Problems with launch condition and per-machine vs. per-user installation on Windows 10

[bobhairgrove]

Question

(NOTE: I do not actually pay anything for the OSMF since this is for a school project which doesn't pay anything. Since I therefore consider myself compliant in this regard, I checked the box anyway...)

This is my first attempt at creating a non-trivial MSI package except from various tutorials found on the web. Using WiX Toolset 6.0.2, my <Package> element has Scope="perMachine". Windows 10 installs everything to the right folders, except that all of the registry values are written to a subkey of HKCU instead of HKLM. Also, there are no shortcuts created (desktop and start menu folders are specified). I do not specify any registry keys except for shortcuts; when I use 'HKLM' for these, WiX or MSI complains about mixed per-user and per-machine data in the shortcuts. The error message seems to imply that shortcuts are ALWAYS installed on a per-user basis, and that registry keys for shortcuts must therefore go under "HKCU" instead of "HKLM".

Another problem is that for the purpose of testing the MSI installation, I created a virtual machine with a clean installation of Windows 10 which does not have the MSVC redistributables installed. The launch condition does not trigger at all which compares the result of a registry search for the version to a minimum version value.

Do I need two registry searches, one to determine whether the redistributables are installed, and another to fetch the installed version?

I generated a log file on the initial install, but cannot detect any problems with the invocation of the launch condition checks. I did have to disable ICE03 concerning "string overflow in launch condition table" or some such thing.

Here is my <Package> element opening tag along with the launch conditions:

  <Package 
      Name="$(var.PackageName)"
      Manufacturer="$(var.Manufacturer)" 
      Version="$(var.ProductVersion)" 
      UpgradeCode="$(var.UpgradeCode)"
      UpgradeStrategy="majorUpgrade"
      InstallerVersion="500"
      ProductCode="*"
      Scope="perMachine">
    <Property Id="VCREDIST">
      <RegistrySearch
        Id="VCRedistId"
        Root="HKLM"
        Key="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC\Runtimes\X64"
        Name="Version"
        Type="raw"
        Bitness="always64" />
    </Property>
    <Launch Condition="VersionNT64" Message="!(loc.NotWindows64)" />
    <Launch Condition="VCREDIST >= 14.44" Message="!(loc.MSVC_RuntimeVersion)" />

And the main component is defined here:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?include SbblPredefines.wxi ?>
<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs">
  <Fragment>
    <!-- MainComponent is "SBBL_v1.4.0.exe": -->
    <Component Id="MainComponent" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Guid="$(var.ProductComponentGUID)">
      <File 
        Id="SbblAppExe" 
        Source="!(bindpath.DEPLOYMENT_FOLDER)\$(var.AppName)_v$(var.ProductVersion).exe" 
        KeyPath="yes" 
        Checksum="yes"
        Vital="yes" />
    </Component>
    <!-- SupportDLLs include all of the Qt6, Xerces-C++, GraphViz, and Libzip DLL files: -->
    <ComponentGroup Id="SupportDLLs" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER">
      <Files Include="!(bindpath.DEPLOYMENT_FOLDER)\**\*">
        <!-- We have to exclude the SBBL "*.exe" file since it is already being installed as 'MainComponent': -->
        <Exclude Files="!(bindpath.DEPLOYMENT_FOLDER)\*.exe"/>
      </Files>
    </ComponentGroup>
    <!-- Use ComponentRef and ComponentGroupRef to combine everything: -->
    <ComponentGroup Id="AppComponents">
      <ComponentRef Id="MainComponent"/>
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="SupportDLLs"/>
      <Component Id="Shortcuts" Directory="ApplicationProgramsFolder">
        <!-- Start Menu shortcut to run the program -->
        <Shortcut Name="$(var.Name)"
          Id="ApplicationStartMenuShortcut" 
          Description="!(loc.LaunchAppDesc)"
          Target="[SbblAppExe]"
          WorkingDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER" />
        <!-- Start Menu shortcut to uninstall the program -->
        <Shortcut Name="!(loc.UninstallAppName)"
          Id="UninstallProduct" 
          Description="!(loc.UninstallAppDesc)"
          Target="[System64Folder]msiexec.exe"
          Arguments="/x [ProductCode]" />
        <RegistryValue 
          Root="HKCU" 
          Key="Software\$(var.Name)" 
          Name="installed" 
          Type="integer" 
          Value="1" 
          KeyPath="yes" />
        <RemoveFolder Id="ApplicationProgramsFolder" On="uninstall" />
      </Component>
      <Component Id="DesktopShortcut" Condition="ADDDESKTOPSHORTCUT">
        <Shortcut 
          Id="ApplicationDesktopShortcut" 
          Directory="DesktopFolder" 
          Name="$(var.Name)"
          Description="!(loc.LaunchAppDesc)"
          Target="[SbblAppExe]"
          WorkingDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER" />
        <RegistryValue 
          Root="HKCU" 
          Key="Software\$(var.Name)" 
          Name="shortcut_installed" 
          Type="integer" 
          Value="1" 
          KeyPath="yes" />
      </Component>
    </ComponentGroup>
  </Fragment>
</Wix>

The main <Feature> element pulls in other components; these seem to get installed OK:

<Feature 
  Id="Main"
  AllowAbsent="no"
  AllowAdvertise="no"
  Description="!(loc.MainFeatureDesc)">
  <ComponentGroupRef Id="AppComponents" />
  <ComponentRef Id="ImportConfigComponent" />
  <ComponentRef Id="SbblResource_en_US"/>
</Feature>

After the installation has finished, I can run uninstall, and the files and registry entries are removed.

TL;DR:

1. How to make this a true per-machine install?
2. How to get the launch conditions right and abort the installation when MSVC redistributables are not found or too old?
3. How to get the shortcuts to appear?

Open Source Maintenance Fee

• I (or an organization I'm a member of) pay the Open Source Maintenance Fee by sponsoring the wixtoolset project because I support the maintainers.

[bobhairgrove]

OK, item 2 is solved for the moment, thanks to the user @forderud :)