InstallScript CA's on Vista - Slow initialization

[mrsteve]

My InstallScript custom actions (in a basic MSI project) each take about 30 seconds to load on Vista, compared to a second or two on 2003 or earlier. This is regardless of the content of the action; even an empty function will do this. Obviously this behavior makes InstallScript CA's useless on Vista. Is anyone else seeing this?


Here's a log snippet:

MSI (c) (F0:70) [17:02:02:686]: Doing action: InstallScriptAction
Action 17:02:02: InstallScriptAction.
Action start 17:02:02: InstallScriptAction.
MSI (c) (F0:2C) [17:02:02:889]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI6D8E.tmp, Entrypoint: f1
MSI (c) (F0:E8) [17:02:02:905]: Cloaking enabled.
MSI (c) (F0:E8) [17:02:02:905]: Attempting to enable all disabled privileges before calling Install on Server
MSI (c) (F0:E8) [17:02:02:905]: Connected to service for CA interface.
InstallShield: Running InstallScript function f1
InstallShield: IsBE.dll location: C:\ProgramData\InstallShield\ISEngine12.0\IsBE.dll
InstallShield: Using temp folder C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{233F10DB-8044-4800-90E0-700D71E5FD83}
InstallShield: Installing engine...
InstallShield: Using product language 1033
InstallShield: Extracting support file setup.inx to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{233F10DB-8044-4800-90E0-700D71E5FD83}\setup.inx
InstallShield: Opening stream of file C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI6D8E.tmp
InstallShield: Extracting support file ISRT.dll to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{233F10DB-8044-4800-90E0-700D71E5FD83}\ISRT.dll
InstallShield: Extracting support file IsConfig.ini to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{233F10DB-8044-4800-90E0-700D71E5FD83}\IsConfig.ini
InstallShield: Extracting support file _isres1033.dll to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{233F10DB-8044-4800-90E0-700D71E5FD83}\_isres.dll
InstallShield: Extracting support file String1033.txt to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{233F10DB-8044-4800-90E0-700D71E5FD83}\String1033.txt
InstallShield: Skipping optional support file _isuser1033.dll
InstallShield: Setting script cmdline...
InstallShield: ProductCode is {15F004AB-7FEA-4290-B1A5-4DD3E88ED3AA}
InstallShield: Initializing Engine
InstallShield: Done Initializing...
InstallShield: Registering Msi Server...
InstallShield: Invoking script function TestFunction
InstallShield: CallScriptFunctionFromMsiCA() ends
MSI (c) (F0:2C) [17:02:34:686]: NOTE: custom action InstallScriptAction unexpectedly closed the hInstall handle (type MSIHANDLE) provided to it. The custom action should be fixed to not close that handle.
Action ended 17:02:34: InstallScriptAction. Return value 1.

[joshstechnij]

We are actively working with one of our customers that is experiencing the same behavior on Vista machines only. Unfortunately, we are unable to reproduce this issue in-house, but we have been able to isolate the behavior to a specific location in the InstallScript engine initialization.

Are you running this on a dual-core machine (such as Intel Core Duo)?

Also, can you run and log the attached MSI package on a machine that experiences this behavior and attach the verbose log?

[mrsteve]

Josh,
No dual-core machines, just P4's and Xeons. The behavior is the same whether or not hyperthreading is enabled.

I've attached a log from your TestICSA.msi.

[joshstechnij]

The behavior in the log is consistent with the behavior seen from another customer:
InstallShield 9:41:17: 2: Creating User Interface Object
InstallShield 9:41:17: 2: UI Thread Waiting For Messages
InstallShield 9:41:47: Wait timed out

There is a step missing (between Creating User... and UI Thread...) which indicates an exception occurred, causing an internal event to not be set, which causes the wait timeout.

Is this a clean install of Vista, or have any settings/options/etc. been changed from the out of box configuration?

I have attached an updated build of the test project that includes additional logging to try to determine where the exception occurs. Can you try logging with this new test?

[mrsteve]

This is happening on both clean and "dirty" installs of Vista. The attached log is from a fresh install of Vista build 5720 with all default settings.