Link to information about MSI script-based custom action error codes 2738 and 2739

Joy of Setup » When VBScript and JScript custom actions aren't utterly evil

Joy of Setup » When VBScript and JScript custom actions aren't utterly evil — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:35:00 GMT

PingBack from http://www.joyofsetup.com/2007/06/07/when-vbscript-and-jscript-custom-actions-arent-utterly-evil/

Interesting Finds: June 9, 2007

Jason Haley — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:12:30 GMT

Why doesn't MSI takes care of this automatically?

spoiledsport — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:50:17 GMT

This is one the things that should have been taken care of by the instaler already. The instaler team has enhanced MSI for some while, but has not taken care of fixing some of the basic functionality of the product. I have submitted change request after change request for fixes to this since the beginning. Everytime I see posting referring to "this post by Rob Mensching", I completly freak out.

This is total rubbish. All of his assumption are total bull. IMHO

1.- Robust code is difficult write in script.

This is utterly nonsense, bad code can be writing in any language, but specially C. If the developer of the custom action written in script can not do a simple try{}catch() on his code, changing to C would not make it any better.

2. Debugging script in the Windows Installer is difficult

Another stupid instaler team mistake and another request of mine. Has anyone on that team heard of "Active Scripting Host debug". Microsoft for some while sold us the idea of scripting debugging, I built several of them. doesn't that team care what their customer want?

3. Anti-virus products kill them

My anti-virus kills any new code I put in my machine. Many ways exist of fixing this, but the main one is: Just execute the stupid script, do not put it in the file system, get it directly from the binary table and execute it, simple isn't it?

4.- Make sure jscript.dll and vbscript.dll are correctly registered.

So many things that are supposedly part of the base system (ie, media player, etc). Aren't those part of the system too since they are required by and used by the former apps? Shouldn't the system (MSI, etc) make sure they are in the correct state before executing an action which requires it?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I honestly think that script should be the ONLY allowable way of writing custom action, since they provide sort of a sandbox model to protect the end user from ill-intented code from the part of the producer of the MSI and for the most part (i could say allways) they provide all the functionality you may possible need, besides the fact that script is so easy to write and debug (with the right support, of course)

I will send another set of emails to the Windows Installer Wishes mailto:msiwish@microsoft.com asking for some fixes for the upcoming 4.5 release. Let's hope someone is actually listening............

How I resolved Windows Installer error code 2738 on Vista while running light.exe from WiX v3.0

Aaron Stebner's WebLog — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:59:00 GMT

Recently, while attempting to build a Japanese MSI using WiX v3.0 , I received an error message that

Google AdWords Editor - Vista Error 2739 Fix | Christian Affiliate Marketing Blog from Logan Thompson

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:36:29 GMT

PingBack from http://www.lrthompson.com/ppc/google-adwords-editor-vista-error-2739-fix/

re: Link to information about MSI script-based custom action error codes 2738 and 2739

navara — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:32:20 GMT

Under Windows 7 x64 I also had to delete this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{B54F3741-5B07-11CF-A4B0-00AA004A55E8}

re: Link to information about MSI script-based custom action error codes 2738 and 2739

astebner — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:44:27 GMT

Hi Navara - Thanks for the information. I'll update the main blog post to include the x64 registry values in addition to the x86 registry values for this scenario.