InstallShield closes after installing VS2012 redistributable

Question

I am using InstallShield 2010.

Due to recent application update we have to ship and install Visual Studio 2012 Redistributable package to the clients.

I've done many setups with prerequisites, some of then had redistributables, some not, but its the first time i needed to include VS2012 Redist.

After i created a prerequisite file and pointed to the redist file, added the command line options /q /norestart, i then tested this on windows XP (virtual machine), at first it seems fine, install shield showed that i needed the package installed, so ok, clicking next shows how it extracts the file and then start installing. Right after installation of the redistributable finishes, whole install shield closes out and nothing continues. So basicaly, redist got installed, but not my application.

What could be the cause of this? Why is redistributable closing installation? How could i fix this without forcing a user to install redist package manualy?

Answer 1

Chances are the reboot settings of the prerequisite aren't quite right. It sounds like it's detecting a required reboot which the .prq claims the redistributable will have already asked about, so InstallShield is just exiting to let the reboot occur. You should be able to confirm this by logging setup.exe with /debuglog. And if so, the fix will be to edit the reboot settings on the behavior tab.