SOLVED

MSIX self heal issue

Copper Contributor

Hi,

 

I have converted and MSI "Northgate Information client 5.1.1" app to MSIX.

the MSIX app installs fine but when i launched the shortcut the package tries to self heal.

the self healing operation get stuck and does not do anything further.

santosh94_0-1598290224502.png

 

the installer does do the necessary operation and have to kill it from task manager.

 

not sure if MSIX allow the installer to self heal ?

 

any help would be really appreciated.

 

2 Replies

@santosh94 

MSIX does not support apps self-healing or updating themselves. That is because MSIX apps are installed to a protected folder that does not allow writes to it.

 

The recommendation when converting applications to MSIX with the packaging tool is to disable these behaviors during the conversion process if possible.

 

If that does not work you can also try to find out what triggers the self-heal to prevent it from happening. For example, it may be that the application is checking a registry key with information about the installation and you need to delete or modify it in your packaged app.

best response confirmed by John Vintzel (Microsoft)
Solution

Hi @santosh94 

 

The old MSI installer should be completely out of the picture once you converted it to MSIX. 

 

The self-repair probably triggers because you have both the MSI and the MSIX version of the application installed on the machine (and something from the MSI wasn't correctly installed). Try installing the MSIX package on a clean machine.

 

Also, as a good practice, it is recommended you always use a clean virtual machine to convert a package to MSIX. You can use the native Hyper-V support from Windows 10 or any other VM provider (Vmware, VirtualBox, etc...). This will ensure greater accuracy for the contents of your new MSIX package and also better/clear test results for the new MSIX package.

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by John Vintzel (Microsoft)
Solution

Hi @santosh94 

 

The old MSI installer should be completely out of the picture once you converted it to MSIX. 

 

The self-repair probably triggers because you have both the MSI and the MSIX version of the application installed on the machine (and something from the MSI wasn't correctly installed). Try installing the MSIX package on a clean machine.

 

Also, as a good practice, it is recommended you always use a clean virtual machine to convert a package to MSIX. You can use the native Hyper-V support from Windows 10 or any other VM provider (Vmware, VirtualBox, etc...). This will ensure greater accuracy for the contents of your new MSIX package and also better/clear test results for the new MSIX package.

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