The extracted VC++ 2008/2010/2012/2013/2022 MSIs have a hardcoded
CustomAction CA_LaunchCondition (type 19 = msidbCustomActionTypeError)
whose Target is "To install this product, please run Setup.exe. For
other installation options, see the Installation section of ReadMe.htm."
The CA's Condition row in InstallExecuteSequence is:
NOT( (ADDEPLOY = 1 OR NOVSUI = 1 OR VSEXTUI = 1 OR
ADVERTISED = 1 OR ProductState >= 1) )
So it fires (= aborts the install with that error) unless one of those
sentinel properties is set on the command line. The 2008 MSI uses a
slightly different name (CA_LaunchCondition_5122) and a different set:
NOT( (USING_EXUIH = 1 OR USING_EXUIH_SILENT = 1 OR ProductState >= 1) )
The bootstrappers normally set NOVSUI=1 / USING_EXUIH_SILENT=1 to
identify themselves as non-interactive installers. When we run the
extracted MSI directly via msiexec, the property isn't set, the CA
fires, msiexec returns 1603 with MSI Note 1: 1708, and the install
rolls back.
Fix: pass both properties unconditionally on every VC++ install. MSIs
ignore unknown properties, so one args string works for all of them.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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