Troubleshooting .Net Framework and Visual Studio basic things which we need to make sure

1. Rights user is having to perform the installation

2. Operating System compatibility

3. Any specific Prerequisites

4. Is prerequisites are getting installed along with the application or needs to be install prior to that ( Depends from application to application )

5. When it comes to troubleshooting part we need to ensure the above check list first then we need to ensure what all other information do we have

a) Exact Error Message

b) Error Code (If Any)

c) When we get the error

d) Supported / Not Supported

e) Application what user is try to install or what error he is getting while trying to run the application

f) We need to ensure we have enough data to troubleshoot the issue first

(The above scenario information can be consider for both .Net as well as Visual Studio installation)

6. Once we have these information we can proceed further

7. In both .Net & VS installation any failure we require the log file

8. Log file will guide to drill the issue further and we will have to consider both MSI and Non MSI log file

9. Error text file will be created by default or let’s say Error Log will be there in the Temp

10. But to get more deeper into that MSI log file helps

11. Either we can send the registry key to the customer or manually we can enable the verbose logging

12. To enable verbose logging: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\windows\Installer]

"EnableAdminTSRemote"=dword:00000001

"Logging"="voicewarmup!"

13. If we take a scenario of .Net installation the below logs should be in place to troubleshoot

a) dd_dpcheck_Netfx

b) dd_dotnetfxerror ( Version will also get listed)

c) dd_dotnetfxinstall (Version will also get listed)

d) MSI (verbose)

Best practice grabbing the correct log is to sort the temp folder with date and if there is several then better delete the entire temp and then try to install it again. This helps getting the fresh logs

14. Once we have these details we should logically proceed further

15. Known issue yes/No

16. Where the installation is failing

17. Is windows installer causing any issues? If yes we can always check with msiexec /unregister & maiexec /regserver

18. With the log we can also proceed further towards checking the below values:

19. We can also get lot of direction from common Windows Installer Error Messages

Ref: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372835(VS.85).aspx

Dealing with custom action failure for example we can always use process monitor which helps finding any access denied or we can say a overall process which are trying to get execute or registry which are being used

· These things will really help isolating the root cause and yes in Vista and Windows 2008 the Framework 2.0 and 3.0 it’s a OS component

· In case of repair you will have to go to “Windows Feature Turn On – Turn Off”

In case of any question or suggestion feel free to E Mail me. The above provided are basic steps to troubleshoot .Net Framework and if you are really not comfortable, my suggestion will be please contact us.

msicuu2.exe