Why does Windows Installer display a popup for each user at first login?

Question

I have an MSI that I created using a Windows Installer project in Visual Studio 2008.

It installs COM dlls, that were built using VB6 and just packages them up on the build server.

We install it on several servers using an admin account. When other administrators log onto the server and launch a program from the package, we get a dialog box that remains on screen for several minutes.

It says "Please wait while Windows configures Our Application".

I ran SysInternals ProcMon to see what it was doing and msiexec.exe is hitting every file in (dll, exe, data) in the installation.

What is is doing and how do I stop this behaviour? Some of our accounts are non-interactive and this is causing issues because we cannot see the dialog box when running as a service!

Answer 1

We had this problem, it was solved by removing the Advertise property in the shortcuts that are created in the installation process.

That might be your issue...

Answer 2

Why are you still using the Windows Installer built-in with VS? The last time I used that tool was in 2004.

They downright suck and I am saying that cause the other words wouldn't be rated well on SO.

Since 2004 I've been using a quaint but efficient app called Innosetup which can do so much and so well! If you are worried about getting .Net Framework up to action, here's how to work with .net on innosetup.

If you need help with it, let me know.

Answer 3

I have been wrestling with this same issue for quite a while myself. Someone suggested to me that your program executable and any dll's that are being referenced must be installed to the same folder. The exe will look for the assemblies in it's root folder or any subfolders. I tried making this change (put them in the same folder) but it didn't help for me. Give it a try though...