Posted by Brian Levantine on August 03, 2004 at 10:54:15:
In Reply to: Problem with WorkstationInstall posted by Tom Fulton on August 03, 2004 at 08:58:48:
Hi Tom. I'm a little confused about this problem. There are a couple of things that just don't add up. When InstallShield determines the type of install, it internally selects one of two possible groups of files to copy. Once a group has been selected into the installer, there's no further references made to any groups. It's either DLL's or All files. When the program begins it's installation it maintains a journal of every file that is moved or copied. Upon getting an error, it uses the journal to backout any changes that were previousely made. Now, that being said, lets assume that something did go bonkers and the wrong group was selected and the installation was going to the server. If no users were running then there would be no errors - no problem (the server would be updated). If there were users on the server you'd get an error and any files already installed would be removed/restored. The uninstall is supposed to restore any files that were overwritten during the install. Now my question to you is this: If there were users on the system how did the files get overwritten and/or erased? They'd all (exe's and dll's) be open and locked by the server. Even InstallShield can't get around that rule. I suspect that the person installing the software picked the wrong radio button from the install type dialog (explains the error in the first place as users were on the system) and then attempted to correct the problem by whatever means were available. I know the wording in the install type dialog is unsatisfactory. Build 339 (sorry - couldn't get it into 338) will have new wording to avoid confusion in the future.