Windows Features

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MortSkil
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:27 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway

Windows Features

Postby MortSkil » Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:55 am

I have created an install using InstallAware Studio X8. The installed application requires .NET 3.5, but as that is available as a Windows Feature, I'd rather enable this feature than embedding the application runtimes in my install.

When I run the installer as an admin, all is good. Features are enabled and the product works fine. In order to enable features, I expect that the installer has to run elevated.

I was hoping that if .NET 3.5 is already enabled when I run the install, installer elevation would not be required. None of the apps installed by the installer require elevation to run, so the optimal situation would be that the user installing the product does not to be member of the Administrators group.

However, when I run without elevation, I get a message claiming that Windows Features could not be installed and that I should install these manually. There is no information about which feature(s) that is missing.

Please correct if my assumption about no elevated requirement does not hold. Also, please tell me if there is any way to detect which features could not be enabled. I tried to pass /l argument to the installer, but the resulting log file did not reveal anything, neither in elevated or normal mode.

Thanks in advance,
Morten

MortSkil
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:27 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway

Re: Windows Features

Postby MortSkil » Tue Sep 25, 2018 2:12 am

Referring to my initial post on this, I rephrase my question:

When installed on a fresh WIn10 image, and without elevation, my install app fails with the message:

I would like to keep the installer small, and not having to embed application runtimes really helps.

Is there a way to identify the failing/missing features?

Regards,
Morten

FrancescoT
Site Admin
Posts: 5360
Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:28 am

Re: Windows Features

Postby FrancescoT » Wed Sep 26, 2018 4:57 am

Dear Morten,

IA X8 includes the Windows Features plugin.

"This plug-in provided command configures Windows Features or Windows Server Roles on the target operating system. Installation is handled directly by the underlying operating system. This plug-in assists with feature dependency selections and displays available features in a manner similar to the built-in Windows applet itself."

So you can easily invoke it from the setup script to programmatically enable ".NET 3.5" on your target machines. NET 3.5 comes pre-installed with Vista or higher OS, so it's not necessary to include any Net 3.5 RTM package with your setup. At any rate, Admin elevation is forcibly required.

Hope this helps you.
Francesco Toscano
InstallAware Software

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MortSkil
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:27 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway

Re: Windows Features

Postby MortSkil » Wed Sep 26, 2018 5:24 am

Dear Francesco,

Thanks a lot for your answer. It does help confirming my understanding of the intention of the feature.

However, I run into strange problems when I try to enable the feature.

First: If I run the installer without elevation, it constantly fails. This is as expected from your answer as well, so I might as well switch on the elevation requirement in my IA project.

On Win7, even if I run as administrator, the same error dialog appears telling that windows features are missing and that I should install these before running the installer again. The dialog does not indicate which features are missing.

I reverted my IA project to include runtimes and skip the windows feature testing. This caused successful installs both for Win7 and Win10, but it does not feel quite right...

A comment: When I open the Windows Features dialog in IA studio, the Win10 checkbox is always checked, even though I checked for Win7, 8 and 8.1 when before I close the dialog.

Is there any recommended combination of app requirements and windows features?

Thanks,
Morten

glenharvy
Posts: 167
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:53 am

Re: Windows Features

Postby glenharvy » Thu Sep 27, 2018 7:19 pm

I found that I had to test for the Windows Version and then configure the "Feature"s required restricted to that version. That was even IIS which is in all versions.
If Win Version Vista then Features[Vista]
If Win Version 7 then Features[Win7]
etc


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