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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-25T23:11:52+00:00

While extending a WIX-installer that I have to maintain, I ran into the following

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While extending a WIX-installer that I have to maintain, I ran into the following problem – when shown the tree of features and components, the product feature is not selected by default.

I tried different variations, including adding InstallDefault ='local', TypicalDefault ='install', and Absent = 'disallow', however, the feature is still disabled.

Here is the code that describes the feature:

<Feature    Id="Complete" Level="1"
  Display='expand'
  InstallDefault ='local'
  TypicalDefault ='install'
  Absent = 'disallow'
  Title="$(var.ProductName)">
  <ComponentGroupRef Id="Required_files"/>
  <?ifdef InstallDriver?>
    <ComponentGroupRef Id='driver_files'/>
  <?endif?>
  <ComponentRef Id="ProgramMenuShortcuts"/>
  <ComponentRef Id="ProductInfo"/>
  <?ifdef RemoveAllRegKeys?>
    <ComponentRef Id="RegRemoveAll"/>
  <?endif?>
  <ComponentGroupRef Id="FBmodule"/>
</Feature>

Having examined the logs, I see some entries that seem to be related to this (this is happening when I manually set the feature to “install to local hard disk”).

MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:43:57:559]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding MsiSelectionTreeSelectedFeature property. Its value is 'Complete'.
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:43:57:559]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding MsiSelectionTreeSelectedAction property. Its value is '2'.
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:43:57:559]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding MsiSelectionTreeSelectedCost property. Its value is '0'.
Action 16:43:57: FeaturesDlg. Dialog created
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:44:645]: Note: 1: 2727 2:  
 .... many repetitions of Note: 1: 2727 2:  
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:146]: Note: 1: 2727 2:  
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:630]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: MsiAssembly 
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:630]: Note: 1: 2228 2:  3: MsiAssembly 4:  SELECT `MsiAssembly`.`Attributes`, `MsiAssembly`.`File_Application`, `MsiAssembly`.`File_Manifest`,  `Component`.`KeyPath` FROM `MsiAssembly`, `Component` WHERE  `MsiAssembly`.`Component_` = `Component`.`Component` AND `MsiAssembly`.`Component_` = ? 
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:630]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: _RemoveFilePath 
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:639]: Note: 1: 2727 2:  
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:647]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying MsiSelectionTreeSelectedAction property. Its current value is '2'. Its new value: '3'.
MSI (c) (FC:90) [16:51:45:647]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying MsiSelectionTreeSelectedCost property. Its current value is '0'. Its new value: '7318'.

I suspect that this could be related to the fact that there is a custom dialog in the installer – but having looked through the source I could not find anything that would indicate a relationship between the state of the feature and something else in the project.

What are the recommended troubleshooting steps?

Here is the full installation log.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I found the culprit. The installer itself is fine, the problem is in how it is started.

    There is a BAT file that I use for testing purposes, it runs the MSI with some command line arguments that simulate different conditions.

    The command line arguments REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus must only be applied when the installer updates the program; when started that way on a clean system – the progress bar moves and everything goes as expected, but nothing is actually installed.

    In other words, the error was in the method of testing.

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