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Can't launch or uninstall smart client from user's PC

Howdy folks,

I have a clickonce "smart client" Windows application that normally works properly. It is deployed to 2 different servers (server1, server2). I have installed the application on several machines by navigating to the publish.htm file on one of the servers. All of the client PCs have been running properly and auto-updating when they should....until now.

I have one client PC that is running Windows XP Professional. The only things installed on it are the .NET 2.0 framework, Oracle9i and Office XP. After installing the smart client (via the publish webpage deployed to one of the two servers), it ran fine. I have been using this PC to test-deploy the application. There are no other users, this PC is only for testing so nothing has been installed since the clickonce application.

Something happened last week and the application won't start. When I choose the application via the start menu, nothing happens. When I go to the Control Panel and try to uninstall (change/remove button in teh Add or Remove Programs window), nothing happens. When I open IE and go to the publish.htm page and click "Install", nothing happens. I have even mapped a network drive to the server and clicked on the application's setup.exe. Nothing happens.

There's nothing in the Event Logs, so I don't know where to look or what to do now. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Dan

dtb5571 Monday, December 19, 2005 2:14 PM

Thanks Sreekanth,

I opened the task manager and then attempted to launch the application both from the start menu and from the webpage. In both cases, dfsvc.exe never appeared. I opened the Add/Remove programs window from the control panel and repaired the installation for the .NET 2.0 framework. That did the trick. As soon as it was complete, the application started to work again.

I'm not sure what happened to .NET 2.0 framework though. Soon after finding that this solution fixed the smart client problem, I was told that the non-clickonce version of the same application wouldn't run on one user's box. Repairing the .NET 2.0 framework installation fixed the problem there too.

I'm not sure what is causing the problem...I'm hoping it's not my application but I don't know right now. It works just fine on most boxes. Does anybody know if any of the O/S patches being applied after the .NET 2.0 framework was installed could cause these problems to occur?

Thanks,
Dan

dtb5571 Wednesday, December 21, 2005 5:21 PM

Most of the ClickOnce work happens in a process called dfsvc.exe which automatically comes up when any ClickOnce action is intiated.

On the client you are talking about see if dfsvc.exe comes. (check taskmanger). If not then go the %systemdrive%\windows\Microsoft.Net\Framewok\v2.0.<version>

and start dfsvc.exe manually. see if it comes up (check taskmanger as it has no UI).

I am suspecting dfsvc.exe might be failing to start. If so you can attach a debugger and see what could be happening

-thanks

sreekanth

kanthb Wednesday, December 21, 2005 12:40 AM

dtb5571 Wednesday, December 21, 2005 5:21 PM