InstallAware

Hello,

In my installer, I need to enable one of the Windows features, namely "Windows Message Queues (MSMQ) Server". To do this, I use the Windows Features command, select the OS and select the feature for each. For Windows 10 22H2, for example:


I get the FAILURE result for this command and the result of the configuration operation is IMAGEFILE_OUT_OF_RANGE. Could you please help me understand what is wrong so I can fix it?

Btw, it is highly desirable for me to be able to enable the feature during installation even when "offline".

Another problem is related to selecting features in the Windows Features command dialog. I would appreciate an answer on this as well. In InstallAware, selecting the root element selects all child features, and unselecting all child features unselects the parent. How can I mark the "Windows Message Queues (MSMQ) Server" root element only?

Best regards,
Kostya

Hello,

Could someone please help with this? This Windows Feature is really important for the app I'm installing to work and it would be a problem to move forward if it can't be enabled. I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
Kostya

Oh wow, old post!

Can you please delete the Windows Feature command from your script first? I believe we completely upgraded and redesigned the plug-in since you last wrote - and while the process is meant to be as seamless as possible during upgrades, I have a hunch the problem you're seeing might be one of the exceptions that prove the rule.

Then just add the Windows Feature command right back in, but this time it'll be created from scratch. Select the feature you want again, now with the ability to pick it for each specific operating system and platform architecture that you support. Please let us know if this doesn't solve your problem!

Hello John,

Thanks for your reply! Actually, I wrote the first post on May 19, so it's not really old I should add that for the first time I added the Windows Feature command and am trying it on InstallAware X16. Do you mean that this could be fixed and work on InstallAware X17 without any extra effort?

Btw, could you please also tell me if it became possible to select only the root feature in the tree of the plugin, without selecting at least one child element? I couldn't do this in X16.

Thanks,
Kostya

Oh you're right - I totally misread!

I believe you can try to deselect children after selecting the root, but it may subsequently end up deselected at the root, based on the branch you're working on.

Sure, please give it a go with X17 - as we regularly update the Windows Feature Definitions - and let us know if your problem remains!

It'd be great to have these details if it's still not working:

- Exact command used (pasted, or with a minimum project attached)
- Exact operating system target and bitness (ex: Windows 10 21H2 ARM64)
- Whether the feature can be enabled successfully directly via Windows itself

I tried to play with your command above as pasted, and when I choose the MSMQ on another Windows version (ex: 21H2), it also ends up selecting IIS - which I note is deselected on your sample command.

That might also break things, if you're deselecting a dependency that is normally required to enable the feature. Just an FYI!

John, your advice to try the latest version really helped. I tried it for one current Windows version (22H2), the command returned SUCCESS and I got what I chose in the plugin feature selection tree. Therefore, the decision was made to start using InstallAware X17. Thanks!

Yes, I really try to select only the "Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) Server Core" (not the root element as I originally wrote, sorry). Accordingly, it does not require installing IIS, for example. This can be done perfectly well in the similar Windows dialog, please take a look:

However, the Windows Features plugin does not allow this, requiring at least one child element selected. Is it possible to change this behavior somehow? Or at least ask for this feature to be implemented in future versions?

Thanks,
Kostya

I will see what I can do, thanks!

BTW playing around with this a little more, I see that IIS can be deselected (and when you attempt to do so, it advises you of the MSMQ component that depends on it and would thus need to be deselected).

But yes, I see your problem where you cannot only select MSMQ and MSMQ Core to the exclusion of any other children and siblings.

Thank you very much for your help, John!

If it can help, I could describe this oddity in an email to the support service (treating it as a "bug").

I've already internally escalated for you, thanks though!

Thanks much!

John, let me ask you one more thing about Windows Features? I added CheckWindowsFeatures and SetupWindowsFeatures scripts to the project. The Application Requirements form appears even if the feature was previously enabled because the content of the "check script" is always the same:

Can InstallAware check for the presence of the feature in the system to not add it to the prerequisite list again?

Thanks,
Kostya

Just to let you know the team have confirmed that the installation does not happen unless the features are actually missing, so I re-clarified your request to indicate an explicit yes/no answer-only from the plug-in (so as to be able to improve the installation workflow and eliminate a superfluous prereq dialog where unnecessary).

I would really appreciate such an improvement for this plugin, thanks!