Cancel installation from my custom action

I'm writing installer for my program using Windows Installer (not wix). In some cases i want cancel installation proccess开发者_开发知识库 from my custom action. Beside, i want show an error message with my text. How do this?

C#, .net 3.5

You can do this by creating an error custom action. Set the condition of the error custom action to be the fail condition (if the condition evaluates to true, the installation will fail) and set the message to your custom text.

Working thing for me:

Context: for some reason I need to check if the user has 3.5SP1 installed, cancel the install and redirect to the correct download page if not.

Step1: Modify your installer like this

    [System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Demand)]
    public override void Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
    {
        //Check if the FrameWork 3.5SP1 is installed
        if (mycondition)
        {
            //3.5SP1 is installed, ask for framework install
            if (TopMostMessageBox.Show("body", "title", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo) == DialogResult.Yes)
                System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://Microsoft FRW Link");

            WindowHandler.Terminate();
        }
        else
            base.Install(stateSaver);
    }

Step2: Use that code to host your MessageBox (I took it elsewhere, no time to find it by myself)

static public class TopMostMessageBox
{
    static public DialogResult Show(string message)
    {
        return Show(message, string.Empty, MessageBoxButtons.OK);
    }

    static public DialogResult Show(string message, string title)
    {
        return Show(message, title, MessageBoxButtons.OK);
    }

    static public DialogResult Show(string message, string title,
        MessageBoxButtons buttons)
    {
        // Create a host form that is a TopMost window which will be the 

        // parent of the MessageBox.

        Form topmostForm = new Form();
        // We do not want anyone to see this window so position it off the 

        // visible screen and make it as small as possible

        topmostForm.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(1, 1);
        topmostForm.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual;
        System.Drawing.Rectangle rect = SystemInformation.VirtualScreen;
        topmostForm.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(rect.Bottom + 10,
            rect.Right + 10);
        topmostForm.Show();
        // Make this form the active form and make it TopMost

        topmostForm.Focus();
        topmostForm.BringToFront();
        topmostForm.TopMost = true;
        // Finally show the MessageBox with the form just created as its owner

        DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(topmostForm, message, title,
            buttons);
        topmostForm.Dispose(); // clean it up all the way


        return result;
    }
}

Step3: Kill the msiexec

internal static class WindowHandler
{
    internal static void Terminate()
    {
        var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("msiexec").OrderBy(x => x.StartTime); \\DO NOT FORGET THE ORDERBY!!! It makes the msi processes killed in the right order
        foreach (var process in processes)
        {
            var hWnd = process.MainWindowHandle.ToInt32(); 
            ShowWindow(hWnd, 0); //This is to hide the msi window and only show the popup
            try
            {
                process.Kill();
            }
            catch
            {
            }
        }
    }

    [DllImport("User32")]
    private static extern int ShowWindow(int hwnd, int nCmdShow);
}

Mix it with a spoon not with a shaker and serve ;)

Just return ERROR_INSTALL_USEREXIT from your custom action.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa368072(v=vs.85).aspx

Please see the following link on how to display an error message:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa371247(v=vs.85).aspx

At any point you consider you need to abort just:

throw new InstallException("This user name doesn't exist in this system!.");

The installer will popup the User Aborted dialog with your Exception message.