I have a problem regarding the Visual Studio Setup Project and uninstalling an application.
This is a very basic installer, installing an ApplicationLauncher.exe C# .NET 4.0 console application and an Application.Common.dll (a dependency of the application ApplicationLauncher.exe).
The installation is a success, copying both the exe and DLL into the program files folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Company\ApplicationLauncher\.
My problem comes when uninstalling the application (through the MSI) - the uninstall seems successful, however it leaves Application.Common.dll behind, and doesn't remove it as I would expect.
I've used ProcessExplorer to make sure nothing else is using the DLL, no explorer windows are open during the uninstall.
Is this the expected functionality and do I have to create a custom action to remove this DLL? Or have I done something wrong? :S
It seems I was able to fix this issue by renaming the solution and product name of the application, I'm not sure how this fixed it, but it did.
My only thoughts here is this traversed through to the installer, where the application installed into a different folder, thus not applying the same permissions to the DLL..
It's not expected, no. It will happen if you ever done any of the following with your setup and installed it:
Marked the file Permanent.
Marked the file SharedLegacyFile true.
These are project settings, but if you set either of them and do the install it will stay behind. You can unset them in the setup project but that's too late - you've marked that component permanent or sharedlegacy on the system. If you use a brand new system, like a fresh virtual machine, reset these values if they are set and rebuild the MSI and do the install/uninstall does it still happen?
I had the same problem. Then I have tried to install and unistall my app on Windows XP and that had worked.
Renaming the ProductCode is treating the symptoms not the cause. The problem occurs when the uninstaller doesn't remove the dll. The next install will use the dll again and can't remove it on an uninstall event because it's still used by the other program.
These steps hopefully solve the problem:
Install your Software
Open CMD (with admin privileges) and run:
msiexec /x {ProductCode} /L*V "C:\CustomPath\FileName.log"
The ProductCode can be found when hitting F4 on the Setup Project
Open the log file and search for the lines that look something like this:
Disallowing uninstallation of component: {6CEC09F6-9108-7062-A692-2BCBACEE3BD8} since another client exists
Disallowing uninstallation of component: {A0A0FA84-CC0D-C5C4-1F57-169788C4482D} since another client exists
Disallowing uninstallation of component: {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} since another client exists
All these components have to be removed from the registry by hand. To do this the GUID (e.g. {6CEC09F6-9108-7062-A692-2BCBACEE3BD8}) first has to be converted into a packed/compressed GUID (e.g. 6F90CEC6801926076A29B2BCCAEEB38D). I found a Website where one can run a script to do this. Find the following code on the website and replace the right side with the GUID from the log.
string inStrGUID = "{6CEC09F6-9108-7062-A692-2BCBACEE3BD8}";
Open the registry (as an administrater) and search (Edit -> Find...) for the compressed GUID (uasually it's somewhere in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\)
Delete the folder that is equal to the compressed GUID. The values inside the folder should be a path to the dll.
Once deleted select the parent folder (...\S-1-5-18\components) and hit Edit -> Find...
Repeat these steps (4-7) for all components from the log file.
It's also a good idea to delete all files still present in the original folder that weren't uninstalled.
Can one prevent this from happening?
I don't know. This really isn't that easy to reproduce. Some other post on SO have suspected the install/uninstall option in Visual Studio to be the cause of the problem but I have a different theory:
This bug might be the result of RemoveExistingProducts in InstallExecuteSequence in the Setup being executed too late and therefore not removing dlls at the right time. This bug is known for years and can be fixed by doing this. If you need help with Orca this explains how to install it.
Related
I'm running my .NET 4.0 (C#) project in debug mode after I start VS2013. It runs just fine.
The second time I start it from VS, I get the Dialog box that says "Error while trying to run project: Unable to start program C:\path\to\file.exe"
The process is still alive in the Taskmanager when I dismiss the dialog box.
From Windows Explorer, I can run the program just fine. And after closing it, the process is gone too from the Task Manager.
A rebuild doesn't help.
Is this a common problem with a known solution?
I had an issue similar to this and I had to clear the component cache instruction can be found Here.
Hope this helps.
For my case, it cause by Platform target, you could force choose it to x86 or x64 which your project is:
Each Project's Properties > Build > Platform target
As I pointed out also here, the only solution that worked for me was to disable the ConEmu integration:
ConEmu → Settings → Integration → Default term → disable Force ConEmu as default terminal for console applications
Some users reported that it was enough for them to disable the Aggressive mode in that same settings tab; that wasn't the case for me though.
The topic is old, but this might help someone else.
So in my case I made a file in Visual Studio with .cp extension (accidentally deleted the last 'p') this made visual studio just "include" the the file and not mark it as a compilation unit, thus not compiling it, I looked the *.vcxproj file in a text editor and found out about this, so if you open the project file in a notepad or something just find your file at the bottom usually and change from <Item .../> to <ClCompile .../>
I was getting similar errors. I just had to restart visual studio. Sometime couple times a day.
