Error while installing MSI

[dsoto]

Hello! I am really sorry to hear that you are currently having so many issues while installing your software, we at NI are constantly working to deliver better solutions to this sort of problems. After trying to replicate the issue, found that it is very likely that some MSI files are messing with another NI software. I have found that the easiest solution is uninstalling all NI software and try by reinstalling first the software that is giving the MSI error issue. Then the other NI software programs can be installed, but just to make sure there is nothing that can have issues with the installation of the software of interest. We must try first by installing this software.

[Kelemvor4]

I'm also having the problem.  I suspect it's a hard coded path to C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments in the installers.   Those of us using onedrive have a modified filesystem and C:\users isn't the location for the profiles anymore.  Therefore, the installer can't write to that path. 

At least, I think that's what's going on.  I'm not going to test it by removing onedrive as I don't want to re-sync 800GB of data just to test it.

I might try installing in a vm with repackager running so I can install it on my main pc (assuming the vm install works).   Long way to go to get a piece of software working...

[Scott_Richardson]

Hi Aaron, it is likely that the only way that we can get to the bottom of this error that you and a few others have experienced is for someone to obtain MSI logs for the failed install. Normally if NI Package Manager is already installed the following KB (Generating and Locating NI Package Manager Error Logs) can be used to enable MSI logging; however, if NI Package Manager is not yet on the system, other steps are required to do this, which I will need to research before posting.

Can you share what you are specifically installing and whether the system has an older version of NI Package Manager already installed on the system?

[Edit] If NI Package Manager is not yet installed and is failing when installed, then you will need to do the following as referenced in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/application-management/enable-windows-...

• Edit the registry and create the following key:

Path:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer
Type: Reg_SZ
Value: Logging
Data: voicewarmupx

• Perform the install operation that fails to create log files.
• Look to see what new msi*.log files created in the directory that %temp% resolve to.
• Revert the registry change when done with debugging.

[Kelemvor4]

I started with an older NI package manger.   I was trying to update to the current release with LabVIEW and Drivers (with ni-scope and ni-dmm).  I say started with because I've reinstalled package manger a couple times now trying different options.

Currently I'm trying to use Package manager 2023 Q2 and Labview 2023 Q1

I attached a screenshot of the error.  I can't seem to upload a zip so here's a dropbox link to %appdata%\Local\National Instruments https://www.dropbox.com/s/mg69oxp07jaujrd/National_Instruments.zip

Doesn't look like much there but there are some MSI logs in %temp% which only contain:

Error 1317. An error occurred while attempting to create the directory: C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments
=== Logging stopped: 4/28/2023 16:22:39 ===

I'll try generating some additional debug info for you later in the weekend.

[Scott_Richardson]

Aaron, NI Package Manager and the packages/MSIs that NI creates use Windows shell lookups for all system directories, so I do not think there are any static values for C:\Users\Public in our installers. 

I will have to determine what API we or MSI uses to resolve that directory location.

Could you try the following on the system and share the output?

1. Open a command-prompt:
   1. What is the output of the following command? 
      reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /s
   2. What is the output of the following command? 
      reg query "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /s
   3. What does the following command output?
      echo %public%
   4. Does the directory reported in (1.3) exist?
   5. Does the following command work?
      cd %public%
   6. If the directory exists, could it be read-only?
   7. What is the output of the following command work?
      dir
2. Open a PowerShell window:
   1. What is the output of the following command?
      [Environment]::GetFolderPath('CommonDocuments')
   2. Does the directory reported in (2.1) exist?
   3. If the directory exists, could it be read-only?

[Lako08]

Hello Scott

I am experiencing similar issues and I went through your sequence of steps, and I can confirm in both points 1.6 and 2.3 in your sequence below I do have them as "read-only" folders, should I enable read-write access in both of those?

Carlos

[Scott_Richardson]

Carlos, sorry for the late rely as I was offline recently.

So what is the error that you are seeing, is it the same as the image post from Kelemvor4 on 4/29/2023?  Assuming the same error, does the C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments folder already exist? Does the NI-DAQ subfolder exist?

Looking more at this issue, if the read-only state is a check in the checkbox then that might be the issue. If the read-only state is a filled-in checkbox, then that is likely not the issue. 

I would be curious if your system has controlled folder access enabled, see below for image of Windows setting:

If I enable this setting, I was able to reproduce a similar error as shown below:

[StanislavVitesco]

Hi, seems to be common issue with corporate windows 11, where installer does not have access to public folder. I also cant install NI drivers. Any idea how to fix please?

[Scott_Richardson]

Stanislav, can you look to see if the above mentioned Controlled Access Folder option is visible to you, and if the setting is enabled, can you disable it? If it is enabled by default and/or the setting cannot be changed, then there is likely an IT policy being applied.

You can use the following command in a PowerShell prompt to get the value:

Get-MpPreference | Select EnableControlledFolderAccess

and the following in an administrative PowerShell prompt to set the value:

Set-MpPreference -EnableControlledFolderAccess 0

For more information on the setting, see Enable controlled folder access.

[Valgirl]

Hi Scott,

I also have this issue when tying to install Ni-VISA (also tried installing and have the same issues with permission). The Controlled Access Folder option is visible but not editable on my machine, when I run the powershell command it returns a value of 2. I am unable to edit the value, is this the source of the permissions issue?

Valerie