WIX execute custom action with admin privilege

Question

I have written a custom action for my WIX installer. The action´s Execute-attribute is set to deferred and Impersonate and running before InstallFinalize but it encounters a problem within this action which is the missing admin rigth. The action creates a file in the INSTALLFOLDER which is Program File (x86)

Thats my WIX code:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Product Id="*" 
           Name="WixTesterSetup" 
           Language="1033" 
           Version="1.0.0.0" 
           Manufacturer="WixTester" 
           UpgradeCode="77b7ed9a-5394-43e9-aecb-cd9985368ef6">
        <Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine" />

        <MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed." />
        <MediaTemplate />

    <Feature Id="Core" Title="Core" Level="1" ConfigurableDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER" />

    <UI>
      <UIRef Id="WixUI_Minimal" />
      <Publish  Dialog="ExitDialog"
                Control="Finish"
                Event="DoAction"
                Value="LaunchApplication">WIXUI_EXITDIALOGOPTIONALCHECKBOX = 1 and NOT Installed</Publish>
    </UI>

    <Property Id="WIXUI_EXITDIALOGOPTIONALCHECKBOXTEXT" Value="Launch Wix Tester" />
    <Property Id="WixShellEecxTarget" Value="[#WixTester.exe]" />
    <CustomAction Id="LaunchApplication" BinaryKey="WixCA" DllEntry="WixShellExec" Impersonate="yes" />

    <Binary Id="CustomActionBinary" SourceFile="$(var.RegistrationInfoCustomAction.TargetDir)$(var.RegistrationInfoCustomAction.TargetName).CA.dll"/>
    <CustomAction Id="RegistrationInfoCustomAction" BinaryKey="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="SaveUserInfo" Execute="deferred" Impersonate="no" />

    <InstallExecuteSequence>
      <Custom Action='RegistrationInfoCustomAction' Before='InstallFinalize'>NOT Installed</Custom>
    </InstallExecuteSequence>

    <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
            <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
        <Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="WixTesterSetup">
          <Component Feature="Core">
            <File Id="WixTester.exe" Source="$(var.WixTester.TargetPath)" KeyPath="yes" Checksum="yes"/>
          </Component>
        </Directory>
            </Directory>
        </Directory>

  </Product>

</Wix>

Simple custom action:

    public class CustomActions
{
    [CustomAction]
    public static ActionResult SaveUserInfo(Session session)
    {
        File.Create(System.IO.Path.Combine(session.GetTargetPath("INSTALLFOLDER"), "test.xml"));

        return ActionResult.Success;
    }
}

Not intresting WixTester:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Test Started");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

Answer 1

Diagnose: I suspect there is something else wrong than just permissions. Please try the following:

Verbose Log File: Please create a verbose log file:

msiexec.exe /I "C:\file.msi" /QN /L*V "C:\msilog.log"

Hot Log Interpretation Tip: Search for "value 3" in the log file to find errors as explained by Rob Mensching (Wix & Orca author). MSI log files can be overwhelming otherwise.

More: How to interpret an MSI Log File (and in PDF format from WayBack).

Debugging Custom Actions: Are you attaching the debugger to the custom action in question? Please find information here: WIxsharp debug custom action in console - and a direct link to an Advanced Installer demonstration video. And a link to MSDN / Microsoft Docs.

Debugging In Short: show a message box and attach to it.

---

XML Files: XML files can be installed with WiX XML features and should not be generated via custom actions. You could also create the file from the application itself on launch in a location writable for the user. Here are a couple of links for the latter:

• How to deploy settings files: Create folder and file on Current user profile, from Admin Profile
• Handling write permission denied: System.UnauthorizedAccessException while running .exe under program files

Recommendation: I do not know which approach can work for you. Recommend you generate the file via the application and save in the userprofile. One xml file per user.

---

Links:

• More on logging: Enable installation logs for MSI installer without any command line arguments

Answer 2

The Problem was that deferred custom actions don´t have access to session["PropertyName"] the solution was to use session.CustomActionData["PORTProperty"] and pass the variables throught a custom action type 51. The new WIX code looks like:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Product Id="*" 
           Name="WixTesterSetup" 
           Language="1033" 
           Version="1.0.0.0" 
           Manufacturer="WixTester" 
           UpgradeCode="77b7ed9a-5394-43e9-aecb-cd9985368ef6">
        <Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine" />

        <MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed." />
        <MediaTemplate />

    <Feature Id="Core" Title="Core" Level="1" ConfigurableDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER" />

    <UI>
      <UIRef Id="WixUI_Minimal" />
      <Publish  Dialog="ExitDialog"
                Control="Finish"
                Event="DoAction"
                Value="LaunchApplication">WIXUI_EXITDIALOGOPTIONALCHECKBOX = 1 and NOT Installed</Publish>
    </UI>

    <Property Id="WIXUI_EXITDIALOGOPTIONALCHECKBOXTEXT" Value="Launch Wix Tester" />
    <Property Id="WixShellEecxTarget" Value="[#WixTester.exe]" />
    <CustomAction Id="LaunchApplication" BinaryKey="WixCA" DllEntry="WixShellExec" Impersonate="yes" />

    <Binary Id="CustomActionBinary" SourceFile="$(var.RegistrationInfoCustomAction.TargetDir)$(var.RegistrationInfoCustomAction.TargetName).CA.dll"/>
    <CustomAction Id="RegistrationInfoCustomAction" BinaryKey="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="SaveUserInfo" Execute="deferred" Impersonate="no" />
    <CustomAction Id="CustomAction51" Property="RegistrationInfoCustomAction" Value="INSTALLFOLDER=[INSTALLFOLDER]" />

    <InstallExecuteSequence>
      <Custom Action="CustomAction51" Before='InstallFinalize' />
      <Custom Action='RegistrationInfoCustomAction' After='CustomAction51'>NOT Installed</Custom>
    </InstallExecuteSequence>

    <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
            <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
        <Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="WixTesterSetup">
          <Component Feature="Core">
            <File Id="WixTester.exe" Source="$(var.WixTester.TargetPath)" KeyPath="yes" Checksum="yes"/>
          </Component>
        </Directory>
            </Directory>
        </Directory>

  </Product>

</Wix>

The Custom Action now looks like:

    using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Net.Mime;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller;

namespace RegistrationInfoCustomAction
{
    public class CustomActions
    {
        [CustomAction]
        public static ActionResult SaveUserInfo(Session session)
        {
            File.Create(System.IO.Path.Combine(session.CustomActionData["INSTALLFOLDER"], "test.xml"));

            return ActionResult.Success;
        }
    }
}