index > ClickOnce and Setup & Deployment Projects > Clickonce XNA and Vista

Clickonce XNA and Vista

I have a Clickonce installation package I created for an XNA 3.0 game.

It installs fine using the button on the web page on several Windows XP machines - including installing any missing pre-requisites.

It fails to install on every Windows Vista machine I or someone else has tested it on. The only way to get it to work on Windows Vista is to install all the pre-requisites manually first... ie. Go get .net 3.5 SP1, XNA redistributable 3.0, Windows Installer 3.1 and install each of these in turn, then come back to the Click once install page and run the installer.

From what I have read elsewhere, creating a Clickonce distribution that will install straightforwardly on Vista lies somewhere between Difficult and Impossible.

Much of the problem seems to relate to working around the UAC, but possibly there are other issues as well.

Does anyone know better?

Anyone have a failsafe process / how-to to create a Clickonce package that will install easily on Vista without having to manually install pre-requisites yourself?

Thank you!

Changed TypeBruce.ZhouMSFT, ModeratorTuesday, March 10, 2009 7:41 AMCustomer not come back
Changed TypeSoftware In Dorset Saturday, March 14, 2009 9:40 PMI have changed the type back to question as no-one was responding.
Changed TypeBruce.ZhouMSFT, ModeratorFriday, March 13, 2009 12:35 PMCustomer comes back

Software In Dorset Tuesday, March 03, 2009 9:34 PM

I don't think Vista per se is your problem. We are deploying our application to thousands of users, and have had no problems with Windows Vista. We are pushing .Net 2.0 though.

Do the users for whom you are doing the installation have administrative privileges? Can they install any of the prerequisites, or does the first one fail? Which one(s) does it fail on? Are you retrieving the installation packages from the vendor website, or pushing them out with your deployment?

There are some issues with .Net 3.5 SP-1 (or at least there seem to be). Can you try installing this on a couple of desktops, then run the deployment and see if the other prerequisites work?

RobinS.
GoldMail.com

Ts'i mahnu uterna ot twan ot geifur hingts uto.

RobinDotNet Wednesday, March 04, 2009 12:15 AM

Thanks - that's very helpful.

I'll do some more investigation.

Software In Dorset Wednesday, March 04, 2009 11:42 AM

We are changing the issue type to “General Discussion�?because you have not followed up with your test information. If you have more time to look at the issue and provide more information, please feel free to change the issue type back to “Question�?by opening the Options list at the top of the post editor window, and changing the type. If the issue is resolved, we will appreciate it if you can share the solution so that the answer can be found and used by other community members having similar questions.

Please mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark if they don't.

Bruce.Zhou Tuesday, March 10, 2009 7:40 AM

Ok - I've done more testing on this and here is the current state of play:

The problem is the same as the one being discussed on this thread:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winformssetup/thread/29a34eae-3a80-4f2c-8295-96b34e9a0eb5

However, as I have commented at the bottom of that thread, no resolution or work-around has been suggested.

With UAC enabled the attempt to install .Net 3.5 SP-1 as a prerequisite fails with the error message (in the log)

"Unable to read registry value"

An example of a whole installation log is posted at the top of that other thread.

I get very similar logs in my testing.

Asking non-technical users to disable UAC before running the Clickonce installation does not seem to be an acceptable way to proceed?

Possibly I am missing something; seems like if what seems to be happening here really is happening this would have been resolved by now - there would have been a furore about it!

Thanks very much for any suggestions!

Software In Dorset Friday, March 13, 2009 12:20 PM

More information about this.

I discover from further testing that even with UAC disabled, .net 3.5 SP1 still fails to install as a pre-requisite in a clickonce deployment on to Vista.

However, if I enable the "super administrator" account, i.e. The Administrator and log in to the machine as The Administrator, the installation goes to completion just as it does on Windows XP.

In other words when logged in as The Administrator, the clickonce bootstrapper works fine installing .net 3.5 SP1, but not otherwise that I have found.

I tried starting IE using "Run As Administrator" before clicking on the Install button on the clickonce deployment page... that wasn't enough either.

