When you say "I already have Windows Installer 4.5 listed as a bootstrapper file", then you aren't using WIX. Are you building an "old" visual studio style setup project? Are you using InstallShield LE? None of the behavior you are describing is related to Wix, but rather this other 3rd party bootstrapper. Burn does not replace a MSI, it supplements them by allowing for one seamless user experience while invoking multiple MSI/EXE based installers.
A MSI cannot invoke another MSI or EXE to perform another Windows Installer transaction. If you attempt to do such a thing, it's called a concurrent installation which is considered unsupported and in general "bad juju". If you have a prerequisite, then the "right" way to handle it is make an installation check for it and have the MSI fail if it doesn't exist. Example: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi";> <Fragment> <Condition Message="This application requires Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5. Please install Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 then run this installer again."> <![CDATA[Installed OR SQLCE35]]> </Condition> <Property Id="SQLCE35" Secure="yes"> <RegistrySearch Id="SQLCE35Reg" Root="HKLM" Key="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\ENU" Name="DesktopRuntimeVersion" Type="raw" /> </Property> </Fragment> </Wix> And then reference the property in your Product.wxs. In your case, if the installation package is of a higher version >= 4.5 and they have an old version of Windows Installer, I don't think windows installer would even load it up and allow it to run. The next step is to use Burn, which came to a production release in Wix 3.6. Burn allows you to handle all the prerequisites in an external "bootstrap". You wouldn't need to update WIX on your MSI build machine, just on a machine for building the bundle. With burn, you can detect and conditionally install all the prerequisites for your application before it finally invokes your MSI. Currently the UX/BA provided with the toolset are fairly basic and are designed to not have the MSI display any UI. If you need a more complex installation process (feature selection, configuration, etc) you would have to write your own BA. There is an example of (a Managed BA) as the Wix toolset installer is using burn to install itself. -----Original Message----- From: Jon Carl [mailto:jon.c...@varigence.com] Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 2:22 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How can I stop my MSI install from failing, Thanks for the reply Jacob. I really appreciate it. However, I am not sure if I quite understand how upgrading to burn will help me. I already have Windows Installer 4.5 listed as a bootstrapper file, so how would upgrading to 3.6 help? Also, since I cannot upgrade to 3.6 at the moment, could you suggest an appropriate workaround? Would it work to have a dialog that informs the user they need Windows Installer 4.5 before they can run the installer? Thanks, Jon -----Original Message----- From: "Hoover, Jacob" <jacob.hoo...@greenheck.com> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How can I stop my MSI install from failing, due to its temp files being deleted on a reboot? If you are using Wix 3.0, then you must be using some other 3rd party boot strapper/chainer since burn wasn't a production version until 3.6. The only other option would be that you are attempting concurrent installations which are not supported (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa368010(v=vs.85).aspx). -----Original Message----- From: Jon Carl [mailto:jon.c...@varigence.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 5:26 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] How can I stop my MSI install from failing, due to its temp files being deleted on a reboot? Hello all, I am new to this mail-list thing, so hopefully I am doing this right. I am having trouble installing a program, using a WiX-built installer on a vanilla Windows XP install. WiX 3.0.5419 is being used to author the installer. I cannot update to a newer WiX toolset at this point. I run the WiX authored installer and it needs to install several prerequisites from the internet. It downloads them and places them in a temporary folder located at C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp\VSD2.tmp (yes, that is a folder). It then extracts the real application install file to C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp\7zS1.tmp (yet again, the .tmp is a folder). A vanilla XP image comes with Windows Installer 3.01. The software I am installing needs Windows Installer 4.5 to install correctly. The installer for 4.5 is installed and requires me to reboot. I go ahead and reboot. When the machine comes back up, it continues installing the rest of the prerequisites. After they are done, it says "Unable to locate application file 'setup.msi'." setup.msi is the name of my installer. When I review the log file, I just see the same error. So, I go hunting and what do you know! The 7zS1.tmp folder is gone! the VSD2.tmp folder is still there, but not the 7zS1.tmp. I tried the install again on a vanilla XP image, and confirmed the folder gets deleted after the Windows Installer 4.5 install reboot. My questions is, how should I go about fixing this? Can I make a change to my WiX files, perhaps by controlling where the temporary installation files are stored so they're persisted across a reboot? Thanks, Jon Carl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Got visibility? Most devs has no idea what their production app looks like. 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