Repair Project Prompting For \"Browse For Folder\"

[H4nd0]

Hi Michael,

I will stop posting one day ... lol!

Anyway ... install projects works fine.

Go to Add/Remove.
Click Change

I've got two options:

Repair Application
Uninstall

Uninstall works fine but Repair keeps prompting with "Browse For Folder" - "Please locate your original setup sources to continue operation".

What have I broken now!

[MichaelNesmith]

You naturally need to provide access to your setup source files. That is what this prompt is for. You can use the web build type to locally cache setup sources, eliminating this prompt.

[H4nd0]

I don't understand!

Web resources? There are no web resources. It's just an EXE. This is what the user sees when they try and repair the install.

Hence:

- user d/l EXE
- user install EXE
- user repair EXE

Then installer wants a folder where "something" is ... what is "something"?

[MichaelNesmith]

I understand what you said. Please read the help file to learn more about the various build types. That will help you see what I mean by web builds.

[mberterm]

When speaking of the Windows Installer (MSI) engine, the prompt for valid source media, also seen as 'error 1706,' is one of the more frustrating limitations of the MSI version 2 (and while improved behaviour is seen with 3.x, it is still an issue). Although the behaviour is most often seen when with patches and minor upgrades, it is not unusual to see it when 'repairing' as well.

There are several resources which would offer further information on this topic:

Preventing a Patch from Requiring Access to the Original Installation Source -
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us ... source.asp

These topics from the MSI FAQ page linked below
+ How can I prevent my patch from requiring the source?
+ When will patches require the original source?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/co ... si_faq.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2 ... i_faq.mspx

How to Apply a Patch Without Source -
http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/updates.htm

FIX: Windows Installer Must Have Original Source Files When You Apply a Patch -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... US;Q268800

"Error 1706" error message when you use a feature that is set to Installed on First Use -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... US;Q258847

PRB: Error 1706 "No Valid Source Could Be Found" When Installing MSI File from Removable Media -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;299803

You receive the "Error 1706" error message when you try to start Money -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;873279

Managing Installation Sources -
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us ... ources.asp

How to programmatically update the source list for an installed Windows Installer package -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297168/EN-US/


To help prevent this message you can utilize these features of MSI and the installer:
+ for 'web' media types or a compressed build, cache the installation package
+ do not build a release with a single executable file (instead build an uncompressed release)
+ patch whole files instead of only the parts that have changed (the so-called binary update)
+ generate file hash values
+ condition the ResolveSource standard MSI action to not execute during the patch process
+ use the Feature setting of "Favor Local"



Assuming that the request is being made to install a file from the original package the possible causes could be that:

1) The file size is wrong in the MSI package (as seen in MsiFileHash)
... - In the case of a file size of 0, zero, it might help to remove and then readd the files to the project to populate the field with the correct value
2) The file version uses companion files
3) The file that exists on the target machine has been updated. For non-versioned files this could mean that the application stored some user data in a text file.
4) The file has an incorrect version in the file table.


Generating a verbose log (msiexec /i <path>\\myinstall.msi /l*v c:\\mylog.log) of the installation process is the best way of narrowing down the issue.

[MichaelNesmith]

The solution is actually pretty simple with InstallAware. You just use web builds, which always locally cache their sources. This means you will never get this prompt. And if you use web builds with a single offline block, you essentially have a monolithic build that is identical to a single file build, except for automatic source resolution. This is also well-covered in the patching documentation in the help files - web builds eliminate source prompts when applying patches.

For uncompressed builds, the original CD/DVD/folder where the MSI file was launched from is needed. For compressed builds, you need to start the self extractor, and then point to the temporary folder (not a lot of fun).

InstallAware already makes it very easy for you to get all this done without rocket science - and this is all covered in the help files, hence my referral to the help. Please read the help - it does contain all this information, and more.