Summary

InstallValidate action unable to automatically close all requested applications

Symptoms

The InstallValidate standard action in a verbose runtime log indicates:

MSI (c) : RESTART MANAGER: Session opened.
MSI (c) : Note: 1: 2262 2: ListBox 3: -2147287038
Action: ShutdownApplications. Shutting down applications
MSI (s) : RESTART MANAGER: Failed to shut down all applications in the service's session. Error: 351
MSI (c) : RESTART MANAGER: Successfully shut down all applications that held files in use.
MSI (s) : Note: 1: 1611

The setup was unable to automatically close all requested applications. Please ensure that the applications holding files in use are closed before continuing with the installation.

MSI (s) : RESTART MANAGER: The user chose to go on with the installation, although a reboot will be required.

The installer package was unable to automatically close all requested applications. Please ensure that the applications holding files in use are closed before continuing with the installation.

Cause

The InstallValidate action is a standard Windows Installer action. As such, details about what it does beyond documentation in the Windows Installer SDK is outside of our support. When this behavior occurs we may not be able to provide any insight into what causes this behavior.

Resolution

• Perform MSI validation and resolve the conflicts.
• If MSI validation-resolution of your MSI does not produce expected runtime behavior include the MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL property in the Property Table of your package. When creating this property set its value to "Disable".
• If this does not seem to improve the behavior, you may try contacting Microsoft directly for additional assistance.

Workaround

There is no native support to deal with Restart Manager and you may consider the suggestion in these third party articles to leverage restart manager:

Windows Installer and Restart Manager: MSI Files-In-Use V2

The following suggestion involves a Google search for an article on the Code Project website with an interesting approach to resolve the situation. Search for and investigate if this third party solution meets your needs:

How to Develop Restart Manager Aware Application: Test Case 30