BizTalk Server MSI installation error: There is a problem with this Windows Installer package

There is something special when you find a solution or possible solution to an annoying error message (for not using another type of language) and this is one of these cases: There is a problem with this Windows Installer package!

This error occurred each time my team was trying to install a BizTalk Application on a non-developer environment: Test or QA. And the full error description was:

There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.

And “Contact your support personnel or package vendor”? What a ****, It is me! I am the support personnel and package vendor/creator… you still write these kinds of error messages?

Cause

Unfortunately, this error may be caused by several reasons, but some places may tell you that this problem can be related to:

• The package is actually corrupted, you should export again and import it – not really like to a happen or solve it
• The fact of the destination location does not exist – that is not true, because the installation will create the directories;
• Invalid drive letter – again it is not true because the MSI will not go further on the wizard if that happens

To correctly diagnose the problem and find the cause of the problem you should consult the Event Viewer of the BizTalk Server in which you are trying to install the MSI. Normally you will find more details about the cause of the error.

The most common will be:

• The Installation Path that you are providing in the wizard along with the name of the assemblies will have more than 256 characters.

By default, the installation folder will be:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Generated by BizTalk\name of the BizTalk Application\

That is:

• 46 characters for the default folder “C:\Program Files (x86)\Generated by BizTalk\”
• Adding, more or less, 15 characters for the BizTalk Application name folder

Will give you a total of 195 characters to be used in the assembly’s names. Which normally is enough.

Solution

Once again, in this case, the solution is very simple:

• ·Change the installation folder to a small path like:
  • “C:\BizTalkApps\AppName\”

By providing a small path, my team was able to successfully install the MSI.