WinSXS activation context error and CreateShortcut

We've come across a very subtle problem with the creation of
shortcuts.

We are deploying an exe that has dependencies on on the MS runtimes
(CRT\MFC etc). When the app is installed we occasionally get red
events in the event viewer implying that some of the files installed
to winsxs are not available.

If we drop the createshortcuts action the problem goes away.

If we run sxstrace during the installation the red event is clearly
associated with the exe we are installing.

Now I know that under windows 2008 winsxs is very strict and the
runtimes aren't properly installed until after installfinalize
completes, so I would expect to see errors in executables that tried
to load runtimes from sxs before installfinalize.

So the question is, why does createshortcuts seemingly want to load
the installed exe and trigger the sxs red event? Any sugggestions for
a workaround? We've switched to using an ico rather than the exe in
the shortcut table, but that doesn't appear to address the issue.

Stephen

"Stephen Connolly" <sm_spc_2@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1df65bbc-19cd-4a95-877d-264fb1809352@r34g2000yqj.googlegroups.com...
> We've come across a very subtle problem with the creation of
> shortcuts.
> We are deploying an exe that has dependencies on on the MS runtimes
> (CRT\MFC etc). When the app is installed we occasionally get red
> events in the event viewer implying that some of the files installed
> to winsxs are not available.
> If we drop the createshortcuts action the problem goes away.
> If we run sxstrace during the installation the red event is clearly
> associated with the exe we are installing.
> Now I know that under windows 2008 winsxs is very strict and the
> runtimes aren't properly installed until after installfinalize
> completes, so I would expect to see errors in executables that tried
> to load runtimes from sxs before installfinalize.
> So the question is, why does createshortcuts seemingly want to load
> the installed exe and trigger the sxs red event? Any sugggestions for
> a workaround? We've switched to using an ico rather than the exe in
> the shortcut table, but that doesn't appear to address the issue.
> Stephen

I suppose the obvious workaround would be to install CRT/MFC as a
prerequisite. This way when your shortcut targets are accessed (not sure
why myself) you wouldn't see any WinSxS errors. You could chain the two
installs together to provide a seamless installation.

Does this event log issue actually mean that something in your product fails
to function correctly? If not then I suppose you could also take the "blame
microsoft" approach and document it as a known issue.

Sincerely,
Adrian Accinelli