Installaware Updates

[wesley]

Hi
2 issues
1) Why can I not access the forum posts about the 14.02\14.03 NX update, yet google seems to be able to index them fine without a login, and why does the application version number displayed in the about box have NO correlation to the installer version number whatsoever, making it difficult to find out which version you have in the first place?
2) Why did the 14.03 update COMPLETELY uninstall 14.01 including all 11GB of runtimes trying to force me to download the whole lot again, when i'm 99% sure 99% of those did not change in the update?

Actually, 3 issues, now that 14.03 is installed,
3) Why does the Download Runtimes button in the Application Runtimes window take you (after redirection) to the Sample Scripts page of the forum?!?!?! Not even a specific post, just the forum topic http://www.installaware.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4 That is really not helpful at all.

As a suggestion to fix issue number 2, allow the user to point the installer to a directory of extracted runtimes, and if any of them REALLY have changed, check the CRC\MD5 or something and let the user know there is an updated version of a particular runtime. Or, even better, don't uninstall things that haven't changed for a minor update.

Its really frustrating when software built to allow a user to do a task seems unable to do that task itself, like Visual Studio crashing because of unhandled exceptions...

I would also REALLY like to be able to access the forum posts for the new versions.

Thanks

Wes

[FrancescoT]

Dear Wes,

Why can I not access the forum posts about the 14.02\14.03 NX update, yet google seems to be able to index them fine without a login, and why does the application version number displayed in the about box have NO correlation to the installer version number whatsoever, making it difficult to find out which version you have in the first place?

the forum posts which you refer were just announcements and not the effective link to downloadable packages.
The last update package is available, as always, from our download page.
The NX update version can be verified by checking the InstallAware NX setup package version (14.03.201 for IA NX 14.03).
Installaware about box should display 9.5.12 for NX 14.03.

Why did the 14.03 update COMPLETELY uninstall 14.01 including all 11GB of runtimes trying to force me to download the whole lot again, when i'm 99% sure 99% of those did not change in the update?

Microsoft Report Viewer 2012 runtime (including its pre-requisite runtime Microsoft System CLR Types for SQL Server 2012 runtimes) have been added with update 14.02. If you want, you can just regenerate and reinstall your license if you don't want your runtimes to be updated.

Why does the Download Runtimes button in the Application Runtimes window take you (after redirection) to the Sample Scripts page of the forum?!?!?! Not even a specific post, just the forum topic viewforum.php?f=4 That is really not helpful at all.

Because available runtimes that are not part of official InstallAware distribution are there (if any). It can't be a specific post ... but the Sample Scripts forum index page.

Anyway, everything can be improved and we do our best.

Regards

[wesley]

Hi Francesco
As always, thanks for the fast response, monitoring these forums is definetly one thing you guys do well

the forum posts which you refer were just announcements and not the effective link to downloadable packages.

Yes, I did see those, which is fine if I can't access them, but there was also this one which is supposed to contain the list of changes in 14.03, found via searching the forum and I would have liked to read before downloading it, however, I got an access denied message.

Title: InstallAware • View topic - List of Bug Fixes in InstallAware 14.03 (74)
http://www.installaware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8813
Error message: You are not authorised to read this forum.

I am curious about the version numbers still, how release version 14.01 shows 8.19.12 in the about dialog, and 14.03 shows 9.5.12, as that looks like a major release if you only see the version numbers in installaware.
Also, it doesn't seem to be easy to get the version number from the installer, because if you use the automatic update, the installer looks like it gets deleted afterwards. I went through task manager and found the process before it terminated, and checked the version number of the installer while it was executing though.
Another way to get the listed version number I just found is from the Programs and Features list in Windows, it actually shows the 14.0.3.2012 version nuumber.

If you want, you can just regenerate and reinstall your license if you don't want your runtimes to be updated.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean if I had just installed a 14.03 licence on my existing 14.01 installation that the runtimes would have remained and the Installaware version would be updated to 14.03?

Because available runtimes that are not part of official InstallAware distribution are there (if any). It can't be a specific post ... but the Sample Scripts forum index page.

I guess I was kind of expecting that since you have the web install which effectively downloads and installs individual runtimes already (latest version only I guess), that the "Download Runtime" button would either run the installer again and allow you to modify the installed runtimes that way, or just pop up a list of available (and compatible with installaware version?) runtimes that could be downloaded.

Thanks

Wes

[FrancescoT]

Dear Wes,

As always, thanks for the fast response, monitoring these forums is definetly one thing you guys do well

I really hope that's not the only one!

You receive that error because the link has been removed ... that' the only reason.

Please follow this link for the InstallAware NX bug fixes:
http://www.installaware.com/blog/

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean if I had just installed a 14.03 licence on my existing 14.01 installation that the runtimes would have remained and the Installaware version would be updated to 14.03?

That's exactly what I meant. In this case just the InstallAware application is updated.

I guess I was kind of expecting that since you have the web install which effectively downloads and installs individual runtimes already (latest version only I guess), that the "Download Runtime" button would either run the installer again and allow you to modify the installed runtimes that way, or just pop up a list of available (and compatible with installaware version?) runtimes that could be downloaded.

Actually, this works as I said previously. Generally official InstallAware runtimes distrubution when available, are distributed as application update and that's the reason why, it is quite difficult to have these (... actually) differently.

