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Title
ACCESS_VIOLATION Error Occurs When Attempting to Add Custom Action

Summary

Adding a custom action results in an ACCESS_VIOLATION with InstallShield 2013 Express

Symptoms

Attempting to add a custom action to an Express project results in an ACCESS_VIOLATION which causes InstallShield 2013 SP1 Express to crash.

Cause

When attempting to add a custom action, an ACCESS_VIOLATION occurs which causes InstallShield 2013 SP1 Express to crash. This behavior can intermittently occur on build machines.

Steps To Reproduce

  1. Select Custom Actions
  2. Select ?After Register Product?
  3. Right click and choose either "New EXE" or "new dll"
  4. Access Violation Occurs and InstallShield needs to close

Resolution

Download the updated IsWsCustomActions.ocx provided below in the System folder. This will commonly be found under "C:\Program Files\InstallShield\2013 Express\System" on 32-bit machines or "C:\Program Files(x86)\InstallShield\2013 Express\System) on 64-bit machines. Afterwards, close InstallShield (if it is open) and relaunch the product. You can now add custom actions.

Additional Information

This fix should work for Windows Vista and later.
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ACCESS_VIOLATION Error Occurs When Attempting to Add Custom Action