I had a similar error and resolved it by cleaning the solution. Right-click the solution name in Solution Explorer and choose Clean Solution.
I found a solution here:
Please check "Use Managed Compatibility Mode" under Tools|->Options->Debugging->General.
I'm Brazilian, I don't speak English very well. I did this translation on google translator.
I know the topic is old, but it can still help someone.
I had this same problem in the following situation, I have a dual boot computer (linux debian 11 and windows 10). Inside debian, on my NTFS D disk, I created a folder to perform programming tests. After accessing that same folder with windows, I created a new project in visual studio inside that same folder that I had created in linux. The creation of the project went without problems, however when I tried to run the project (F5), I received the same error from this topic. I tried all the solutions I found on the internet, and nothing worked. I gave all permissions to my admin user and it still didn't work. Then I realized that even going straight to the folder where the application's executable was and clicking directly on it, I still received the access denied error message. So, I took the project out of the folder I had created in linux, and it worked. So, what I could conclude, is that because the folder where my project was was created in linux, for some reason, my windows didn't trust this folder, so it didn't allow running executables from inside that folder, even this one executable having been created by visual studio from within windows.
Just simply create a folder name as "projects" in c drive and copy paste the newly created project in it. Run the project by doing clean & Build or Rebuild method . It will work
open the folder which contains the solution in visual studio.
again, open your *.sln file by double clicking it inside the solution explore once opened try running the solution or rebuild the solution. once rebuild gets completed, it will open without error from next time.
My way of solving the error : error while trying to load project : Unable to start program and c:\Path\to\file.exe was simply by
First restart Visual Studio
Click the build icon
Select the rebuild option
Run the Program or Debug the Program
This was a weird one. Going to put what happened to me here because it might happen to someone else. Everything was fine with the app until suddenly after some fairly insignificant code changes I suddenly started getting this error. Visual Studio was compiling the executable just fine. But, the moment I tried to run it (either from Visual Studio or directly) the executable file would be automatically deleted right out of the Debug folder. Super odd--never seen anything like it. I began to get suspicious that perhaps an anti-virus or the OS was somehow identifying a checksum or some signature in the executable as "dangerous". Or perhaps some obscure compilation bug was corrupting the executable. So on a hunch I made another innocuous change (added a couple of lines of code to color code some text in a rich text box) and the problem went away.
I'm trying to figure out how to publish an application I wrote. We didn't get to publishing in class, and my programming teacher is having some health issues and isn't available right now.
I found the "Publish" option, and can get it to create a folder with an install program... but I open it, and it just opens the program, and spams me infinitely, complaining that my Access database (located in the bin > debug in the build stage) can't be accessed (from some weird path I don't recognize). I tried using WiX, but it gave me an error when I tried to install, saying it doesn't have access to the install folder (running as admin). I've been googling for a few hours, poking at it, exploring, and I'm not getting too far. Can anyone ELI5?
When you use the "publish" option for desktop apps, VS creates a click-once installer that will place all the files it knows about in the appropriate locations.
Unfortunately, it can't guess which other files your application needs so you need to tell it explicitly.
If you right-click the Project->Properties, go to the Publish tab and click the "Application Files" button, you'll see all files that will be added to the installer.
Next, click "Show all files" at the bottom. Find your database, and change the Publish Status to "Data File".
Note that I've only ever used the Click Once installer to install static files (like images/documentation) that are never modified, only replaced in later releases. I'm not sure whether your (modified) db will be preserved during an update but I suspect not.
If the Click Once install process is too simple for your needs, VS2010 has "Setup Projects" which create more complex installers that support logic/code. For VS2012, the commonly suggested option is Wix. Unfortunately, it's got a steep learning curve but it can do pretty much anything you need.
I believe VS2013 and later have setup projects again through an extension but I haven't tried it myself.
Edit:
The easiest way around this is likely to set the connection string programatically based on where the application is executing from.
Note that as per this answer clickonce apps are usually executed from deep inside the user profile directory (also read the answer below about data directories). It's a side-effect of how ClickOnce works (it wants to install somewhere the user is guaranteed to have write access).
Check if there really is an .mdb in that folder. If not, you need to tweak the installer or the properties for the .mdb. Assuming it's in the same location as the executable, you can tell your application where to find it...
string dbPath = IO.Path.Combine(
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,
"access.mdb");
string connectionString = String.Format(
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source={0}",
dbPath);
I'm not sure why you think the database file added by the installer is in a directory directly under C:\. It's possible you're not looking at the file created by the installer.
To avoid confusion, try changing the name from access.mdb to something else (temp.mdb?), build the installer, rename back to access.mdb. Now, when you've installed the application, make sure the file you're looking at is now called temp.mdb. If not, you're looking at the wrong file.
This Link Has Full demonstration of Database Connectivity And Publish a C# application with database. The application is also running on another machines.
