CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wixwindows-installeruacmerge-module
Dave
Dave

Reputation: 3717

Component in merge module needs to be run once 'As Administrator' when UAC is on

I am writing my first WIX installer. The installed application uses various Microsoft standard OCX controls which are installed as merge modules, for example MSCOMCTL.msm, MSFLXGRD.MSM etc.

For some reason, if the target machine has UAC switched on, running the application after installation fails with a message to the effect that "MSCOMCTL is missing or has not been correctly registered...". However, if the application is run once 'As Administrator' it puts up a UAC "can this app make changes" message (so it's obviously changing something) and then runs fine, and what is more runs forever after without admin privs. (Alternatively, registering the relevant controls with RegSrv works as well).

I have monitored the application with ProcMon and it is obviously doing a late registration. It is as if the installer has advertised the contents of the merge module without installing them. I've also looked at the merge module, and my MSI, with Orca, but I can't work out any way of stopping this behavior.

I did wonder if it was anything to do with the versions of the MSMs, but it seems almost impossible to find out what the latest version of these Microsoft MSMs is, or to find anywhere to download them.

Obviously we do not want to make our customers go through this convoluted process when they install our product. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 395

Answers (1)

Dave
Dave

Reputation: 3717

Thanks Kiran. We also read that bit in the MSDN documentation. The problem is that we can't alter the Advertise attributes on items that are already built into Microsoft's Merge Modules (well, we could using Orca but it would be messy).

However, I think we may have found the source of the problem. The previous release of our product used a kit built using InstallShield. When we compared the .MSI created by InstallShield to the one created with Wix we noticed that the InstallExecuteSequence table of the IS one contains RegisterProgIdInfo, RegisterClassInfo and RegisterTypeLibraries, which do not appear in the Wix-generated MSI. We think some or all of these may be needed to force the MSMs to install. I need to find out how to put these into Wix, and then to try it to see if it works. I will try to remember to post the result here for posterity.

[Following day] Confirmed. For anyone else who has this problem, you just need to put a <RegisterClassInfo/> tag and a <RegisterProgIdInfo/> tag (and maybe a <RegisterClassLibraries/> tag, but I didn't need one of those) into your <InstallExecuteSequence>.

Upvotes: 1

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