Unable to Load plug-in library - Possible corrupt cache?

[MarkElder]

I have a user who is getting this message when his setup starts:

"Unable to load plug-in library. Please rebuild your project and make sure all required plug-ins are installed. Action skipped."

The user successfully ran the install a few days ago. Then because of issues with other software he rolled back to a system restore point. That caused his install of my program to also move back to a previous version. Now when he tries to install the current version of my product he gets this error message.

My best guess is the cached setup source is corrupt but enough of it is there to prevent the install from using the exe that we are running. The install is a single exe file.

This install has run fine on other systems including a clean virtual machine I use to test installs. Where are the "Always Cache Install Sources Option" is selected as part of my project.

The previous version of my program will install and uninstall just fine on his machine. We have tried it multiple times without error, but we can't get the current version to install.

At the beginning of my install I use the a FileBag to read some information that is displayed on the welcome screen. After clicking on OK the welcome screen does appear but without the information that is loaded from that file. I'm assuming that the error message is related to the FileBag plugin not being loaded. I do use other plugins so I have not tried to run the install after the error.

I also tried to run with the logging flag, but the log file was basically an empty xml file.

So is there a way to force the install to run? If I am correct about the cache can I force the install to ignore the cache? Or where is it installed so I can manually delete it?

Thanks,

Mark

[MarkElder]

The post 2 reproducable bugs related to Windows System Restore deals with a similar issue and had the answer I was looking for.

The InstallAware cache files are stored in:
C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\{Revision GUID}\on Vista that is:
c:\\programdata\\{Revision GUID}

I have not yet contacted the client to try and delete this folder to see if my install will then run correctly.

On a side note I am using miabuild with the /r option. I can look at my computer to see what revision code is being used, but short of that is there any way to look at a InstallAware generated exe and see what the revision code is?

[g.s.hosford]

I have encountered the same problem with Windows 7. However it does not have the same file structure. The version on my machine does not have a C:\\Documents and Settings

I've done a search for "{Guid" but cannot find it.

Any suggestions?

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

with Win 7 that should be under the following path for any eventual temporary folder as "miaxxx.tmp":
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Temp

and

c:\programdata\{Revision GUID}
The above path can be obtained by doing a registry search for the UninstallString for InstallAware under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall (x64 platforms)
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall (x86 platforms)

This should be located as: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{PRODUCT_CODE}\UninstallString.

Hope this helps you.

Regards

[g.s.hosford]

Francesco was very helpful and helped me track down the source of the error.
This was the suggestion that resolved the issue:

The step that you can try, it is to verify if inside your Program Data folder exist a possible folder named with a GUID IDENTIFICATION that contains "myahe.exe", "mia.lib" or "mia*.*".

Unfortunately, this GUID IDENTIFICATION is generated randomly and could be as for example; "C:\ProgramData\{E4111F2B-9120-464E-A68B-363A3FC0FFF3}".

So you should investigate under each possible folder that have a guid name or alternatively, do a system search for "mia*.*".

If you are able to localize a possible folder under ""C:\ProgramData", make a backup copy of it before proceeding with its deletion. Doing this you will be able to restore it if something goes wrong.

Many thanks to Francesco for all the assistance in resolving the matter!!

[FrancescoT]

Happy that you solved !!!