Windows installer failing with error "Error writing to file: System.Web.Extensions.dll. Verify that you have access to that directory."

I have a simple windows installer package that I created. All it does is insta开发者_运维知识库ll 2 .dll's into the GAC. This is a production machine, so as I understand it, it is a best practice to install to the GAC in this way (as opposed to using gacutil.exe, etc.)

This installer works fine on another server that I have for testing. The server it works on, however, is just a plain vanilla installation of Win2k3, with nothing else installed. The production server this installer is failing on is a Win2k3 box with service packs, and a load of other software on it.

I am not sure how to go about troubleshooting this. There are no events thrown in the even logs, etc. No indication of what is wrong. This question on MSDN has some hints, but I can't seem to find any real answers.

Here's my guess without looking at any logfile:

1) You shouldn't even be installing this assembly as it's part of .NET 3.5. You also probably didn't tell your installer to install it. It's just one of those wonderful feature that makes Visual Studio Deployment projects, well, "special" It likes to detect dependencies and then it's up to you to "exclude" them ( right click | exclude )

2) The machine that it's "working" probably has .NET 3.5 and since that version of the assembly is already in the GAC, MSI simply skips it.

3) The machine that is not working ( you said it's W2K3 with nothing else ) probably only has .NET 1.1 ( it came preinstalled ) and when MSI tries to install a .NET 3.5 assembly ( CLR 2.0 ) it doesn't have a clue how to do this so a throws a (misleading) error.

Again, just a guess since you didn't provide a windows installer log.

And finally one more possible lead:

MSI: "Error writing to file: **.dll. Verify that you have access to that directory. GAC problem?

Regardless I suspect my hunch is correct that you should just exclude the assembly as it's already laid down by .NET 3.5.

PS- Installers are a niche space so 14hours isn't really tumbleweed time like it might be in C# where 500 people try to answer a question in 5 minutes.