Wix Minimal UI doesnt show up

Question

I\'m trying to create a simple installer with Wix, but the Windows Installer doesn\'t show up. So I\'ve tried the basics, which is:

1. Add Wix v3 Setup project

Answer 1

System Reboot: In this case a simple reboot solved the problem - which is great news.

Speculation: One could speculate as to why, and maybe it had to do with PendingFileRenames (file and folder names waiting to be changed) or some lock in Windows Updates that affected the System Restore point creation? Doesn't sound too likely. Just speculation.

A Deployment Mnemonic: To think about this - if you see the problem - a deployment mnemonic: What is locking (in use), what is blocking (permissions), what is corrupt (disk, malware, configs, encryption), what are unexpected system states (disk space, time & date settings, language, licensing, windows patch state, path too long, PendingFileRenames, etc...), what are incompatible products (things that can't co-exist), what is unreachable or misconfigured (what points to erroneous locations and resources: network server names, disk paths, URLs, databases, services, UAT environments, PROD environments, etc...) and last but not least: what is missing (runtime, resource image, settings file, etc...)? Launch debugging.

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And the older answer. Leaving in to perhaps spark ideas:

• Prevalence: Do other MSI files work without issues?
• Timeout: How long do you wait for the MSI to initialize?
  • Initialization & System Restore: The Windows Installer engine may create a system restore point before the GUI is shown. This can be quite slow, and your setup could appear to hang.
• Source: Maybe post your whole source.
• Logging: Always make a log file for your installation session to debug.

Sounds like you don't need it, but here is a: Sample, minimal MSI compile with WiX Votive.

Gut feel is that there might be an AppSearch in this dialog set that I am unaware of. Maybe try to have a look at the sources yourself first (WixUI_Minimal.wxs et al). Any other issues with your machine? Virtual? Up to date with hotfixes? Malware checked? Disk space? Event logs?