Summary

Symptoms

When building an InstallShield project, the following error may occur:

Error -5044: Cannot delete directory [2].

[2] is a placeholder that contains the full path to the directory causing this error. An example of this error message is:

Error -5044: Cannot delete directory C:\Projects\MyProject\Product Configuration 1\Release 2.bak.

Cause

This error occurs while building an InstallShield project if the path specified in the error is locked by another application or process, and InstallShield is attempting to remove it during the build process. This error can also occur if one or more folders in your project folder are marked as read only.

Resolution

To resolve this error, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have full administrative rights on this machine. For details on these types of permissions, contact your system administrator.

2. Make sure no other applications, including utilities, such as virus scanners, are running in the background. Close all running applications and utilities and attempt to rebuild the project. Other running applications or utilities could be using this directory, which would trigger this error.

3. Navigate to the folder specified in the error in the Windows Explorer and make sure it can be deleted manually. If it cannot be deleted manually, InstallShield will be unable to remove it as well.

4. Navigate to your project folder and make sure none of the folders in this directory are marked read only. Delete the .bak folder listed in the error.

5. From the Build menu in the InstallShield IDE, select Release Wizard to build the release. When using this Wizard, be sure to specify a new release name. This builds the release in a new folder and should resolve this behavior if the previous folder is locked.

Additional Information

This error is briefly documented in the InstallShield Help Library topic Build Errors and Warnings.

For additional information on the Release Wizard and releases, see the InstallShield Help Library topic Working with Releases.