Windows Installer-Avoid FileinUse dialog box when

Question

When ever there is an update patch of files that have to be replaced with the existing files and if one of the files is being used by any of the processes, then a file in use dialog box pops-up.I wanna avoid that dialog box and get that file queued up for installation so that it can be installed at the time of system reboot. I have read that the queuing the files for update at the time of reboot is the inbuilt functionality of windows installer. Can someone suggest me the way to remove that FileInUse Dialog box. I tried setting up the "MsiRMFilesInUse" property to "0" but it didn't work.

Answer 1

"Short" Answer

Essentially: you could 1) run completely silently (suppresses the files-in-use dialog), 2) shut down locking applications gracefully (application update to allow graceful shutdown - with or without restart manager support), 3) ensure proper service control (if dealing with services), 4) force-kill running processes (the "sledgehammer-approach"), 5) abort setup if locks are detected, 6) require logoff before deployment, 7) install to a new folder for each version (side-by-side install), etc...

Below is a little drill-down of files-in-use issues and the Restart Manager - intended as a quick review for files-in-use and reboot issues.

In terms of your actual problem. I wouldn't mess with the FileInUse dialog(s). It won't really solve your problem. Maybe consider these pointers:

• Services: If you are installing services and they trigger files-in-use issues, please see section on services towards the bottom to determine if you can improve your setup's logic.
• Silent Mode: Running your setup in silent mode would be an obvious way to suppress such files-in-use dialogs, but then you have to suppress automatic reboot, or the system will spontaneously reboot without warning. Details below.
• Policy: Please check if the DisableAutomaticApplicationShutdown policy is enabled on your box / standard PC configuration. See details below.
  • Registry location is: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer.
  • I am not sure if enabling this policy will make the files-in-use dialogs disappear.
• Restart Manager Compliance: Maybe check if you should update your application to heed the design of the Restart Manager feature - to allow for auto-magic and problem free upgrades by applications shutting themselves down gracefully (provided you are dealing with binaries that you can actually change yourself - in other words: you have the source code). Lots of details below.
• "Setup Overkill": If you deem it safe to kill your application without mercy during upgrades, see section on this below.
• Graceful Shutdown Custom Action: If you make your application capable of graceful shutdown (restart manager-style), then you can trigger such a shutdown yourself as well (easiest for user context processes) via an immediate mode custom action (in case Restart Manager is disabled by policy - look out for timing and timeout issues though - especially for silent running - "deadlock").
• Side-By-Side Installation: some details below. Some companies decide to install applications truly side-by-side so there are no file overwrite issues with their new deployments (old versions uninstall may still trigger required reboots though).

I suppose you could also abort the install if locked files are detected, or you could require users to log off before the installation is run - if you have a distribution system.

Please at least skim the rest of the answer for more details and context.

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Restart Manager

Your applications and services should be prepared to be shut down by the Restart Manager and save user data and state information that are needed for a clean restart. This requires updates and changes to the application / service to adhere to standards for shutdown and restart of the application.

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The Restart Manager: is a new C-style API available beginning with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Restart Manager consists of a single DLL that applications can load to access the Restart Manager API. The idea is that the Restart Manager will auto-magically shut down and restart your applications during installations / updates, by having the application / service follow a set of guidelines:

• Guidelines for Applications - (the crucial tech-read)
• Guidelines for Services

In essence: The whole idea is basically to prefer restarting applications rather than restarting the OS. To that end: 1) Your application calls RegisterApplicationRestart() with a command line specified for its eventual restart - it "signs up" for restart management. 2) Your application watches for WM_QUERYENDSESSION messages and shuts down gracefully saving data in an appropriate way when told to do so. 3) Then Restart Manager can restart the application when finished installing (restart can be disabled).

