I'm baffled by this - myClickOnce app installs and updates perfectly (across the internet) on my development PC, but does not work on any of my client's PCs.

The only significant difference being that they use a proxy server to access the internet, but this is of course configured into IE, which I presume does impinge on ClickOnce. The proxy server does not require authentication.

The error message is pretty much always the same - and doubly confusing at that, since it seems to indicate the program folder cannot be created, and yet if I search the hard disk I can find the whole application intact (but not at the location referenced in the log).

Here's a sample:
PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 5.1.2600.131072 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.42
System.Deployment.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
mscorwks.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfdll.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfshim.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/iajohnso/Desktop/GuruWS.application

IDENTITIES
Deployment Identity : GuruWS.application, Version=2.1.7.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=70bce2e5dd13abbe, processorArchitecture=msil

APPLICATION SUMMARY
* Installable application.

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ Downloading file:///C:/Documents and Settings/iajohnso/Desktop/GuruWS_2_1_7_1/GuruWS.exe.manifest did not succeed.
+ Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.
+ Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.
+ Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [09/06/2006 07:05:32] : Activation of C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS.application has started.
* [09/06/2006 07:05:42] : Processing of deployment manifest has successfully completed.
* [09/06/2006 07:05:42] : Installation of the application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [09/06/2006 07:05:42] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentDownloadException (Unknown subtype)
- Downloading file:///C:/Documents and Settings/iajohnso/Desktop/GuruWS_2_1_7_1/GuruWS.exe.manifest did not succeed.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)
at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadAllFiles()
at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.Download(SubscriptionState subState)
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadManifestAsRawFile(Uri& sourceUri, String targetPath, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadApplicationManifest(AssemblyManifest deploymentManifest, String targetDir, Uri deploymentUri, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, Uri& appSourceUri, String& appManifestPath)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.DownloadApplication(SubscriptionState subState, ActivationDescription actDesc, Int64 transactionId, TempDirectory& downloadTemp)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.InstallApplication(SubscriptionState subState, ActivationDescription actDesc)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Net.WebException
- Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.
- Source: System
- Stack trace:
at System.Net.FileWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Net.FileWebRequest.GetResponse()
at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Net.WebException
- Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.
- Source: System
- Stack trace:
at System.Net.FileWebResponse..ctor(FileWebRequest request, Uri uri, FileAccess access, Boolean asyncHint)
at System.Net.FileWebRequest.WrappedGetResponseCallback(Object state)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
- Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.
- Source: mscorlib
- Stack trace:
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean useAsync)
at System.Net.FileWebStream..ctor(FileWebRequest request, String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare sharing, Int32 length, Boolean async)
at System.Net.FileWebResponse..ctor(FileWebRequest request, Uri uri, FileAccess access, Boolean asyncHint)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.

Hi,

From the log the Deployment urlis file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/iajohnso/Desktop/GuruWS.application. Obviously, this is a local path. In ClickOnce terminology this is a CD or local install scenario. What this means is that ClickOnce will attempt to locate the application manifest and the deployment files (the exe, other files etc mentioned in the application manifest) under the above path.

If you look further down the log it says System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException it says
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
- Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\iajohnso\Desktop\GuruWS_2_1_7_1\GuruWS.exe.manifest'.

This means that you are attempting to activate the manifest locally but the app really does not exits locally. A possible scenario is you emailed the deployment manifest to someone, they saved on the desktop and double clicked it.

If you app is hosted on the internet just send the use the link to the deployment manifets like http://<SERVER>/someapp.application

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Sameer

Thanks Sameer, you may be onto something. I'll have to check with the client next week, but one of the issues might be that their corporate policy (and possibly their poxy server) does not allow running .exes directly over the internet!

brian

I am suffering from the same error.

I have hundreds of clients downloading with no problem.

But one client is suffering from this error.

If I download the file locally I do not suffer from this issue....

What could be causing this error specifically on one client?

Same problem as Sameer described it is a local install that is first downloaded from the internet. It is not finding the manifest file just like the above example. It is only happening on a handful of machines and I cannot tell why it might be happening with them and none of the others. I wonder if Brian was able to sort a solution to this.

You could check if the client machine has some blocking software like personal firewall. Once of my clients had a software which blocked all installations from the office Lan network. The installation worked when it was done outside office network. Later I came to know asa security policy all machines in his office had such software to block users to install unwanted software

I am also having with this. I have dozens of clients running and installing without any trouble, but one user keeps getting this error.

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Documents and Settings\matt\My Documents\Downloads\CS System (11).application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ Downloading file:///C:/Documents and Settings/matt/My Documents/Downloads/Application Files/CS System_1_0_23_264/CS System.exe.manifest did not succeed.
+ Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\matt\My Documents\Downloads\Application Files\CS System_1_0_23_264\CS System.exe.manifest'.
+ Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\matt\My Documents\Downloads\Application Files\CS System_1_0_23_264\CS System.exe.manifest'.
+ Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Documents and Settings\matt\My Documents\Downloads\Application Files\CS System_1_0_23_264\CS System.exe.manifest'.

Funny this is, even on the machines that work, MyDocuments\Downloads isn't a folder that's created. Why would this one user be trying to access this folder that doesn't exist?

-Nathan

Is " (11)" in your application name, or is that just part of the error message?

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!

(11) is not part of the application name. However, after looking into this further, in my case, it turns out that the user was trying to run the application using a a browser other than Internet Explorer. Running it with IE worked fine. Not sure why that is, but it's an acceptable workaround.

-Nathan

Depends on what browser he's running. If he's running Firefox, there's an add-in that helps facilitate ClickOnce installations, plus when .Net 3.5 is installed, the installation installs a plug-in for .Net 3.5 as well, but some people have problems with it.

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!

I faced the same problem and the browser workaround is clearly important because in my case, client machines got the manifest file in IE, and the application is now running, problem solved.

The problemwas in Google Chrome.

Hola a todos, si es verdad el problema es el navegador no funciona en FF ni Chrome, solo en IE. Gracias por los comments

If your users are trying to install the app and they see the application manifest displayed in IE, it usually means that the MIME types are not set correctly on the server.

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!