Our users are experiencing crashes when Windows 10 Creators Update (1703) is automatically installed through Windows Updates. The Windows application of ours is a multilevel, C++ WinForms application. The application can start, but if we click on certain menus, it crashes. Appears to be a graphics issue or something to do with fonts, perhaps. Why?
When the Windows 10 1703 update was applied, the installer replaced the Windows/Fonts directory and did not include shortcuts to fonts included elsewhere in Windows.
In our case, our application was needing Lucida Sans Typewriter font, which had been registered with Windows, but located in a bundled JRE for IBM Client Access off Program Files (Our application uses some IBM Client Access components).
Shortcuts of the Lucida fonts were in the Windows/Fonts directory before the update, but absent after the update (which caused our application to crash).
The Fix: We had to copy/paste all the Lucida fonts (there are 8 of them) required from the embedded JRE/lib/fonts directory into the Windows/Fonts directory to resolve the issue. We found if we did this before the 1703 update or after, our application continued to work.
The Lesson: We are going to ensure our applications use fonts that we control 100%, by copying them into Windows/Fonts during install.
Related
I have been able to successfully install a simple program using an Installer Project on Visual Studio Community 2017. However, I can't find out how to create a fully working deployable uninstaller for an end user.
The Installer Project was set up to only create an Application Folder (in C:\Program Files...) with the Program .exe, and nothing else. This it does successfully. I would like an installer because later I plan to make some registry keys upon installation.
To test uninstallation, I have run the original .exe file built by the Installer Project with the "Uninstall" option. This removes the Application Folder but does not remove the program from the Add/remove programs list in Windows - Leading me to believe there are other registry entries that have not been removed.
I have tried to uninstall purely from the Add/remove programs list, but then I get an error:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
In Visual Studio, I can click "Uninstall" from the Installer Project right-click menu which does successfully remove both the Application Folder and the Add/Remove Programs Item, but this is not a deployable solution.
Notes:
OS: Windows 10
Using Visual Studio 2017 Community
Looking at the application Folder, there is neither an install nor uninstall .exe file in it. The Installer Project .exe is only in the original build location, and I cannot find how to get a copy in the Application Folder (not sure if a copy there would work).
I have tried configuring the Installer Project as x86 and x64 with no change.
I have tried using both Debug and Release build configurations with no change.
From looking around, WiX seems to have more features and flexibility, but I haven't yet dug into that. Is there an easier solution?
Has this issue occurred to anyone else? My hopes were that Installer Projects were the simple way to learn and handle installation.
Looks like I jumped to conclusions in the comment above, however I think I found the issue: I cannot uninstall the program from the Windows Apps & Features window in System Settings, but uninstalling from Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features works fine.
When typing in "Remove" using the windows start button, the default item that comes up is "Add or Remove Programs" in System settings (This looks like a Windows 10 thing). When you click that, it forwards you to the "Apps & features window. I am now learning that for some reason this has different functionality than the control panel window. Or maybe it has lower permissions, although I am the admin and only user of this computer...
Because it can be uninstalled from Control Panel, I think this would be the preferred solution. My assumptions about the other window in system settings was my real issue. I just wish the Apps & features window aligned its functionality/permissions with control panel.
I also learned that uninstall is successful when I run msiexec.ex /I{PACKAGEID} in cmd. Not sure how relevant this is, but documenting here.
Installs and uninstalls are transactional, they either work completely or roll back completely. If you do an uninstall but the entry remains in Add/Remove Programs then it's likely that the uninstall did not in fact work.
When you do the install, if it has a UAC elevation dialog then the install is running with elevation and installing files/registry entries to locations prohibited to limited users. Removing files from those locations also requires elevation. You haven't said exactly how your uninstall works, but most likely it requires elevation to succeed, and your program isn't running elevated. If your program uninstalls silently the uninstall will fail silently, so it's possible that your program isn't actually checking that the uninstall worked.
I'd also guess that your Visual Studio session may be running elevated so uninstall from there works fine.
Apart from privileges, an uninstall from a running installed program tends not to work very well because the uninstall process cannot remove your running program or its folder because it's in use. So while you could get it to work (with elevation) you might find that your program and its folder are left behind until the next reboot. If people really want to do this, one of the strategies is to copy an uninstall program to the temp folder and fire it off asynchronously, so everything can be removed.
Uninstalls from Add/Remove Programs&Features generally work fine. Without some context that error message doesn't mean much. It's not a message that comes out of Windows Installer, so it's perhaps coming out of a custom action. Otherwise it may be an issue specific to the test machine.
There is never an uninstall exe in a Windows Installer setup. When you remove a product the system just calls the Windows API to remove the product. Windows Installer is part of the Windows OS with API support for everything that needs doing. Only non-MSI setups require an install and uninstall exe to do anything.
None of these issues seem to be related to your choice of tool. They all create MSI files and if an MSI design is not optimal it doesn't matter what tool you use. There's nothing wrong with WiX, but to install literally a few files it's overkill compared to Visual Studio.
I have a QtWebKit application and I want to avoid DPI awareness. I tried adding a manifest as documented in MSDN but it only worked in Windows 8.1 (not in Windows 8 and lower versions.)
