How to set wix msi to run advertised by admin

Question

I have a program that auto-updates itself when it finds a newer version MSI. I used to create the MSI with a VS2008 Setup project. I migrated the development to VS2013, lost the Setup project, tried IS and got extremely frustrated and finally landed with WIX.

The MSI created with WIX does all I need but fails in the auto-update logic:

Because the program can be running under a limited user account, when it detects a newer MSI, it first Advertises it with the credentials of an Administrator. These credentials are stored encrypted in an XML file. Then, once the MSI has been advertised, it is launched with the current user. The code (in short)

Process^ advertise = this->advertiseMSI(shortpath,mydomain,myusername,mypassword);
advertise->WaitForExit();       
Process^ install = this->installMSI(shortpath);

Where advertiseMSI is:

Process^ process = gcnew Process();
process->StartInfo->UseShellExecute = false;
process->StartInfo->FileName = "C:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe";
process->StartInfo->Arguments = "/jm " + "\"" + msiPath + "\"";
process->StartInfo->WorkingDirectory = Environment::GetEnvironmentVariable("WINDIR");
process->StartInfo->UserName = userName;
process->StartInfo->Password = this->getSecureString(Password);
process->StartInfo->Domain = userDomain;
process->StartInfo->Verb = "runas";
process->Start();
return process;

and installMSI just launches the Msiexec in a silent install with the current user.

This worked fine with the MSI created with VS2008 but it fails with the WIX MSI. The log of the msiexec is:

"Error 1730. You must be an Administrator to remove this application..."

If I run the MSI manually, it works when logged as admin but when logged as user it fails and doesn't ask for elevating privileges.

I have set InstallPrivileges="elevated" InstallScope="perMachine" in the Package section and does not make a difference (I have tried every possible combination of those). It seems to me that the MSI is not advertised but the code does not fail. Looks like the MSI is always run with limited privileges. I have also tried to set AllowAdvertise="yes" in the only one Feature of the product.

One main difference I can see with the MSI produced with VS2008 is that the later had two features, Admin and user.

Answer 1

I don't know if you're still struggling with this problem, but I've come across a similar problem with an installer built with NSIS, so perhaps this will help you or others. I was able to overcome this in my situation by using command shell indirection as follows (C# code):

ProcessStartInfo processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/C myapp_installer.exe /S /D"); // Options /S /D apply to myapp_installer.exe.
processInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
processInfo.Domain = domain;
processInfo.UserName = username;
processInfo.Password = password; // Obtain securely not hard-coded.
Process process = Process.Start(processInfo);

I can't fully explain why this works, when directly calling the installer fails to pass the required credentials, but I'm pretty certain that it has to do with what is explained by Chris Jackson on the MSDN Blog, which incidentally was referenced in the answer to your related question.

I hope this helps!