My app installs the visual Studio C++ runtimes on a remote machine as a prerequisite for another installation. On Windows 2003 when I upgrade to the latest patch of the VS 2005 C++ runtimes the upgrade appears to stall after the embedded MSI package has been run. The fix was to use the /Q:A rather than the /Q argument to the vcredist.exe bootstrapper.
Running the same command from a command prompt doesn’t cause the modal dialog box to appear, so it’s appear impossible to inspect the dialog box and reassure myself that I’m not just masking another problem.
Anyone got any tips for viewing dialog boxes in other window stations or sessions (currently the dialog is in session 0).
I think you cannot really view the dialog box. However, you can either try to attach and debug the application when it is frozen or attach and generate a dump of the application.
You must run your debugger as an administrator to attach to the process in session 0. In your case, I think you should look for msiexec.exe processes running in session 0.
You should be able to find the thread displaying the dialog box.
To inspect the contents of the dialog box, may be Spy++ will do the trick (not sure it is able to find windows in another session)