What directories are touched during installation

ngurram · Postby **ngurram** » Thu Dec 16, 2021 3:34 pm

Hi, I am having a problem where the installer doesn't install properly in only some specific customer's VMs. They don't have any AVs turned on, and yet the installer behaves like it is incomplete. I would like to know what are all the directories IA needs access to apart from Target dir?

Thanks
Mallika

Postby **FrancescoT** » Mon Dec 20, 2021 3:43 am

IA only needs to store the setup source files. Depending if installing as PER USER or PER MACHINE, these are stored respectively under "AppData" or "ProgramData" folder.

ngurram · Postby **ngurram** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 12:07 am

Thanks Francesco. We only use Install on local machine. I am trying to investigate an issue where installers seem to not get copied completely into these temp directories. This seem to happen only in few situations. Do you see any reason this would happen even when AV is not running?

Thanks
Mallika

Postby **FrancescoT** » Thu Dec 23, 2021 3:28 pm

Dear Mallika, unfortunately without knowing what your installer exactly does, it's not easy to reply your question.

You should provide some more and more detailed information...or a reproducible project.

ngurram · Postby **ngurram** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 3:55 pm

Hi Francesco, The installer only installs some files to target dir and creates app pools in IIS. The problem is it doesn't seem to extract the full installer into the temp directories. We've confirmed that AV is not running and yet installation fails with attached error. So I was wondering if there is any "whitelisting" that needs to be done for any folders.

Thanks
Mallika

Postby **FrancescoT** » Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:35 am

No Mallika, there isn't any "whitelisting" that needs to be done for the target folders.

How are you testing the issue? Are you using a CLEAN TEST MACHINE?

Do you have any chance to share a minimal replicable project?

ngurram · Postby **ngurram** » Wed Dec 29, 2021 12:37 am

Hi Francesco, the problem is I am not able to replicate it at all. This problem seem to happen on few of our customers and am not sure what is different about their environment that causes this. They don't seem to have any Antivirus software and they are installing as admin user. So I am not seeing any reason they would run into issue. The same exact installer would run fine in some environments.

Thanks
Mallika

Postby **FrancescoT** » Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:44 pm

It sounds like a typical AV interference, honestly. If the same isn't replicable on any target system, the problem is surely related to the failing target.

I may suggest you, if possible, to personally verify if they have or not a third party AV installed. Many people don't even know to have one installed.

ngurram · Postby **ngurram** » Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:35 pm

Thanks Francesco. Odd thing is, we provided 5 installers (of 5 different products) and 2 of them install successfully in that problematic environment but not the 3 of them. If AV was the culprit, then why only those 3?

Thanks
Mallika

JohnGaver · Postby **JohnGaver** » Sat Feb 24, 2024 2:14 pm

What you've provided is actually a perfect description of buggy anti-virus behavior - inconsistent execution being a tell-tale sign of the same.

We really do ask for your kind understanding that we cannot work around random issues in poorly written third party software.

The only anti-virus vendor we may formally support is Windows Defender by Microsoft.