Solution for Installation Incomplete on Windows Server 2003

I recently released a new version of JTB FlexReport and soon heard from users that they were unable to install it on Windows Server 2003.

Installation Incomplete: The installer was interrupted before JTB FlexReport Core could be installed. You need to restart the installer to try again. Click “Close” to exit.

The message is not much help. The next step was to look at the setup log files. Here are some of the rows that eventually helped me to find the solution:

MSI (c) (D8:34) [07:33:25:065]: Connected to service for CA interface.
Action ended 7:33:25: DIRCA_CheckFX. Return value 3.
MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:25:127]: Doing action: FatalErrorForm
Action 7:33:25: FatalErrorForm.
Action start 7:33:25: FatalErrorForm.
MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:25:127]: Note: 1: 2235 2:  3: ExtendedType 4: SELECT `Action`,`Type`,`Source`,`Target`, NULL, `ExtendedType` FROM `CustomAction` WHERE `Action` = 'FatalErrorForm'
Info 2898. For VSI_MS_Sans_Serif13.0_0_0 textstyle, the system created a 'MS Sans Serif' font, in 0 character set, of 13 pixels height.
Info 2898. For VSI_MS_Sans_Serif16.0_1_0 textstyle, the system created a 'MS Sans Serif' font, in 0 character set, of 20 pixels height.
DEBUG: Error 2826:  Control BannerBmp on dialog FatalErrorForm extends beyond the boundaries of the dialog to the right by 3 pixels
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2826. The arguments are: FatalErrorForm, BannerBmp, to the right
Info 2898. For VsdDefaultUIFont.524F4245_5254_5341_4C45_534153783400 textstyle, the system created a 'MS Sans Serif' font, in 0 character set, of 13 pixels height.
DEBUG: Error 2826:  Control Line1 on dialog FatalErrorForm extends beyond the boundaries of the dialog to the right by 3 pixels
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2826. The arguments are: FatalErrorForm, Line1, to the right
DEBUG: Error 2826:  Control Line2 on dialog FatalErrorForm extends beyond the boundaries of the dialog to the right by 3 pixels
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2826. The arguments are: FatalErrorForm, Line2, to the right
Action 7:33:25: FatalErrorForm. Dialog created
MSI (c) (D8:E0) [07:33:25:143]: Note: 1: 2731 2: 0
Action ended 7:33:27: FatalErrorForm. Return value 1.
Action ended 7:33:27: INSTALL. Return value 3.
=== Logging stopped: 4/2/2015  7:33:27 ===
MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:27:268]: Note: 1: 1708
MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:27:268]: Product: JTB FlexReport Core -- Installation failed.

MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:27:268]: Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: JTB FlexReport Core. Product Version: 9.0.0. Product Language: 0. Installation success or error status: 1603.

MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:27:283]: Grabbed execution mutex.
MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:27:283]: Cleaning up uninstalled install packages, if any exist
MSI (c) (D8:CC) [07:33:27:283]: MainEngineThread is returning 1603
=== Verbose logging stopped: 4/2/2015  7:33:27 ===

In previous versions I had used Visual Studio 2010 and now I was using Visual Studio 2013 together with Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension v1.0.0.0. On this post I found the solution in the comments. There were several different ones but the one I found was easiest was this one that requires that you have VS 2010 available.

SOLUTION: Copy dcpa.dll from “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\Tools\Deployment” to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\VSI\bin”, start VS 2013 and rebuild the setup project.

Now I will rebuild all setups and make release them so it works for those still using Windows Server 2003 even though Microsoft has put it on end of life as of July 14, 2015.