Windows Installer missing cached binaries

[codaamok]

ℹ Computer information

• PowerToys version: 0.31.2.0
• PowerToy Utility: n/a
• Running PowerToys as Admin: n/a
• Windows build number: 19042.746

📝 Provide detailed reproduction steps (if any)

After installing the update for 0.31.2.0 I have seen several systems prompt for the MSI which is no longer in C:\Window\temp. Cached binaries should be stored and referenced in the registry to C:\Windows\installer.

The prompt usually occurs after trying to run PowerToys after installing.

The software uninstalls OK, which heavily suggests there is a cached binary in C:\Windows\installer, but for whatever reason, after launching it (presumably to reconfigure?) the binary is no longer in %temp% of the system.

✔️ Expected result

To install and run fine.

❌ Actual result

See below screenshot.

📷 Screenshots

[enricogior]

@codaamok
can you provide more details of the initial problem?
Do you run third party tools to "clean up" Windows? I'm asking because the installer installs everything that is needed, and it should never prompt again.

[codaamok]

No, I do not run third party tools to clean up Windows.

I've seen this Windows Installer prompt after running PowerToys for the first time after updating to 0.31.2.0.

[enricogior]

@codaamok
after uninstalling it and reinstalling it, have you seen this problem again?

[codaamok]

No 😞

I can't seem to reproduce. I think a colleague might have, if I can get the details from him I'll follow up.

I tried reinstalling 0.31.2.0 several times, I also tried installing 0.31.1.0 and upgrading but still couldn't reproduce.

A colleague did make a remark that when he was prompted for the Windows installer MSI binary, he found by clicking on the .exe directly in Program Files did not produce this dialogue prompting for the installer, whereas the shortcuts did.

I know this isn't much to go on. But for what it's worth, two or three customers reported the same issue in the last day or so. I work for a company that delivers third party products to SCCM / Intune as updates/applications. PowerToys is one of the products we can do that for. So that's how it caught my attention and I hope that gives you the insight I've seen this on more than just my computer.

[codaamok]

We managed to find consistent steps on how to reproduce.

1. Uninstall PowerToys
2. Invoke install for the latest installer with the parameters --silent --skip_dotnet_install as NT AUTHORTY\SYSTEM (use psexec)
3. Launch PowerToys via a shortcut, whether on desktop or start menu
4. PowerToys will attempt to reconfigure and produce the aforementioned prompt/dialogue

[enricogior]

@codaamok
thanks for the repro steps, there might be already another issue tracking the same problem.
At the moment, PowerToys needs to be installed with an admin account.

[codaamok]

No problem, it was a colleague who did most of the digging I'm just the middle man. I appreciate your patience with me.

Is the intention to improve support for install by NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM at some point?

[razordb9]

@codaamok
I faced the exact same problem during scripting the app for SCCM. My solution was to first install Windowsdesktop runtime 3.1.11 Win x64, then install PowerToys via exe file and at last install PowerToysBootstrapped Installer, which I found in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp I guess.
Hope I could help you at least a little bit.

[ThiloL]

needs' to be fixed. installations done by a system wide admin user has to be useable by another standard user.

[beefy80]

I can also confirm that we are seeing this issue and we deploy powertoys via Intune Win32.

[hkystar35]

Jumping on this to confirm we're seeing the same behavior.

[crutkas]

@codaamok where is your screenshot from?

[crutkas]

@enricogior I just got a report from twitter.
https://twitter.com/Wayfarer/status/1366485599205654535

Yes, every time I try to run Power Toys. It also appears if I try to Repair the installation in "Programs and Features". I've updated from v0.29.3 and I have not had this issue before. My user is a standard account, I have to elevate to a local Admin account to install/uninstall.

[beefy80]

The guys at PatchMyPC have identified the issue to be related to an advertised shortcut and simply deleting and recreating the shortcut fixes the issue. See this from their forum one of the guys has put a powershell script together to resolve the issue. I have seen issues in the past with MSI and shortcuts when its linked to a bad component.

[codaamok]

@codaamok where is your screenshot from?

It's after launching PowerToys from the start menu. The advertisement shortcut (whatever that is, I'm not too sure) made by the installer is apparently the root cause here.

[beefy80]

Advertised shortcuts are a feature of MSI installers they allow you to create shortcuts to programs that have not been installed and when the shortcut is called it then installs that feature. You link the shortcut to a component and if the component is missing it will try to install it so my guess is the shortcut is linking to a bad component and as such getting the msi error.

[dsychin]

I am getting this issue where I have a user that already have PowerToys installed, but now when I am trying to use PowerToys on the same computer as a different user, I get this prompt.

Redownloading and running the installer shows the same thing.

[razordb9]

I only faced this issue when I just run the .exe file unattended. But if I extract the msi file from the exe file and install that via script in the SoftwareCenter the prompt is gone.
Extract the msi with e.g. PowerToysSetup-0.31.1-x64.exe --extract_msi and in your script run the extracted msi file with parameter /qn /norestart. This was my solution to fix the problem with the prompt

[enricogior]

Closing this in favor of:

• Support installing as SYSTEM  #8523 Support installing as SYSTEM
• Running as user causes installer to ask for the .msi #9720 Running as user causes installer to ask for the .msi