Unable to install pre-req .NET4 on Windows 7 64bit

[amonteiro3]

My boss has just upgraded his computer to a new laptop, with Windows 7, 64bit.

When we ran our product's installer it popped up the followng message:

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 could not be installed.
Please use Windows Update to manually install this update on your system.
Setup cannot continue.

After scratching my head about this, I realized that I didn't have the 64bit package included with the install. So after some mucking about to get both a 64bit and 32bit .Net4 framework into the installer (our product being a 32 bit program), I now get the following message:

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 (x64) could not be installed.
Please use Windows Update to manually install this update on your system.
Setup cannot continue.


So I upgraded from InstallAware9, to InstallAware9 R2 and yesterday to InstallAware10. Same message every time.

Has anyone had this happen before? Can someone give me some reasons why the framework could not be installed automatically? Anything I can do to trouble shoot this? Or should I give up and tell my boss to just use the Windows Update in this case.

Thanks,
Andy

[giaviv]

Dear Andy,

Could you possibly send your project over to support at installaware.com?

[amonteiro3]

Sure, no worries. what do you want? the output? the InstallAware project directory?

[giaviv]

The InstallAware project dir (including the MPR, MIA and DFM files). Thanks

[amonteiro3]

On its way.

[giaviv]

Dear amonteiro3,

Your project installs .NET 4 x64 just fine for me. Here is my guess on why this is not working for you - have you use the Run button to test this or the Debug?

P.s. - a small tip: since you checked whether you are running in a 64bit Windows and put the result in the variable ISWINDOWS64BIT, you don't need to do this again in the checknet4_xXX script - just read that variable's value.

[amonteiro3]

It was the output from the build, on a different machine.

Thanks for trying. I'll try on a virtual machine next week (I need to find time to set one up) as well.

Cheers,
Andy

[giaviv]

Sure Andy. Most likely there is something wrong with that specific machine. Good luck!

[amonteiro3]

Hmm. Not good news to report. I created a Virtual Machine with Windows 7 64 bit. I installed all the security updates to date, and then tried to install my installer.

I'm getting the same message as previously reported.

I tried running it from the command line with a log file enabled, but the log file only reports back:

<InstallAware>
<SupportDir>
</SupportDir>
<SetupSplash>
<StubSize>
</StubSize>
<StubData>
</StubData>
<GlobalLists>
</GlobalLists>
<ExtractArchive>
</ExtractArchive>
<ResourcePath>
</ResourcePath>
<Dialogs>
</Dialogs>
</SetupSplash>
<RunScript>
<Variables>
</Variables>
<CompileScript>
</CompileScript>
<BootStrap>
</BootStrap>
<myah>
</myah>
<ExitScript>
</ExitScript>
</RunScript>
<Free>
</Free>
<CachedSupportDir>
</CachedSupportDir>
</InstallAware>

It does appear to start installing and be doing something, but eventually pops up with that message.

Any thoughts on what else I can do to help debug this problem?

Thanks,
Andy

[giaviv]

Dear Andy,

Did you try installing .NET 4 on that machine without InstallAware? Does that succeed?

[amonteiro3]

Not yet, but installing .Net 4 on the other two machines in the office that have had similar problems has allowed the installer to skip past the pre-req stage and install the application.

My boss is just unhappy with having to have customers find, download and install the .Net package as an external step.

Cheers,
Andy

[giaviv]

Dear Andy,

I sincerely apologize, but it is hard for me to help you because I am unable to reproduce this myself (I have tried on three different machines).

[amonteiro3]

No worries. We'll solve it eventually.

Here's a question I thought of last night: what other pre-reqs do I need to have to install the .NET4 package? Do I need a specific version of the MSI installer as well?

Do you have an FTP site? I could send you the virtual box setup I have, along with the installer, so you can have something that duplicates the problem.

Thanks,
Andy

[giaviv]

Dear Andy,

Unfortunately we don't have an FTP server.
The requirements for .NET 4 can be seen in the Program Files\InstallAware\InstallAware 10\runtimes\Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (x64).rtm file - specifically, it is Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1.

[giaviv]

Dear Andy,

Here is what I suggest you do:
1) Go to the following folder on your development machine: c:\Program Files\InstallAware\InstallAware 10\runtimes\net40bin_x64.
This folder contains the binaries of the .NET setup that InstallAware is trying to install.
2) Copy the content of this folder to your virtual machine.
3) Run Setup.exe and see if you are successful at installing it. My guess is that your system is missing a requirement for .NET 4, and by running the setup GUI, it should tell you what's wrong.

I have a hunch that this has to do with insufficient disk space / RAM.