How to Publish C# Application with access database
When I try to build my project, it returns the following error:
Error 1 Unexpected error creating debug information file 'D:\Documents\Lance\Documents\School\Capstone\GG\GG\obj\Debug\GG.PDB' -- '' GG
I've recently had the misfortune of having my PC restart on me, due to sudden power supply problems (maybe). This is while the project was building, before this problem started.
When the PC came back online I've noticed that the changes I've made to the program prior to the sudden power down was not saved. And, it won't build anymore.
This worked for me:
Shut down VS.NET
Browse to the project in Windows Explorer
Delete the /obj/ folder.
Delete the project outputs (.dll and .pdb) from /bin (not sure if this step is necessary)
Can't hurt but might help: delete the project outputs from any other project /bin folders in the solution that is having issues (wasn't necessary for me)
Restart VS.NET
Rebuild
http://weblogs.asp.net/ssmith/archive/2003/08/12/23755.aspx
As requested, my comment as an answer:
Try cleaning the solution (under the Build menu in VS).
Since the build was interrupted half-way through by your power failure, the file isn't locked -- the build system is probably just in an inconsistent state (which a Clean Solution should fix).
This happens once in a while in my environment and the problem probably has to do with the PDB file being locked (i.e., I'm guessing the last part of the error message is missing in your post). This is how it looks on my machine:
Unexpected error creating debug information file 'c:\dir\obj\file.PDB' -- 'c:\dir\obj\file.PDB: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.'
In my case, cleaning the solution does not solve the problem and restarting is an overkill, so I usually just copy the full name of the pdb file (from the error) and execute this on the command line:
ren c:\dir\obj\file.PDB *.old
This worked for me: Close Visual studio and open visual studio using Run as Administrator and problem was solved.
Not need to restart or delete the file.
Just rename the file and that is enough. If you try to delete the file it will give an error. Better just rename it & it will work. :)
If you are having this problem with a web application, this can happen in the unusual situation that you have used DebugDiag and created a rule that listens on your project's app pool. Deleting the rule prevented this problem from recurring.
This might happen, for example, if you followed these instructions for diagnosing a stack overflow exception in IIS.
If you are working on VM with two user, make sure the other user has not attached all the process while debugging.
Cons of restarting VS:
Clipboard will be lost
Redo/undo will be lost
Files open will be lost
You will loose the tempo
Solution:
Give your Assembly a new name. No cons. Except you will have to rename your assembly back to its original name when you are ready for final deployment. And I think anyone can find how to make it work for the last time :)
Sometimes all the files from \bin folder are used by a running process, i.e. web site on IIS or windows service run automatically after build. In such cases turning off the service or stoping IIS app pool for specific site should also help (like in my case)
Sometimes I run into this problem, when compiling the same project for (very) different targets:
VS2008 and net35
VS2017 and net462
dotnet core 2.0
My guess is, that either bin and/Or obj directory are used by the compiler, but the outputs are not compatible (of course). Solution clean from VS indeed helps.
Often we specify different dll names for the output (e.g. mylib.dll, mylib35.dll) and the issue never happened on those projects.
I am using visual studio 2008 and I have created setup project using the same. After deployment of the application whenever I change any of the file or even rename any file setup.exe automatically starts to reinstall the setup. In this case it should customized error.
Do anybody has idea on this??
This is the normal behavior. Windows Installer automatically performs a repair if it determines that some of the installed resources are missing.
This repair is triggered by:
launching the application through an advertised shortcut
launching a file associated with your application
To avoid it you should:
make sure that your application doesn't delete, move or rename installed files; if you need to work with files use the Application Data folder
or
make sure that the deleted file is not the key member in its component; this is controlled through the Component table
To answer your actual question, you cannot show a customized error. You can only try to avoid this behavior.
I need my application to uninstall itself.
Reason: It's come to my attention that my app is destroying its own files (my bad), but the user of my app doesn't understand why he needs to uninstall it and refuses to uninstall it. However, he still complains about the constant problems. And in the Terms Of Use, there is a line that says "...we reserve the right to remove the application from your computer and temporarily or permanently discontinue your use of the software."
So, I did some searching on how to uninstall a program, (which will be replaced by a new version), and came across Uninstall C# windows application from self and the accepted answer says you need a 'product code'. What exactly is that, and where can I find/get it from? I have searched for this but can't find anything.
Thank you
The productcode can be obtained from your MSI by opening with orca, the msi db editor and lookup the productcode in the Property table. Orca is part of the Windows SDK.
You can also run your msi
msi /i [your msi] -lvx* log.log
and harvest the productcode from the log.
The easiest way is by getting it from the author files of your setup as Ken White already pointed out.
You created the product code (if it exists) when you created your MSI to install your application. You need the same product code you used in the installation in order to uninstall it via Windows Installer.
I am not sure about VS 2010, but in VS2008 setup projects have a ".vdproj" project file, which can be opened with a simple text editor (like notepad). If you search for the word "ProductCode", you will find a line like
"ProductCode" = "8:{GUID}"
(the GUID is what you are looking for).