Unable to delete deployed file during installation with WIX installer

Question

In our WIX installer project, we need to generate a new file, let's call it FileB, based on a deployed file, called FileA in a managed custom action function. In another word, in the component declaration, I declare the FileA. While in a custom action (which happens at commit phase), I need to generate FileB based on FileA. After that, since FileA is no use anymore, I want to delete it in the same custom action.

And here comes the problem: with the default installation folder, which is Program Files, the normal user is not allowed to add file (generate FileB) into this folder in the custom action (I am not 100% sure I am right, but it is the case in my test. And if I install it in another folder, there is no problem at all). So I think I need to give permission of creating file. In order to do that, I add a CreateFolder element to the component which includs FileA. The whole component declaration is something like this:

<Component Id='COMPONENT_NAME' Guid='MY_GUID'>
    <!--OTHER FILES IN THE COMPONENT-->
    ...
    <CreateFolder Directory='INSTALLDIR'>
      <Permission CreateFile='yes' User='Everyone' GenericAll='yes' Delete='yes'/>
    </CreateFolder>
    <File Id='MyFileA' Name='FileA'   Source='PATH_TO_FILEA' KeyPath='no' >
      <Permission GenericAll='yes' User='Everyone' Delete='yes'/>
    </File>
  </Component>

The component actually belongs to a component group, which resides in INSTALLDIR. The reason there is other files in the same component element is because I want another File to be the keypath, so that deleting FileA would not cause a problem of that. And now the generation of FileB is working fine. But later in the same custom action, I am experiencing the problem when deleting FileA. It just says that ": Access to the path 'DEPLOYMENT_PATH_TO_FILEA' is denied." I thought the problem lies in the FileA declaration, that's why I added the Delete='yes' in the Permission element under File, hoping to make it OK to delete it (although I am not sure whether this means in the installation it is possible to delete). But still I get this error. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?

Another question is, I really don't know what is the purpose of those CreatFolder elements. For one thing: if the aim is to create the directory structure, I think the (nested)Directory elements already do that. And why to have such element under Component element when most of the time you probably want the directory structure to be separated with component structure(the components just use directory reference to refer to correct directory). Secondly, the default Directory property of CreateFolder is the parent Directory where the component resides in. But it is common that more than one components reside in the same directory, like what I have here: multiple components are in the same component group, whose directory element references to INSTALLDIR. So only one of these components has the CreateFolder element, whose Directory property in my case is the parent directory of all those components. It is really hard to understand this structure. I guess I have some misunderstanding of the CreateFolder element. Can someone enlighten me to usage of CreateFolder? Thanks!

Thanks!

Answer 1

A number of issues to address here. First, you should know that Commit phase custom actions don't execute if rollback is disabled. You should really have an deferred and rollback custom action.

Second, you can't tell MSI to install a file and then go delete it. That's counterproductive and just causes servicing issues down the road. A better solution ( I'm assuming you are using a WiX DTF managed custom action ) is to include FileA as a content item in the custom action project. This will cause the file to exist in the current (temp) directory of the custom action while it execute. You can then generate fileb. For rollback, you can delete fileb.

You'll also need to author a RemoveFile element to teach MSI to delete the file on uninstall. Otherwise it won't since MSI doesn't know anything about fileb created by your out of process custom action.

Otherwise it'd be useful to know what the contents of fileb are. It would be easier to implement if this was an xml file that could be installed as fileb and then transformed using the xml wix extension.