Problem using Winstall Lite to make .MSI packages for Windows Installer Deployment.

[BaDaBooM]

Has anybody worked with the Winstall lite that comes on the Win2k Server CD? I get it to work for some applications but not others. It's weird because it is some of the more simple programs that are causing problems. I just decided to do a test with some simple freeware, like trillian. Everything is fine until Windows Installer tries to install it. (2000 domain, WinXP client) I get errors like these:

Error 1406. Could not write value VersionMinor to key UNKNOWN\Products\4D2506DAF3AD3C347A284BB1178E618C\InstallProperties Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.

and

Error 1406. Could not write value VersionMinor to key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{AD6052D4-DA3F-43C3-A782-B41B71E816C8}. Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.

I am logged on as administrator when this happens, though it is supposed to work for any user. This is just an example of the of errors that I am getting with it for a few different programs though they all look very similar. I looked around on MS technet site, but didn't help much. I don't understand why I would get this from such simple install programs. I just need pointed in the right direction, or how to interpret these errors. Anybody have a clue?

 

[BaDaBooM]

TTT

 

[BaDaBooM]

It must be something wrong with the snapshot because I can click ignore and the program finishes its install and works fine afterwards. However, I cannot assign it to a machine if it has errors in it so I still have to figure out how to fix the install... Tried editing the .msi file to see if I could take out any registry keys that are unrelated to the program. Unfortunately that didn't fix it. Any help is greatly appreciated. 😀

 

[BaDaBooM]

Well, I've been searching microsoft, veritas, and google for this problem off and on for over a week. All that and it was something so stupid. Here's the answer in case anyone else has this problem:

The problem was that you can't use a letter in the application version when you edit the .msi file. I was putting 0.74c on trillian and every other program that was having this same problem also had a letter in the version. I guess it puts the version you give it in a key in the registry that can only accept numerical data. I feel so dumb, cuz the error makes sense now. They could have made it a little less cryptic though.

 

[Commish]

I am the Wininstall/co-SMS admin where I work. The Wininstall knowledgebase at On-Demand software just plain sucks, although their e-mail support has been pretty good. I agree, the error messages when compiling a package are very cryptic. Do you just use Wininstall lite for the .msi package creation? We have used Wininstall to create the .msi and then use SMS to distribute them, not my choice since our management is pretty thick skulled. :disgust:
Our success with Wininstall is around 95%, where SMS is sitting around the 70-75% range.