Okay, after much testing I couldn't get it to work either, however I came up with the following:

public override void Install(System.Collections.IDictionary stateSaver) {  Thread thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(DoWork));  thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);  thread.Start();  thread.Join();  } private void DoWork() {  using (System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog dialog = new System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog())  {   dialog.ShowDialog();  } }

Basically what we are doing is starting a new thread, setting it to use STA and then displaying the dialog from there.  This should get you started, but remember to make your code thread safe.

Note: If you try to show a FolderBrowserDialog on a thread that is not STA in Visual Studio 2005, an exception is now thrown, so it won't display at all.

Okay, after much testing I couldn't get it to work either, however I came up with the following:

public override void Install(System.Collections.IDictionary stateSaver) {  Thread thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(DoWork));  thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);  thread.Start();  thread.Join();  } private void DoWork() {  using (System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog dialog = new System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog())  {   dialog.ShowDialog();  } }

Basically what we are doing is starting a new thread, setting it to use STA and then displaying the dialog from there.  This should get you started, but remember to make your code thread safe.

Note: If you try to show a FolderBrowserDialog on a thread that is not STA in Visual Studio 2005, an exception is now thrown, so it won't display at all.

Hi David M. Kean,

Thank you for your help.

I have incorporated the above code in my setup code. Now FolderBrowserDialog is working good in my setup project. I am able to see the Treeview now.

Onec again Thanks for your timely help.

New threads are initialized as ApartmentState.MTA if their apartment state has not been set before they are started. Apartment state must be set before a thread is started.

The SetApartmentState method, along with the GetApartmentState method and the TrySetApartmentState method, replaces the ApartmentState property.

"

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So, I did set the atribute for the Main function like this:

[STAThread]
public static void Main(){...}

and it worked ok with the FolderBrowserDialog, without the need to create a special thread just for displaing the dialog.

But setting this atribute for the Main function will affect in any way the capacity of my app to work with multiple threads?

I did some test and it seems to work ok with multiple test, but I don't consider myself a expert in this field.. I wood apreciate a more adviced voice

Thank You

It doesnt work to me. Could you help me? I dont think that creating a new thread is the solution. I´m trying to set <StaThread()> in the main of the installer class. I cant understand why it doesnt works.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm glad I checked before posting this same problem. Thanks to David for the answer. Would anyone like to tell me why it works this way? Any one find a KB article on this?

Meanwhile, to do who are like me arrive at this problem via C# and VSS 2005 (BTW, the wrong thread state did not throw an exception for me), here is the C# code that works for me. Note that "myFolderDialog" is my name for the FolderDialog on my form.

public string getFilePath(string dialogString)
{
try {
string pathname = null;
Thread FolderDlgThread = new Thread(getFilePathThread);
FolderDlgThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
FolderDlgThread.Start();
FolderDlgThread.Join();
pathname = myFolderDialog.SelectedPath;
return pathname;
}
catch (Exception err) {
displayException(err);
return null;
}
}

[STAThread]
public void getFilePathThread()
{
try
{
string pathname = null;
myFolderDialog.Site = null;
DialogResult stat = myFolderDialog.ShowDialog();
if (stat == DialogResult.OK) {
pathname = myFolderDialog.SelectedPath;
}
}
catch (Exception err)
{
displayException(err);
}
}

I have been developing an SSIS package and encountered this issue. The BrowseFolderDialog is blank. It appears as a form, but without a treeview in it. The C# code above worked when nothing else would. Here it is in VB.NET specialized for SSIS:

The reason this will always be unpredictable is that you're running on a msiexec.exe process with a restricted set of rights in a threading environment where Windows Installer does not expect you to be showing UI. You're supposed to collect user data up front in the UI sequence and set properties that are used during the actual install (while progress is showing).Your custom actions run too late tochange installationfolders, so effectively all you're doing is application configuration. You should be doing this with a configuration app that runs after the install, and you should just choose a reasonable default folder at install time. The interesting question is from a user that says "but I want to use a different folder now because the folder I used at install time doesn't exist any more. What do I do? Reinstall the darn app again?".

Just for sharing ^^

Don't use Thread.Join() here, otherwise you will be facing UI of main form gets stuck.

I use Control.Invoke to set the text box on main form, and bind it to the backend member variable.

Austin