Of course, everything can be improved or be done better.
We try to do our best.

Regards

[wesley]

Hi again

I really hope that's not the only one!

No its not, but this is one you do much better than some other companies I've had to interact with.

Thanks for that link, I'll bookmark that one, thats exactly what I was after.

That's exactly what I meant. In this case just the InstallAware application is updated.

Oh, ok, that explains a lot. I didn't know that the licence actually contains the updated application. Thanks.

You guys are doing a great job keeping the software up-to-date

Thanks

Wes

[FrancescoT]

Thanks!

[wesley]

Hi again

Just having another issue with Installaware updates, where i get a large number of error dialogs pop up on the screen every time the installaware scheduled update runs, stating "Not enough timers available".
Its nothing catastrophic, but it does get a little bit annoying having to close 30+ dialogs every time I come back to the PC after the scheduled check has run.
Do you already know about this, and is this going to be fixed?

Thanks
Wes

[FrancescoT]

Dear Wes,

No, I haven't been informed about this possible issue.
I suppose the only problem will be to replicate it ... or maybe I'm wrong and you have the answer for me.

By the way, it should be stopped just choosing to not check for updates, am I wrong?

Regards.

[wesley]

Hi Francesco

Yeah, replicating it may be an issue, but my PC seems to be able to do it reliably. I assume its just an OS resources limitation, and installaware just happens to be the only application that displays an error when this resource limitation occurs, it just does it repeatedly. The only repro steps I could suggest are
1) Run Windows 7 Pro\Business\Ultimate
2) Run 1+ instances of Visual Studio 2012\2010 (sometimes I have 4 running, barely)
3) Run MS Outlook with at least a few thousand emails in there
4) Run internet explorer with 20-30 tabs open
5) Work on the PC in this state for 1-2 weeks (i.e. no shutdowns\restarts\sleeps), with installaware updates on a schedule

Basically, nothing worth the time and effort if the error message can't be tracked down in the source...
Yes, not checking for updates should prevent the issue, but its not really fixing the issue:)
There is also a guy who has encountered the same thing, and posted the same error message on Twitter, so I know I am not the only one to have encountered it so far.

While on the topic of Installaware updates, I have encountered an issue that should be easier to reproduce if its a bug.
I thought I'd try to install a one of our software apps on a clean windows 8 virtual machine. The installer has no Application Runtimes embedded, or any othe prereq's (other than previous version uninstall).
I downloaded the installer from our internal web server and installed it fine (forced to run as admin to successfully install, Windows 7 installs without run as admin), then I ran the update shortcut (while the application was running), and the next time i started the app it was the original version. So I restarted the OS, but it remained the same version. Clicking the update shortcut notified me that the app was up-to-date. I uninstalled, and repeated the above steps, except that I ran the update shortcut when the app was NOT running this time. Same result. Second click on update shortcut notifies me that the application is up-to-date. So I uninstall again, reinstall the original version, select the Update schortcut then select Run as Administrator in the Windows 8 options bar, and it works...

So, the issue appears to be that running the update on windows 8 without being an administrator registers the version update for the installaware updater, even if the update fails, and also does not inform the user of the failure.
A Windows 7 VM on the same hardware managed to update without having to right click on the shortcut and select run as admin.
In the installaware project. I do not have Admin Priveledges selected, nor Vista User Account Control Elevation, and I have selected Never Elevate for Requested Elevation Level.

I haven't had much time to play with it, but it seems weird for the installer to have different behaviour between the two operating systems (though that probably caused by MS permissions changes), but I think if the installation fails, the updater should not register the update version as the latest version and make it appear that the app is up-to-date, when no changes were made at all due to insufficient permissions. Showing an error message to the user with insufficient permissions as the main install does would be nice too.
Is there any chance if getting this fixed?

Thanks

Wes

EDIT: The update is a full install in its own right, not created using the patches feature. It contains a few updated files, plus a few new ones, and some minor changes to some debugging code in the main script.

[FrancescoT]

Many thanks.

I will try to see if I am able to reproduce it.

Regards

[rasmusw]

Hi again
Just having another issue with Installaware updates, where i get a large number of error dialogs pop up on the screen every time the installaware scheduled update runs, stating "Not enough timers available".
Its nothing catastrophic, but it does get a little bit annoying having to close 30+ dialogs every time I come back to the PC after the scheduled check has run.
Do you already know about this, and is this going to be fixed?

I just want to say that I have the same problem. When I logged on to my PC this morning, I had those 30+ dialogs as well. On Windows 8, with VS 2010, Delphi, Outlook, Word, Wireshark, SQL 2008 R2 management tools, and some others open. About a week since last reboot.

[RobertSchubert]

I've had this happen multiple times and it's getting irritating. This time after clicking 'OK' to the messagebox for 'Not enough timers available' I was able to get back to the updates window (attached 'Pic1.png' file) and then clicked the "Download" button which presented the message in attached file 'Pic2.png'. Hope this helps fix your problem.

[RobertSchubert]

Here's the second picture (it didn't get submitted in my last post).

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

we are working on it to find a feasible way to reproduce this possible issue.

Unfortunately, we haven't found a way to do it.
If you have any useful information that could share with us, please contact me at; support@installaware.com

Regards

[glenharvy]

Any update on this as one of my users has now reported it to me...

I have a screen capture but it's the similar to the others already uploaded.