So activating the super administrator account sometimes referred to as "The Administrator" is so far the only way I have found to get this deployment to install.net 3.5 SP1 via the clickonce bootstrapper.

Software In Dorset Friday, March 13, 2009 6:44 PM

Ok...

Well I've been examining my clickonce installation logs more closely and I realise that the "Unable to read registry value" is a complete red herring... of course it can't read the registry value if its not there, and if .net 3.5 SP1 hasn't been installed it isn't going to be there.

So in fact that part of the installation is all fine and dandy.

The bootstrapper is infact working just fine in all respects until it gets to point at which it decides to actually go ahead and install .net 3.5 SP1.

At this point it fails and exits either withcode 1603 if UAC is turned off, or I start IE using runas "Administrator", or if I don't do either of those it fails and exits with code32780.

As I have mentioned, if I log into the vista machine as "The Administrator" and run the clickonce deployment it all works fine, and installs.

Below I am pasting the last sections of each of the logs of each of the 3 failed attempts prior to me logging in as The Administrator (when it worked).

(Attempt 1) Running as regular user who is member of Administrator group, but not running IE "as administrator":
...... (previous lines ... everything fine)
'.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' RunCheck result: Install Needed
Verifying file integrity of C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\VSD3791.tmp\DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFx35setup.exe
WinVerifyTrust returned 0
File trusted
Installing using command 'C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\VSD3791.tmp\DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFx35setup.exe' and parameters ' /lang:enu /passive /norestart'
Process exited with code 32780
Status of package '.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' after install is 'InstallFailed'

(Attempt 2) Running IE by right-clicking and chooseing RunAs administrator (from same account as Attempt 1)
...... (previous lines ... everything fine)
'.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' RunCheck result: Install Needed
Verifying file integrity of C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\VSDBF7.tmp\DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFx35setup.exe
WinVerifyTrust returned 0
File trusted
Installing using command 'C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\VSDBF7.tmp\DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFx35setup.exe' and parameters ' /lang:enu /passive /norestart'
Process exited with code 1603
Status of package '.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' after install is 'InstallFailed'
Status of package 'Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 3.0' after install is 'InstallNeeded'

(Attempt 3) Disable UAC and then running as per Attempt 1
...... (previous lines ... everything fine)
'.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' RunCheck result: Install Needed
Verifying file integrity of C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\VSD9A49.tmp\DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFx35setup.exe
WinVerifyTrust returned 0
File trusted
Installing using command 'C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\VSD9A49.tmp\DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFx35setup.exe' and parameters ' /lang:enu /passive /norestart'
Process exited with code 1603
Status of package '.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' after install is 'InstallFailed'
Status of package 'Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 3.0' after install is 'InstallNeeded'

(Attempt 4) Switch users and log into the target Vista machine as "The Administrator" (not just an account in the Administrators group)
Clickonce deployment completes correctly and installs'.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' without any problems.

I have read elsewhere that exiting with code 1603 is associated with trying to run a clickonce installation from a Firefox browser, but this is not the problem in my case. I am using plain vanila IE as it comes pre-installed on a clean vista VM. I cannot find any referrence to "processexited with code32780" anywhere on the net.

Many thanks for any help or suggestions!!!!!

Software In Dorset Saturday, March 14, 2009 11:02 PM

This sounds like something you should file a Connect bug on. What a pain. This is helpful info, because we are considering deploying .Net 3.5 sp-1 as a preqrequisite at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Here's the site if you want to file a bug (please do).

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio

RobinS.
GoldMail.com

Ts'i mahnu uterna ot twan ot geifur hingts uto.

RobinDotNet Thursday, March 19, 2009 5:31 PM

You can use google to search for other answers

Custom Search

More Threads

• How do you retrieve the path of the .msi file

• Multiple <EntryPoints> in Manifest -- Help..!!

• Error deploying windows form application with web browser control

• Deployment File Type settings not overwriting existing association

• Error Code: 0x80070643

• Bootstrapper for exe installer

• Click Once problem

• Problem with registry keys while using Setup Project for installing a dll

• Launch Condition to check for available disk space

• A problem integrating a huge database into ClickOnce