After upgrading an older, Installshield 11.5 Basic MSI project into a newer version of Installshield, although the project built OK, when I ran the installer I got a warning saying:
“Unable to save file c:\windows\downloads\ ….”
and the installer then brought up a folder dialog expecting to be told where else it could save a file. On a hunch I reran the installer with admin privileges and the installer ran cleanly with no message boxes or dialogs.
The problem turned out to be a permissions problem on Windows 7, with Windows refusing to let the MSI installer save working files onto the C:\ drive without admin privileges.
Here’s how I solved the problem:
1. In the Installation Designer, under the Media/ Releases node, select the release and then click on the Setup.exe tab as shown in this picture:
Note the Cache Path value – this is set to [WindowsFolder] which causes the installer to unpack its working data onto the c:\ drive which is not a good idea on Windows 7 without admin privileges.
2. Change the Cache Path value to:
[LocalAppDataFolder]Downloaded Installations
which is a writeable folder.
3. Rebuild then run the installer.
All is now well and the installer runs without confusing popups on Windows 7, XP and Vista.