More Technical stuff:

• Here is a nice Symantec article on "Files In Use & The Restart Manager".
• How do I add support for Windows Restart Manager to my application? (Advanced Installer)

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Restart Manager Configuration: There are a number of properties that will affect how the Restart Manager will operate with Windows Installer:

• MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL - use the Restart Manager or FileInUse Dialog
• MSIDISABLERMRESTART - restart or don't restart shut down applications
• MSIRMSHUTDOWN - shutdown, force shutdown or do not force shutdown

When Restart Manager is used, the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog is used instead of the FileInUse dialog to show a list of applications that have locked files.

N.B! The whole Restart Manager feature can also be disabled by policy:

• DisableAutomaticApplicationShutdown policy.
• Check in HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer.
• Restart Manager behavior with windows installer

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FileInUse

If you don't have the time or resources to implement proper interoperability with the Restart Manager (which is frankly the only sane thing to spend your resources on at this point in Windows's development), then there are a few things that might be good to know:

• Silent Install: The first obvious thing to point out is that there will be no FileInUse dialog if you install the setup in silent mode. However, this could trigger a system reboot unless you specify the REBOOT=ReallySuppress property.
• Services: Do you install services that you do not properly shut down during upgrade? There are built-in MSI constructs to shut down services during upgrades - the Service Control table.
  • Used properly, this ServiceControl feature means you no longer have any problems with service executables triggering a reboot to be replaced (barring shutdown problems in the service itself).
  • This is a built-in MSI constructs and works well when used right. People should not resort to custom actions to install services.
• Application Support: Beyond interoperability with the Restart Manager, some application - that have files in use - can shut down gracefully when told to do so.
  • Some applications shut down properly when sent a command line, for example App.exe -shutdown, despite not having been written to be interoperable with the Restart Manager. Maybe system tray applications that save no data for the user?
  • This obviously has to be implemented specifically for the application in question - and if you do that, you should use the Restart Manager instead at this point (or additionally, you could have both call the same actual shutdown implementation).
• "Setup Overkill": some setups are designed to just kill application processes that are open at the time of installation.
  • Not ideal, but it can work for certain types of applications that run in the background (OK, it is nuts, but it is done regularly).
  • Use a custom action or whatever built-in constructs are available in your deployment tool.
    • WiX: Kill windows service forcefully in WIX.
    • VBScript: Close an application using VBScript.
    • Advanced Installer: How to detect or stop a process.
    • Installshield: Kill process. Kill process documentation.
• REINSTALLMODE: Do you perhaps use REINSTALLMODE="amus" to force overwrite files during installation?
  • This can dramatically increase the amount of files in-use and reboot prompts since all files are attempted replaced - and generally unnecessarily so - especially in repair and modify scenarios.
  • This is particularly true for setups that install services that do not use the ServiceControl table properly to shut down the service before trying to overwrite its binary.
• Side-By-Side Installations (SO): adding this for reference, it is beyond the scope of what is "normally relevant". This approach requires quite a bit of technical changes and proper distribution processes to be successful - it is primarily for in-house, core corporate applications (full app control possible) - in my opinion.
  • New versions, targeting new installation folders (add version number to installation folder?), can generally install without any file overwrite issues (unless any system-shared files are updated - in which case you should split them to a separate pre-requisite MSI - with its own distribution logic - when required - which should be rarely).
  • Older version uninstall can still trigger reboot requirements as the files can be in-use and not ready to be uninstalled. Obviously.
  • You can use automatic GUIDs for the setup components - so MSI can keep them tracked separately in a correct fashion. You must generally eliminate all need to set static components (or they must be installed to shared locations and kept static - or updated via a separate pre-requisite MSI when required).
  • The whole application must be "well behaved" for side-by-side use and installation. In other words not fight over file associations and load all resources properly and manage database connections that could be shared between instances, etc...
  • You add the version number to the start menu shortcut? Somehow you must be able to differentiate installations and launch the desired version - obviously. The application should be aware of its doppelgängers?
  • I might consider setting a new upgrade code for each release, in order to decouple the products from one another, and then use the distribution system to uninstall older, legacy versions (as a weekend or monthly batch job?). This is not 100% necessary, it all depends on your scenario. Lots of things can work when planned coherently - obviously.
  • Applications not suitable for normal side-by-side operation may sometimes be virtualized and sandboxed using App-V (virtual packages) to allow different versions to co-exist on the same box. New challenges.

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Some Further Links:

• FileInUse or FilesInUse (lots of inside information from a Symantec employee towards bottom)
• Terminating process in CustomAction
• Restart Manager behavior with windows installer
• How can I stop an .exe on repair, update and delete in wix?
• RmGetList() API fails when file is locked using Ez file locker but works with another file locking utility
• Suppress an MSI error code
• Wix stop service on uninstall/upgrade: prevent "restart popup" (file-in-use situation)

Answer 2

Hopefully not repeating too much here, but I'll start by pointing out that the reason for that dialog is to avoid reboots. You didn't say why you want to wait for a reboot instead of using the in-use functionality that lets you avoid rebooting in the first place. It's also unclear about when your next reboot is expected, the issue being that the install of the app is not complete until all the files have been completely replaced and updated. It's not unusual for an incompletely installed app to crash because its current state is some set of old and new files mixed together.

1. There is no MsiRMFilesInUse property, so setting it has no effect.

2. The MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL property tells Windows whether to use the older FilesInUse behavior or the new Restart Manager FilesInUse methods of in-use detection. It does not turn off files-in-use behavior detection, it's just a switch between old and new methods. Because the detection methods differ you may see different behavior depending on what files are actually in use (only apps with open windows are detected by the old methods).

3. You should say which tool you are using to build your MSI file because they have different capabilities. Visual Studio setups have virtually no support for automatic shutdown, except that if you are installing services with installer classes then your Uninstall method could be extended to stop the service at uninstall time. If you are using WiX then there are util::CloseApplication capabilities.

4. The supported Windows shutdown method is to integrate your apps with Restart Manager, and Stein has links. For services, the "normal" service install with MSI ServiceInstall/ServiceControl takes care of this, but not for Visual Studio setup projects with installer classes.

Finally, create an MSI verbose log and look for in use entries, usually with a 1603 error (the file in use flavor, not the install crashed flavor). You may not need this log if the dialogs tell you the apps that need shutting down, so just focus on a way to get them stopped on an update, because that's a better solution rather than attempting to suppress the default Windows behavior.

Answer 3

Assuming you are the package author, I would suggest following the norms, which are to use the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog. But if you want to attempt to disable things anyway, start by understanding the guidance for package authors on Using Windows Installer with Restart Manager:

• Add the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box to your package. If the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box is present in the package, the Windows Vista user running an installation at the Full UI user interface level is given the option to automatically close and restart applications. An installation package can contain information for both the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box and the FilesInUse dialog box. The MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box is only displayed if the package is installed with at least Windows Installer 4.0 on Windows Vista, and is otherwise ignored. Existing packages that do not have the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box continue to function using the FilesInUse dialog box. A customization transform can be used to add an MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box to existing packages. End-users typically run installations at the Full UI user interface level. Basic UI or Reduced UI level installations give the user the option of using the Restart Manager to reduce system restarts even if the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box is not present. Silent UI level installations always shut down applications and services, and on Windows Vista, always use Restart Manager.

  : : :

• Package authors can base a condition in the LaunchCondition table on the MsiSystemRebootPending property to prevent the installation of their package when a system restart is pending.

• Package authors and administrators can control the interaction of the Windows Installer and Restart Manager by using the MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL, MSIDISABLERMRESTART, MSIRMSHUTDOWN properties and the DisableAutomaticApplicationShutdown policy.

Setting MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL=Disable, possibly removing the FilesInUse and MsiRMFilesInUse dialogs from your package, and optionally tweaking further settings discussed on System Reboots (such as setting the REBOOT or REBOOTPROMPT properties) may have the effect you desire.

If you are not the package author, you are probably asking in the wrong forum. The DisableAutomaticApplicationShutdown policy sounds like it could do most of what you describe, and would apply to all packages installed on your machine. It is intended for use by systems administrators instead of package authors. Alternately you could create transforms (or specify properties on the installation command line) to effectively alter the package like the package author would have.