Inspecting the Qt source code (4.7) I found inside the file qapplication_win.cpp the following snippet:
// Notify Vista and Windows 7 that we support highter DPI settings
ptrSetProcessDPIAware = (PtrSetProcessDPIAware)
QLibrary::resolve(QLatin1String("user32"), "SetProcessDPIAware");
if (ptrSetProcessDPIAware)
ptrSetProcessDPIAware();
For more information take a look at the Commit
That said, I don't really know why it's working in Windows 8.1 and more importantly how can I disable this Qt feature... any Macro/Qt API I should use?
I am creating an app for a client. It is written in 32 bit MFC using Visual Studio 2010 and run on 64 bit Windows 7 (compatibility with other versions of windows not required, it's for a very closed system on limited machines) The program will be started automatically in minimized mode when the machine boots.
The program collects data from a bunch of serial ports, and if restored, shows specifics and allows the user to change or fix things, but when minimized should just show a single "red LED" icon to show something is amiss, or a "green LED" icon to show everything is OK, no user intervention is required.
On my development machine (also Win 7-64), running the program from within Visual Studio or directly from Windows Explorer, when I change the icon using CWnd::SetIcon it changes in the window and in the taskbar, just as I want it to. If I make a shortcut to the program and start it with the shortcut, the default icon is displayed in the taskbar and will not change. Fine, it's taking the icon from the shortcut, that is explained.
The odd part is that on the target machine, no matter how I start it, including clicking on in using Windows Explorer in it's folder (like I did on my development machine), or using the Windows Registry "Run", it always uses the default icon, and never changes in the taskbar. I expected that when I used a shortcut on the desktop or in the Startup folder, since that was the behavior on my development machine.
So why would it work on one machine, when run directly from the exe, and not on another of the same windows version?
More to the point, how can I make it work on the target system? I also need to make sure that solution will work when autostarted on power-up/login.
I am creating a shell-replacement for developers, which creates a new windows user, titled "developer" and only when you log into this user, should the shell be launched.
The replacement start menu is replaced with a shell based terminal with great features, the taskbar is replaces with a tree based view for windows, and the process monitor is replaced with a view where you can attach process monitors, debuggers, profiles, and memory leak detectors, etc.
I would like my application replace the regular windows shell. I have however came across a registry key that, on windows 7, works just fine. but on windows XP if I use the regular windows XP file manager the windows XP task bar from explorer.exe launches, even though I changed said registry entry!
Does anybody have any idea what it is I need to do to fully replace the windows shell AND taskbar using windows XP while still retaining use of the windows based file manager?: )
Edit:
Using C++, developing using NetBeans using Qt for my gui library. however, as I do not think this should effect the answer, I figured I would include it either way.
I believe Windows XP does not support per-user shell replacement (not sure, it's been a while since I played with the desktop stuff), but you should be able to set the 'Shell' entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and prevent Explorer from registering itself as the shell when it first runs. This will affect all the users in the machine, of course.
Well, I am facing a strange problem. I have developed a sample MFC ribbon application on my machine - Windows 7 , with Visual Studio 2008. When I copy paste the .exe onto my laptop and run the app , I don't see the ribbon menu (in fact the app has not menu now) .
I have tried looking up the .dll that load in each case(on my work machine and laptop) using process monitor but I am unable to locate what I might be missing. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Edit 1 -
Ok, So thanks for your responses. Some progress has been made with this issue
I changed my IDE to VS 2010. The ribbon was coded manually and I figured out if I could add it as a resource maybe the problem would be solved. VS 2008 did not have the option of adding a ribbon as a resource.
I installed the VS 2010 Service Pack Redistributable X86/X64 depending on whether the machine is 32 or 64 bit.
I built a new "ribbontest.exe" app from VS 2010 and deployed it on other machines on which I would test my actual app. The ribbon for "ribbontest.exe" loads without any problems.
When I deploy my app and run it, first the old menubar loads for a sec or two, then the ribbon flashes and disappears.
A little history of the app I am referring to -
Initially my application had the menubar view. I followed this article http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/cpp/cpp_mfc/tutorials/article.php/c14929/MFC-Feature-Pack-An-Introduction.htm to accommodate a ribbon.
Any suggestions?
Most likely there's a conflict in the settings 'paths'. In your InitInstance() handler, you've got a statement like this:
// Standard initialization
// If you are not using these features and wish to reduce the size
// of your final executable, you should remove from the following
// the specific initialization routines you do not need
// Change the registry key under which our settings are stored
SetRegistryKey(_T("yourappname"));
If you haven't changed that name yet, do it. If you did, open regedit.exe on your target machine and remove the whole key under HKCU\Software\yourappname and then try again.
MFC stores user customizations of Ribbons/Menus/... under that key. But if you changed your app those settings don't necessarily match anymore and you can end up with stuff not showing correctly or not at all.
Make sure you download and install the Visual C++ Redistributable Runtime on your destination machine: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29
Or, something like it. Make sure you have architecture (x86/x64) correct and make sure it matches with the service pack version you compile with.
Joe is right: you need redistributable.
Joe is right: you cannot run 64-bit program on 32-bit machine.
All of the above would be indicated by the system (missing DLL, configuration incorrect, or 64/32 bit discrepancy)
Joe is right: your application must be built for specific set of minimum Windows version and service pack.
In addition to Joe’s post you must run release build not debug build.
If all of those requirements are met and you still have this problem, try linking MFC statically and see if problem persists.