Summary

Symptoms

When using a condition on a feature, such as &FeatureName, !FeatureName, $ComponentName, or ?ComponentName, so that the feature condition evaluates based on the state of another feature or component in the package, the feature condition does not work as expected, causing the feature to always be installed or never be installed.

Cause

It is not possible to use feature or component states in a feature condition. This is a limitation of the Microsoft Windows Installer service.

Workaround

A feature condition needs to be authored that does not depend upon the state of another feature or component in the project. For example, the condition could be based on system search results or public properties populated prior to the CostFinalize action.

Additional Information

More information on feature conditions can be found in the Windows Installer SDK topic Condition Table.

Information on conditional syntax can be found in the Windows Installer SDK topic Conditional Statement Syntax.