InstallShield Exit Code -1073741819

Problem: InstallShield IsCmdBuild.exe exit code -1073741819

Description: A while back we ran into a problem with our build box at work.  One of our installers suddenly stopped building, giving back the error code -1073741819.  I immediately opened InstallShield's GUI and built the installer and it built with no problems.  I tried again to build it with the Visual Build step (calling the ISCmdBuild.exe - InstallShield's command line tool to build the installer) and it failed again.  So I made the Visual Build step output the command line it was calling.  I then copied that and ran that exact command in a command prompt.  It built successfully.  This led me to believe that it was a problem with Visual Build.  Posting a message on their forums proved useless as they said there was a workaround that had you just handle the error event, look for that Id and change the status of that step to good if it encountered that error.  The problem is that the installer did not build, so the step truly did fail.  So I went back to the idea that it was an InstallShield problem and so tried posting a message on InstallShield's forums and got no response whatsoever.

During my investigation, I did determine that the only time that IsCmdBuild.exe would fail on this step was if the Visual Build project was launched by a Windows Scheduled Task.

The first time we got this message, I had to restore an old version of the build box and work with that.  The second time I didn't have the luxury of doing that.  So I dug and dug into the InstallShield files and tested a couple theories.  I finally came across a solution that worked.

Solution:

1. Uninstalled the InstallScript Objects.
2. Deleted the .msm files in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules.
3. Deleted C:\Program Files\IS11.5\Objects\MDAC28.msm.
4. Ran the IS11.5 install and ran a "Repair".
5. Reinstalled the InstallScript Objects.
6. Downloaded MDAC 2.8 Merge Module from the Objects section in an InstallShield InstallScript project.

I kicked off a new build and everything worked.  We haven't seen that problem resurface since.

Tags: InstallShield, VisualBuild

Windows Live Writer

I just came across the Windows Live Writer browsing Channel9 and had to try it out.  I fired up SVS, created a new layer, installed Windows Live Writer, updated the layer to include the Tag4Writer and here I am creating a new post on my blog using Windows Live Writer.  It seems pretty nice.  Nothing too bulky, simple, straight forward.  It even satisfied a co-worker of mine.  He was a user of Blogjet but he said he wanted one that supported tags, allowed you to set the title of the page (Blogjet does not do this but Windows Live Writer uses the name of the post as the title of the page) and writes good HTML.

A couple nice features: allows you to insert pictures and maps with the click of a button, gives you the ability to save drafts and has very simple style editing (if I'm going to write a fancy looking post, I'm going to write the HTML myself, not use a post creator).  It defaults to a Web Layout style, so as you type, your post already looks like what it will on your blog.  Then you can switch to the Web Preview and view the post as if you actually posted it (displays in the context of your actual blog).

Windows Live Writer supports a number of different blogs from Windows Live Spaces to Community Server to Wordpress to Blogger.  Check it out.  You'll probably like it.

Update:

Tag4Writer does not actually fully support tagging in Community Server.  It simply puts in links in the post to specific tags.  As far as I am aware, CS does not parse these tag links in a post.  I actually had to manually put the tags in myself and then I had duplicate links on the post for each tag.  So I decided to not use Tag4Writer for now.  CS 2.1 added the ability to add tags via AJAX right when viewing a post (if you're logged in).  That's good enough for me for now.  Hopefully WLW adds tagging support or Tag4Writer adds that functionality to their software.

Another thing I realized with WLW is that it allows you to update a post.  Tremendous!  However, I think it may be clearing the tags on my post when I post an update.  Hopefully it was just something I did.

Update:

Yep, the tags were removed.

Tags: Windows Live Writer, Channel9, SVS, Blogjet, Tag4Writer