CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vb.netwindows-installerinstallationexit-codereturn-code
Xlam
Xlam

Reputation: 133

how to catch installation progress and return-value from an installer in vb.net

I'm developing a windows application (using vb.net) that can install various versions of runtimes like vc++, Direct X, .net frameworks etc on a PC. My program must be able to to run the runtime installers (msi & exe) one at a time in the background and do the following:

1.Check weather the runtime is already (previously) installed or not.
2.Show the installation progress in a progress bar in the main form of my program.
3.And at last get the return code (exit code) from the installer to indicate weather the installation was successful or not.

What are the codes required to perform the above tasks?

Also I want to know what are all the possible return codes(values) an installer can return.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 748

Answers (2)

PhilDW
PhilDW

Reputation: 20780

All of those redistributables might have different command line options, so it's not likely to be one answer for everything.

It's not clear how you can get the installation progress. It's almost certainly impossible or very difficult. You're asking how you can run a program that will "steal" the output of some other program, and in many cases that will be Windows Installer. If I had a program that fired off a Windows Form program, then you're asking "how can I get the content of that program and steal the output messages". That's not an install question, it's a Windows messaging/windows message loop question.

The detection methods used by those setups are coded internally (or configured as internal data), so you're also asking how the code in all those programs detects that the dependency isn't installed (on multiple OS versions and 32-bit and 64-bit), and some of that might be available on the web but it's unlikely that it is readily available for every redistributable.

You might also have an issue with EULAs. Some redistributables need a EULA to be accepted and might not install unless it's accepted, or some may have a command line option that includes something like (just an example) ACCEPTEULA=1.

Basically you should:

  1. Find the command line options available for all those redistributables to see if they have an option that displays only progress, then let them show that.

  2. Similarly, see if they have documentation that tells you if the exit code means success or not.

  3. Don't bother trying to find all the detection methods for everything - just run the redist, and if the target is already installed it won't do anything.

Finally, you are re-inventing the wheel. WiX, the Bootstrap Manifest Generator, InstallShield, Advanced Installer (and so on) all provide bootstrapper programs that already do this as prerequisites for installing software. Nobody writes code to do this any more because there are existing solutions.

Upvotes: 2

s1me0ne
s1me0ne

Reputation: 31

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa376931(v=vs.85).aspx

1638 for already installed. 0 for successful installation. Yet mind 3010 which stands for success but pending reboot.

About showing progress in parent window .. this may be not a trivial task. Hopefully someone else can give you a hand with that.

Upvotes: 0

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