Product

Platform

Operating system

Error

Symptoms

The install process (setup.exe) appears in the NT Task Manager list, but the install program itself doesn't start up or takes a long, long time to start up.

To reproduce the problem:

1) Run a single threaded console application that creates a COM object and doesn't do anything else. For example:

E:\home\dnagata>python

Python 1.5.1 (#0, Oct 14 1998, 20:14:21) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32

Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam

>>> import win32com.client

>>> obj=win32com.client.Dispatch('Outlook.Application.8')

>>>

2) Don't do anything else in that console application i.e. don't poll the Windows message pump.

3) Start InstallShield.

It hangs until you quit the python session that loaded the COM object. As soon as you quit the python session, InstallShield continues normally.

Cause

Here's more detailed information from Installshield:

The slowdown is caused by MAPISP32 not being diligent about servicing its message pump. Windows broadcast messages are used as a form of IPC (interprocess communications). The most significant one is a registered Windows message "LOGO_MSG_LOGOSTATUS_30" sent by the 32bit setup portion of IS (_INS5176._MP), which at a minimum causes 16-bit setup.exe to keep the 0-100% dialog box up. It's sent for about every 10k extracted from user.cab via the Win32 function SendMessage(). This is a synchronous function and in this particular case does not return until all the top-level windows (visible or not visible) have call Get/PeekMessage. So if MAPISP32 isn't hot on its message queue, _INS5176 will slow down.

Apparently Lotus Notes causes the same problem as well as other MAPI clients. In general, expect any single threaded COM server that was in use (like a MAPI server with another program polling for new mail) to not always be on the queue since it must take some time to do the requested work.

You can see these messages yourself if you know how to use SPY++ from MSDEV (spy on all windows, and restrict the output to registered messages).

Solution

Before you launch setup.exe:

- Shut down Outlook/pcAnywhere/Lotus Notes.

If setup.exe is already running:

- Close it with NT task manager, shut down Outlook/pcAnywhere/Lotus Notes and restart Setup

OR:

- Identify which process or application is blocking the Installer start up. Close applications one by one, or terminate processes if absolutely necessary, until the Installer is able to start up.

Permanent fix:

See also

Keywords

install

Technical contact(s)

Simon Chen

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Date submitted