InstallAware

After installing InstallAware 2012 Studio full for evaluation on a XP machine, Visual Studio 2010 SP1 doesn't start anymore. The message is "Unknown error".

Tried repairing, uninstalling, re-installed VS2010, nothing worked. Tried uninstalling IA and re-install VS2010, no change.
The re-install for VS2010 included also re-install of .Net Framework 4.0.

Also during VS2010 re-install, the same message "Unknown error" keeps showing (behind, the installer tries to run devenv with different parameters).

Running VS2010 as devenv /log generates the following error (just put the lines around the error):

Copying from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to PkgDefManagement
Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0
Recalculated pkgdef configuration root
Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0_Config_4284
Initializing non-volatile pkgdef cache
Copying from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to PkgDefManagement
Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0
ERROR Error or timeout while initializing non-volatile pkgdef cache
PkgDefManagement startup complete

My guess is that the error is generated by the IA package for Visual Studio, as the VS2010 worked perfectly before the IA install.
Also, most of probably is an error in the registry, as:
- the VS2010 was re-installed completely; also .NET 4
- the error in the log seems to be related to initializing packages from registry (see the link below on packages
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/ar ... s2010.aspx )

Please advice asap related to this, as we are currently in the process of evaluating the product as our tool for creating installers.

Hi,

Please try removing IA and VS, and then installing IA first without the VS plugin, and then VS.

I apologize for Aviv's misleading reply here. We fully support VS 2010 SP1 used in conjunction with InstallAware and it works here on our local systems perfectly.

There's nothing implicating the InstallAware add-in in the snippet you have pasted. However, it may be an incompatibility between another third party add-in and ours. Can you let us know which other add-ins you have installed?

We will do our best to reproduce and fix this issue for you. Thank you!

Just for quick info: re-installing IA without the VS add-in didn't solve the issues. While installing VS2010 again, the 'Unknown error' start popping again.

I cannot use VS2010 to see the add-ins as it doesn't start, but I took a look in VS2005 and VS2008.

VS2005: .NET Reflector
VS2005: ANTS memory profiler 5 Add-in
VS2005: ANTS Profiler 5 Add-in
VS2005, VS2008: Redgate Licensing Add-in
VS2005, VS2008: VM Debugger

Redgate products and VMware Workstation 7.1 were installed some time ago, then VS2010+SP1, then InstallAware.

Thanks a lot for the quick answer, I appreciate a lot !!

Hi,

Which edition of VS are you using?

I have installed VS2010 Premium + SP1.

.NET Reflector seems to be the culprit here.

I had the same problems with both, VS 2010 and VS2012.

After un-installing the .NET Reflector plugin the problem was gone. I tried to re-install the Reflector and it was there again.