Question

I’m putting together an install for a Windows Service (managed). I’d like to be able to update its config file based on user input from a dialog. The config file gets updated properly and the windows service gets installed, but it doesn’t look like the service is picking up the changes in the config. Am I messing up with the sequencing? I want to run my Custom Action “ServiceConfig” before the service gets installed and started.

Here is a scrubbed excerpt from my WiX files:

<Component Id="cmpXyzService.exe" Guid="NOTAREAL-GUID-90X5-12C5-ABC123XYZ890">
    <File Id="file_XyzService.exe" KeyPath="yes" Source="$(var.SourceDir)\XyzService.exe" />
    <ServiceInstall Id="InstallXyzService" Name="Service.XYZ" DisplayName="XYZ Service" Start="auto" Vital="yes" Interactive="no" ErrorControl="normal" Type="ownProcess" />
    <ServiceControl Id="ServiceControlXyzService" Name="Service.XYZ" Start="install" Stop="both" Remove="uninstall" Wait="no"/>
</Component>

<CustomAction Id="SetPropertiesForService" Property="ServiceConfig" Value="[SERVICEINSTANCENAME],[CONFIGVALUE1],[CONFIGVALUE2]" />
<Binary Id="UpdateConfigFileCustomAction.CA.dll" SourceFile="$(var.UpdateConfigFileCustomActionDir)\UpdateConfigFileCustomAction.CA.dll" />
<CustomAction Id="ServiceConfig" BinaryKey="UpdateConfigFileCustomAction.CA.dll" DllEntry="EditConfigFile" Execute="deferred" Return="check" />

<InstallExecuteSequence>
  <Custom Action="SetPropertiesForService" Before="ServiceConfig" >NOT Installed</Custom>
  <Custom Action="ServiceConfig" After="InstallFiles" >NOT Installed</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>

Here’s a trimmed-down copy of the InstallExecuteSequence table from Orca

StopServices    VersionNT       1900
DeleteServices  VersionNT       2000
RemoveFiles                     3500
InstallFiles                    4000
SetPropertiesForService NOT Installed   4001
ServiceConfig     NOT Installed 4002
InstallServices VersionNT       5800
StartServices   VersionNT       5900
RegisterUser                    6000
RegisterProduct                 6100
MsiPublishAssemblies            6250
PublishFeatures                 6300
PublishProduct                  6400
InstallFinalize                 6600
RemoveExistingProducts          6601

Apologies if I have edited out something important – I didn’t want to dump everything I had. I believe I’ve included everything relevant.

Answer 1

As per last comment:

This caused a kerfuffle back in 2006. I did find this workaround though. Basically, WiX doesn’t recognize the RunInstallerAttribute.