Summary

Symptoms

The InstallScript Debugger does not debug deferred, commit, or rollback InstallScript custom actions.

This applies to the following Project Types:

• Basic MSI
• InstallScript MSI

Cause

The InstallScript Debugger checks the value of the ISSCRIPTDEBUG property to determine whether to debug the InstallScript in an installation. However, deferred, commit, and rollback InstallScript custom actions cannot access this property (or most of the Windows Installer properties). Therefore, the InstallScript Debugger ignores deferred, commit, and rollback InstallScript custom actions.

Workaround

In order to be able to use the InstallScript Debugger to debug deferred, commit, or rollback InstallScript custom actions:

1. Download the Debug.zip file from the attachments section below. Extract file and add the Registry data to the client you intend to debug InstallScript custom actions.
2. Double-click the file and select 'Yes' to continue.

The following registry keys will be created:

In addition, a DWORD value called DebugISCustomActions with data 00000001 is created under each key. These keys are for version 2009 through version 2015 of the InstallShield product.

This enables you to use the InstallScript Debugger to debug deferred, commit, and rollback InstallScript custom actions.

Note: Even without this registry change, you can use the InstallScript Debugger to debug immediate InstallScript custom actions. If you do apply this registry change, the InstallScript Debugger launches for all InstallScript custom actions, regardless of what you have set for the ISSCRIPTDEBUG property.

Additional Information