This functionality is NOT WORKING - all attempts failed

If I start the setup manually, the options Modify and Repair works fine.

Using InstallAWARE Studio 2005 Second Edition SP 1 Passion Update 2

cu

Markus

[sinan]

Please read the help file for source resolution...this topic is thoroughly discussed there. The topic in the index is "Patching", while it discusses source resolution for patches, the same conditions apply to modify/repair options from the Control Panel.

[casic]

Source Resolution for Compressed Builds

When the setup runs, it will prompt for the original source media. At this point, the user will need to run the self extracting .EXE file that comprises the compressed build. When this file is running, as part of the setup initialization routine, it will extract its contents to a subfolder of the system temporary folder. The user will have to navigate into the system temporary folder, determine which subfolder contains the setup sources (by trial and error if necessary), and choose that in the source media browser.

Because this is a largely inconvenient way for end-users to apply a patch, Compressed Builds are not recommended as the targets of patches.

against

Maintenance Mode

The maintenance mode setting determines what happens when the user re-runs setup, after having already installed your product on his/her computer. Please note that re-running setup after your product has been installed is identical to choosing your product's Change/Remove button in the Control Panel Add Remove Programs listing.

The user should be able to extend/shrink the current installation by adding/removing components. This works well if the user starts the setup.exe again. By using the button Change from Control Panel this works not (locating a temp-dir after running the setup.exe again is no solution for end users). So, is there a way to detected from which source the setup was started (to disable change/modify if started from Control Panel) or can the Change-button in the Control Panel be deactivated?

Thanx,

Markus

[sinan]

Like it says in the documentation:

If the source media is a CD (uncompressed build), customer can insert CD and change his/her installation.
If the source media is a Web build (compressed with web media blocks), customer needs to do nothing - its automatic.
If source media is Single File build (compressed without web media blocks), then this is the only case in which the "temp" directory needs to be pointed to.

You are definitely right SFX builds are by far the most inconvenient, but you have two other build types you can use equally easily here.

About disabling Change, I believe there was a post about that on the forum - a registry key deletion ought to take care of it.

[stevew]

hello, may i bud in here please because i am trying to learn this too?


Is it then true that with SFX builds the control panel change option will never succeed unless temp extract folder is specified?

[sinan]

Yes that is true.
If you don't want to mess with that prompt just use web builds.
Or just use CD builds if its OK for users to insert CD.

[jimo]

You have a couple of alternatives here, if you want to use an SFX build and use Modify/Repair during install;
1. create a directory under your TARGETDIR that's something like "Setup"
2. use the "Extrat 7Zip Archive" script action, extract you SFX build exe into the setup directory you created .
3. Add a "Write Registry" script action as the last thing that gets performed just before "Apply Install" that modifies HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall\\$TITLE$\\ModifyPath to $TARGETDIR$\\Setup\\AppSetupExecutable.exe (Note: This value may not get updated properly since the installer itselfs creates the key, in that case you will need to use the "Call DLL Function" script action and call the appropriate Win32 API functions after "Apply Install".)
4. Add appropriate "Delete Files" script actions to remove the files/folders under the setup directory during uninstall.

You can also use this methodology for delivering patches for installs that were originally from an SFX build of your application since you know have a known location for the original setup sources.

[stevew]

Sounds like fine ideas to me. Or could you not include the file being looked for as an extra file in the SFX?

Anyway, I am pretty sure there is nothing to be critical of InstallAWARE since this is an SFX / Installer limitation. At least the installation software offers the SFX option for times when it might be useful.

[Gareth Owen]

Oh , This could indeed cause some problems.
Guess I should have done more testing with the Compressed install.

We are needing to ship our software out using the Compressed Single Exe format on a CD, we might struggle as the uncompressed application is over 450MB and we need to ship out a number of additional files, including an admin MSI install.

and with no offence to our customers, if they wish to Modify the installation, They could probably find the original Installation .exe, if pushed, but being able to extract it to a temporary directory and then select that.

Not a chance.

What method would you suggest

Is automatically extracting the .exe a possible feature in the near future.

Is it possible to link a web install to files located on the CD media rather than the Web?

All help greatfully received

[sinan]

This isn't nearly the big issue like it seems. You can just use web builds. If you place the web media block files on the CD right next to the self extracting file, the installer will use them instead and not attempt a web connection. And it will cache the files locally, so users won't even be prompted for sources on repair.

[Gareth Owen]

Found this, it works fine
Except for one thing.

If you then wish to add files from a new module, it tries to go and get the files from the Web, It does not cache Web modules that were not used in the original installation

Any idead, or do I need to put ALL of the files in to a single web package?