MSI file fails, but only sometimes [weird!]

[David Sworder]

Hi,

I've developed a WinForms app and packaged the appropriate files in an
MSI. I've posted the MSI to a web site. It can be accessed via a hyperlink,
where the HREF of the hyperlink is something like:

http://www.MyDomainName.com/MySetup.msi

When a user clicks on this link, he's presented with a popup in Internet
Explorer that asks if he'd like to Open or Save the file. If the user clicks
"Save," the file is downloaded to the users harddisk. He can then run the
MSI and everything works fine. If the user clicks "Open", the file will
download but upon execution, the user is presented with the following error:

"The installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package
exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."

This is completely bizarre. I know the MSI file isn't corrupt, because
users that save&run it have no problems. It's strictly users that click
"Open" from Internet Explorer that encounter this error message -- and the
problem only occurs for *some* users. I haven't established a pattern to
this error yet other than perhaps the problematic users are all running
WinXP.

Any ideas?

 

[Matt Hickman]

When a user clicks on this link, he's presented with a popup in Internet
Explorer that asks if he'd like to Open or Save the file. If the user clicks
"Save," the file is downloaded to the users harddisk. He can then run the
MSI and everything works fine. If the user clicks "Open", the file will
download but upon execution, the user is presented with the following error:

"The installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package
exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."

..MSI files installed via the web may have to be digitally signed. You may
be able to get around this by configuring IE to categorized the site as
a "trusted site"

Might be worth a try.

--
Matt Hickman
The small boys seemed rat-faced to him, sharp beyond their years,
sharp and shallow and snide. The little girls were no better in
his eyes. Those of eight or nine, the shapeless stringy age, seemed
to him to have tattletale written in their pinched faces -- mean souls,
born for troublemaking and cruel gossip. Their slightly older sisters,
gutter-wise too young, seemed entirely concerned with advertising their
new sex -- not for Hoag's benefit, but for their pimply counterparts
loafing around the drug store.
Even the brats in baby carriages -- Hoag fancied himself that he
liked babies, enjoyed himself in in the role of honorary uncle. Not
these. Snotty-nosed and sour smelling, squalid and squalling --
- Robert A. Heinlein "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag"