Installer Problem on Vista machine

[imglax]

Hi All,

We have created installer for our product using "Installshield 11.5".
This installers works fine on all OS (XP/Win2k3/2000), except on Windows Vista.
The problem is that our installer sometimes doesn't work on Vista. So, my question is that is there any compatibility issue for Installers which are created using Installshield 11.5.
On some vista machines our installer doesn't work, So is it problem that we are creating it using Installshield 11.5 instead of latest version..
1. if we create installer in IS 11.5 then will it work on Vista?
2. Is it Vista specific issue OR Installshield compatibility?

Thanks,
Laxmikant

[MichaelU]

InstallShield 11.5 and earlier do not officially support Vista. Lots of installations can work correctly, but it will depend on what your setup needs and what project type you use exactly what the behavior might be. There were several architectural changes to InstallShield 12 to address incompatibilities that surfaced with Vista (see the stickies at the top of the InstallShield 12 or 2008 communities), and a few cases where deferred actions for IS functionality merely had to be marked to run in "System Context".

These are all generalities. To offer better guidance, we'd need to know exactly what sort of problems you're encountering - what exactly does and doesn't happen when it "doesn't work". The simple answer from our perspective is, of course, upgrade to InstallShield 2008, as the increased reliability is well worth the upgrade pains (if any). However if you can get by with a small change in your project, that may be a better choice for you.

[imglax]

Thanks, MichaelU for the quick response.

Here are some details of our product installer (created in IS 11.5)
1. Installscript MSI project
2. Not using any custom actions in project
Problems:
1. Our installer works fine during installation & uninstallation on Vista, in case User Account Control(UAC) security OFF.
But in case user turns ON, UAC security then also it works at installation time, but fails while user uninstallas the product. Please find attached screenshot for the details ["IDriver_module_error_uninstall.JPG"] , it shows error msg as "InstallDriver module has stopped working".
Also, above case appears when user Turns ON UAC security and only during uninstallation.

2. Problem on Windows XP [Non-English version and English version]:
- We are getting an install error 1609 on some machines

"Error 1609:An error occurred while applying security settings. User is
not a valid user or group. This could be a problem with the package, or
a problem connecting to a domain controller on the network."
- So we are not getting how to figure out this issue. We have added check for Administrator in installer, and I tried this installer on some machines(XP German/ XP English) and noticed that it works fine on some machine but on rest of the machines it gives error 1609 and installer exits from installation.
- So is this problem from our installscript MSI project, which might be coming because of we missed something.

What would be the best and easiest way to fix this issue?

Thanks,
Laxmikant

[MichaelU]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure about either of these issues. However InstallScript MSI did have a large makeover for IS12, so I would suggest evaluating IS2008 to see if it addresses these issues. Don't forget to take into account all the changes you might need to make as documented in the migration articles linked from the forum stickies.