MSI installs when used in command line but not when it's clicked

Question

I have a MSI installer for my WPF application. Usually it's built and deployed via an AzureDevops pipeline but it fails since 8th of April. I think it's important to note: there were no code changes done that could impact the installer.

Once I click on the installer (and provide it with admin privileges once it asked) and try to get the application installed - it fails:

That's what I've grabbed from the Windows events:

There are some log I've grabbed from the app update which is also failed:

MSI (s) (44:74) [04:16:25:443]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 59164 (0xE71C).
MSI (s) (44:60) [04:16:25:949]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (44:60) [04:16:25:952]: Hello, I'm your 32bit Impersonated custom action server.
Action start 4:16:25: LoadConfig.
SFXCA: Failed to create temp directory. Error code 5
CustomAction LoadConfig returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 4:16:26: LoadConfig. Return value 3.
Action ended 4:16:26: INSTALL. Return value 3.

However if I run the installer via command line - it works! I used this command:

msiexec /i MyApplication.msi /l*v MyLogFile.txt

P.S. It happens with installers built by the AzureDevops pipeline. If I build it locally - it works as usual.

Does anyone have any ideas why this might happen and how to get it working again? Thanks in advance!

This looks like a clue - SFXCA: Failed to create temp directory. Error code 5 - see github.com/wixtoolset/issues/issues/8078 — stuartd
– stuartd, Commented Apr 10, 2024 at 12:10

Rob Mensching · Accepted Answer · 2024-04-12 12:22:29Z

1

Do NOT downgrade your WiX version. You will be vulnerable to known security issues. Instead, upgrade you Custom Action project to use the v5 nupkg. It should be a drop-in replacement and has no known security vulnerabilities.

answered Apr 12, 2024 at 12:22

Rob Mensching

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Dzmitry Shauchuk · Accepted Answer · 2024-04-11 10:04:43Z

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The problem was about the changes done in the WiX: https://github.com/wixtoolset/issues/issues/8078. While waiting for the fix we did a workaround by downgrading the version in the pipeline:

choco install wixtoolset --version 3.14 --allow-downgrade --force -y

answered Apr 11, 2024 at 10:04

Dzmitry Shauchuk

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2 Comments

Rob Mensching Over a year ago

This is terrible advice. You will be vulnerable to known security issues. Do NOT do this.

Dzmitry Shauchuk Over a year ago

Thanks for your reply. This is really just a workaround to get production up and running as quickly as possible. But by this point we've updated the Custom Action project to use nupkg v5 and it works.

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