InstallAware

Target System: Server 2008 R2
IA Version: X6 (9 R2)

I have a problem on a customer's machine where the Quick Launch directory (QUICKLAUNCHDIR) comes up blank. Customer has a machine that works and another machine that does not work. So far we cannot figure out what is different between the two. The result of the error is that Windows Installer chokes with error 2343 (Specified path is empty). I know it's the quick launch folder because the log file shows the variable QUICKLAUNCHDIR is empty.

My understanding is that the Quick Launch path should be: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

There are other paths based on AppData\Roaming\Microsoft that work fine. One Example:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

Questions:
How does InstallAware obtain the Quick Launch directory path? Knowing this might help me figure out why it's blank.
How can that path come up empty while the start menu path is not?

Thanks.

Dear Craig,

just for test purpose, you may use a "MessageBox" to display the effective value of the "QUICKLAUNCHDIR" variable at setup runtime.
At least this will tell you if the failure is effectively caused by the Empty QUICKLAUNCHDIR.

At any rate, IA uses internally standard WINAPI as "SHGetKnownFolderPath".

Uf the problem is replicable exclusively with a specific machine, this may be due a corruption of the target system.
"Known Folder Paths" are generally stored under the System Registry.

Hope this helps you.

Regards