Recent Windows update breaks app installation

[John E]

Does anyone here have a hotline through to Microsoft? Initially I thought about posting this in one of the Slow Chat forums (which apparently used to attract the attention of Microsoft) but those forums mostly seem to be closed now...

Anyway... our applications get installed using InstallShield. For the past week or so we've been getting reports from users who can't install our apps any more in Windows 7. When they try to run our installer they see a mysterious error saying Key not valid for use in specific state. I couldn't find anything about this on the internet

However, after a lot of detective work, a very persistent customer managed to track down this entry on a Microsoft forum. It describes the problem perfectly. It seems that a very recent Windows update is preventing certain installers from working any more. Our customer wound his system back to just before the relevant update and presto! - the problem got immediately fixed. We then asked a 2nd customer to try the same thing and once again, it fixed his inability to run our installer.

The above post is on a Microsoft hosted forum - but of course that doesn't guarantee that anyone from MS will notice it. Is there anyone here who can draw their attention to this situation as it's a pretty serious problem..!

[VictorN]

John, did you post the problem to https://connect.microsoft.com/ ?

[John E]

Thanks Victor, I'll keep that in mind. My only worry is that one random report from some unknown dev might not get taken seriously. OTOH if there's a CodeGuru member who's opinions are already respected at Microsoft, that might be a better way to get noticed.!

[Arjay]

Thanks Victor, I'll keep that in mind. My only worry is that one random report from some unknown dev might not get taken seriously.

Well, if you don't file it, then you're relying on someone else filing a bug. Hopefully, someone will report the issue.

[John E]

Well, if you don't file it, then you're relying on someone else filing a bug. Hopefully, someone will report the issue.

Fair point. In fact, I'd already reported it against the relevant knowledgebase article (though whether that'll get it noticed is anybody's guess). I'll follow Victor's recommendation too.

Annoyingly, I can't reproduce the issue on any of my own machines (a combination of Windows 7 / 32-bit / 64-bit) but 3 customers have reported it in just the past 8 days so I guess there must be something in it...

[John E]

I'll follow Victor's recommendation too.

Hmmm... fell at the first hurdle. It seems that there are only 21 products currently accepting bug reports. Windows Update isn't one of them

I followed various links from that page and eventually ended up back at the original community discussion that I linked to in the first place! So I've left some further information there. Hopefully, someone does take notice of the community reports (though I won't be holding my breath...)

[Arjay]

John, I sent mail to an internal C++ MVP forum. I'll let you know what their response is.

[John E]

Thanks Arjay.

At our end, we haven't had any further reports of this problem. But over on the Microsoft forum several other people have reported the exact same experience, so I think it's definitely something repeatable. There's even one post from a guy who might possibly be a Microsoft employee (Robert Aldwinckle?) He reckons that the issue might be fixable - although he doesn't know how to fix it...

It'd be really nice to know if this is getting taken seriously at Microsoft.

[Arjay]

John, I've just receive a word from MS. My contacts have reached out to the Windows Team and are waiting for a response.

I'll update you as soon as I hear from them.

[John E]

Hi Arjay. I just thought I'd update you. A lot's been happening over on that original Microsoft Community Forum. I don't know if it was down to your influence but thanks either way. Two of the contributors seem to be MS employees and (although they haven't solved the problem yet) they've at least managed to reproduce it.

A LOT of other people have joined the thread to complain about the same issue - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a solution.!