Running WiX on Windows Server 2008

Our CruiseControl.NET build server is running Windows 2008. Today I added a WiX project to generate an MSI for one of the projects. This ran fine on my local machine.

I followed the instructions from the WiX 3.0 help file on “Integrating WiX Projects Into Daily Builds” with one exception - Step 2 adds a new section to the .wixproj file, but I had to remove the $(WixToolPath) prefix from the WixTasksPath element. eg.

<PropertyGroup>

<WixToolPath\>..\\Tools\\Wix\\</WixToolPath\>

<WixTargetsPath\>$(WixToolPath)Wix.targets</WixTargetsPath\>

<WixTasksPath\>wixtasks.dll</WixTasksPath\>

</PropertyGroup>

I then checked this in and watched the build die with the following error:

light.exe (,): errorLGHT0217: Error executing ICE action ‘ICE01’. The most common cause of this kind of ICE failure is an incorrectly registered scripting engine. See http://wix.sourceforge.net/faq.html#Error217 for details and how to solve this problem. The following string format was not expected by the external UI message logger: “The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.”.

Others have had similar problems, and the solution seems to be to make sure that the account the build process runs as is a member of the local Administrators group.

Deleting the “Program Files” directory

No, don’t worry I’m not that crazy. On the HTPC, I initially installed Vista on the 1Tb disk. When the replacement system drive arrived, I then installed Vista on that drive, but didn’t reformat the original disk as I’d already recorded some programmes that I wanted to keep.

This meant that there was the old “Program Files”, “Windows” and other directories that Windows creates. The problem is that even running with UAC you can’t delete them. If I’d reformatted the drive, I would have never had this problem.

Tim Sneath went through a similar situation, and his solution worked for me too.

A new toy

When I left UniSA earlier in the year, one of the parting gifts I received was a gift voucher, and I’ve finally decided what to do with it. I bought an iPod Shuffle.

I’d been pining the loss of my trusty HTC TyTN II phone, which doubled as an MP3 player, but couldn’t justify the price to keep it. I decided all I wanted was a basic player – nothing too fancy, and the Shuffle seemed to fit the bill, whilst still having the slick Apple look. As long as I could listen to a few podcasts I’d be happy (.NET Rocks! and Hanselminutes for starters)

I priced the 1Gb Shuffle in some local stores at $AU64. Apple sell it online for $AU65, plus they let you engrave it with custom text. I liked that idea, so if you ever come across a Shuffle that looks like the one above, it’s probably mine and could I have it back :-)

It’s not the first purchase I’ve made from Apple - that would be a Newton MessagePad 2000 I bought many years ago (and many years ahead of its time), but I think this is just as nifty.

You might also notice it is red – that’s because part proceeds of (PRODUCT)RED™ iPods are donated to fight AIDS in Africa.