Strange Message for iis:Certificate to currentUser location on Windows 8

[wixbot]

I have built an Installer to install a root certificate in the certificate store. Users have the option to install the certificate in the currentUser store location, which worked fine in all tested Windows versions. It only showed a dialogue with some information about the certificate including the fingerprint and the question whether to install that certificate which is not shown when installing into the localMachine location.

Now since Windows 8 (confirmed also on 8.1) instead of the dialogue with the information about the certificate showing up, it only shows a dialogue that says "Error" on the title bar, has no content and shows the buttons "Yes" and "No":

It seems that this is actually the certificate details dialogue but without the proper text and title because when I click "No" the installation is aborted and when I click "Yes" it succeeds (even the certificate is installed correctly).

I tried rebuilding the installer with the latest WiX weekly build v3.8.1125.0 but that didn't help.

I tried to track down the error, but although I could reproduce the strange error message each time when running the installer, when I tried to produce exactly the same code as executed in the underlying custom action in a standalone binary, the proper certificate details dialogue was shown.

The point where the certificate is imported and the dialogue should be shown:
<wix>\src\libs\dutil\certutil.cpp line 295 in CertInstallSingleCertificate() when calling CertAddCertificateContextToStore()
called in <wix>\src\ext\ca\serverca\scaexec\scacertexec.cpp line 304 by InstallCertificatePackage()
called in line 199 by ExecuteCertificateOperation()
called in line 62 by AddUserCertificate()

I also tried debugging the custom action from the installer but setting the MsiBreak environment variable to AddUserCertificate did not cause the MSI installer to break, even after a reboot. Also I couldn't get WiX built under Visual Studio 2013 so I couldn't insert a manual call to the debugger into the custom action.

You can find the installer project on GitHub: https://github.com/NEOatNHNG/cacert-root-cert-installer
Build it by executing the PowerShell build script .\build.ps1 quick_build and find the result in build\template\

An already built installer (built with WiX v3.7) is here: http://www.cacert.org/certs/CAcert_Root_Certificates.msi

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Originally opened by neo

[wixbot]

Originally changed by barnson
Release changed from v3.8 to v3.x

[wixbot]

Please post a verbose MSI log so we can see what's happening around the UI.

Originally posted by barnson

[wixbot]

I have uploaded a log for clicking "No" and one for clicking "Yes" on the dialogue using the following command line:
msiexec /i cacert-root-cert-installer\build\template\CAcert_Root_Certificates.msi /lv verbose_yes.log

Originally posted by neo

[wixbot]

Originally changed by neo
Type changed from Feature to Bug

[wixbot]

Anyone able to help here? BTW: we have a bug open over at CAcert for this issue: #1194

Originally posted by neo

[wixbot]

It's not clear what changed in Windows 8 or what we'd have to do to adapt the custom action to work correctly.

Originally posted by barnson

[wixbot]

@bobarnson: I have no idea either. As already stated I have tried to debug it but I'm not that used to debugging on Windows let alone something running inside the MSI installer.

If you can't figure it out, do you have some contact at Microsoft who could help?

Originally posted by neo

[wixbot]

I don't. If you're willing to try, please send mail to wix-users and we can help with debugging.

Originally posted by barnson

[anteyk]

I also faced with this issue (wix 3.9.1208.0). Is there any solutions?

[igolaizola]

I am also facing this issue (wix 3.11.0.1701)

[robmen]

This issue is open and unassigned. That means it is waiting for someone to investigate the root problem, discuss possible solutions to that problem then implement the decided solution.

If you are interested in doing so yourself, our developer documentation provides a great checklist for getting started.

If you are not interested then you are waiting for someone else to become interested. If this issue has been open for a long time then there probably isn't much interest in this particular issue. In that case, you'll want to consider how to motivate others to fix it for you. This is a pretty good list of support options.