CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netwindows-vistainstallationwindows-installer
Millhouse
Millhouse

Reputation: 742

MSI Error Code 2869 on Vista

I have an MSI for a .NET application that I created using Visual Studio 2005 that includes a custom action to write some registry keys at the end of the install. I found that the installer works fine on Windows XP SP2 and SP3. However, when I try to run the installer on a Vista PC, the installer seems to get almost all the way to the end, but then dies and rolls back giving an Error Code 2869.

I logged in with an account that is an Administrator, but I still get the same error.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 7816

Answers (6)

ken
ken

Reputation: 1

You need to install the .NET Framework 3.5 for a lot of these old apps on Windows 10 as its not longer on by default.

Upvotes: 0

exbarboss
exbarboss

Reputation: 1

Calling 

msiexec /a "path-to-package.msi"

helped me.

Upvotes: 0

Mark Lakata
Mark Lakata

Reputation: 20848

I found the definitive answer to this problem. Error 2869 is a meaningless error that means "Can't display the error for the real problem". The real error is obscured. In many cases, that error has to do with impersonation, but not always!

This solution both fixes the error display bug, and also fixes the Impersonation/Admin priv issue on Vista and Windows 7.

The one thing that is missing is the hand-holding (for someone that doesn't want to know anything about javascript, like me) to get this to work.

  1. visit http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nikhiln/archive/2007/04/25/post-build-script-to-fix-msi-issues-in-vista-for-vs-2005-setup-and-deployment-project.aspx

  2. Grab the script, and save it to your Deployment project folder as PostBuildVistaFix.js

  3. Bring up the Deployment Project Properties

  4. Changed PostBuildEvent to

    cscript.exe ..\PostBuildVistaFix.js your_installer.msi

Upvotes: 3

MattH
MattH

Reputation: 1975

The problem has to do with Vista enforcing the NoImpersonate bit on Custom Actions. This was previously ignored by XP.

You cannot set the bit in Visual Studio 2005, but here is a process to go thru to get it to work.

Upvotes: 1

saschabeaumont
saschabeaumont

Reputation: 22426

The solution I've come up with is to distribute customers an EXE with a manifest configured to trigger UAC elevation at the beginning of the install, rather than an MSI (our app must be installed per-machine anyway)

Upvotes: 1

Millhouse
Millhouse

Reputation: 742

Ok, I found one solution to my problem:

If I log in as an administrator user and instead of just running my installer by double clicking the msi or setup.exe, if I right click and select "Run as Administrator" my program installs successfully.

Looks like this has to do with the fact that UAC was enabled on the machine. I tried it on a Vista machine with UAC turned off and the installer worked just fine when run normally by an Admin user.

A similar quick and dirty approach to fixing this can be found here

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions