Applications using Chained MSIs fail to Install on Window 2003 Server through a Remote Session with error - Setup wizard ended prematurely

Application installations using the MSI installation technology can fail when all the following conditions are true.

• The applications being installed use Chained MSI technology (available in MSI version 4.5 and greater)
• The target operating system is Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2
• The installation is run in a Remote Session

This affects both the 32 and 64 bit versions.

The verbose MSI log might contain information similar to this example

>> 

MSI (s) (44:20) [17:48:37:082]: Embedded Chainer - Running embedded chainer

MSI (s) (44:00) [17:48:37:097]: Running as a service.

MSI (s) (44:08) [17:48:37:097]: ProcessId: 0 ParentProcessId: 0

�.

MSI (s) (44:08) [17:48:37:160]: ProcessId: 1800 ParentProcessId: 4000

MSI (s) (44:08) [17:48:37:160]: ProcessId: 2020 ParentProcessId: 2108

MSI (s) (44:20) [17:48:37:269]: Embedded Chainer - Failed

MSI (s) (44:20) [17:48:37:269]: Embedded Chainer - Exited without ending the transaction, rollback install...

MSI (s) (44:20) [17:48:37:269]: Ending Multi-Package transaction.

<< 

There might be an error dialog with the following text.

Setup wizard ended prematurely

The root cause has to do with how the JoinTransaction allows processes to run within the same branch of the process tree and how Windows Server 2003 launches the MSI chainer when launched using remote desktop.

Presently there is no fix.

A work around is to run the installation on the zero session.  This can be accomplished in two ways.

• If a remote desktop session it to be used consider the following command line to launch the client.  After the remote desktop session has been started the installation can be launched in the usual manner

MSTSC /admin

• Run the installation from the console; that is logging on the server directly, not through a remote desktop.