How to prevent "This program might not have installed correctly" messages on Vista

Question

I have a product setup executable that copies some files to the user's hard drive. It's not a typical installer in the normal sense (it doesn't add anything to the Start Menu or Program Files folders).

Each time the setup program is run on Vista, after the exe terminates, Vista produces a task dialog:

• This program might not have installed correctly
• Reinstall using recommended settings
• This program installed correctly

Is there a function I need to call from the exe or registry entry to set, to indicate to the operating system that the program installed correctly (or to at least supress this message)?

Related questions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1069135/this-program-might-not-have-installed-correctly-message-in-windows-7-rc (for Windows 7-specific issues)

Answer 1

You need to add some information into the AppCompat section of the registry.

See this link and look for "How to disable a Program Compatibility Assistant warning".

Also there is apparently a method that involves adding a manifest file to your setup executable to flag it as "Vista-aware".

Answer 2

The first thing you should try is to add a "Vista manifest" with requestedExecutionLevel

If that is not enough (Clicking cancel on uninstall with UAC off etc) you need to use undocumented stuff like setting the image version field in the PE header to 6.0

Answer 3

One of the reasons that this message pops up is when the system thinks you're running an installer but it doesn't find an entry for the application in the add/remove programs list.

I don't know if this is the case for your app, but it's worth checking.