InstallShield Tools & Tips: Debugging

Note regarding InstallShield 6: Unless otherwise stated the tips and tricks on this page have been written for InstallShield 5, and not all of them will work with InstallShield 6. Some may even damage your project files, so remember to make backups first.

Debugging an Uninstall DLL from Visual C++

Here are steps I used to successfully debug an InstallShield uninstall DLL from within Microsoft's Visual C++ 5.0. For the sake of this discussion, my uninstall DLL is called UninstCPL.dll.

Insert a HARD breakpoint (this is crucial) at the beginning of whichever routine you wish to debug. I was not able to get the breakpoint set from the IDE to work. However, once the hardcoded breakpoint is hit, then subsequent breakpoints, manipulated with the IDE, work fine. In my case, I inserted the following at the beginning of UninstInitialize():

#ifdef _DEBUG
        _asm    int    3
#endif

By the way, I was able to use a call to DebugBreak() instead, but once that hit, I was kicked into a disassembler window. Breakpoints set from the IDE would not work. I managed to "step over" (F10), and by closing the disassembler window, I finally resynchronized with the source code. That done, breakpoints set from the IDE worked, and the rest was able to be debugged normally.
Build a debug version of the DLL.
In InstallShield, delete the link to the release version of the DLL, and a link to the debug version of the DLL, e.g. ....\UninstCPL\Debug\UninstCPL.dll
In InstallShield, build the setup and install the product (I'm assuming that InstallShield is on the same machine as that running the Visual C++ IDE, and that the product can be installed on the same system.
(The rest of the steps are in the Visual C++ IDE)
Open Project->Settings Debug Tab.
With Category: General, set "Executable for Debug Session" to C:\WINNT\IsUninst.exe (or whatever drive and %windir% your system has)
And set "Program Arguments" to:

-f"<full path to uninst.isu>" -c"<full path to installed UninstCPL.dll>"

You should get the command and path arguments out of the registry entry under:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<your key>
With Category: Additional DLLs, set Local Name to:
<full path to installed UninstCPL.dll> and I had the box checked to load the symbols right away. (I did not check "Try to locate other DLLs")
Now cause the uninstall to execute via the Visual C++ IDE:
Build->Start Debug->Go (or just the corresponding push button)
The hard-coded break point will hit, and I saw an arrow next to that line in the IDE. I was able to debug normally.

Written by Charlie Rundles

See also: DLL Testing Tool to test the UninstInitialize() and UninstUnInitialize() functions of your DLL independent of a setup project.

Decompiler for InstallScript

I haven't tested it, but this tool says it can decompile .inx scripts created with InstallShield 6 or 7 and additionally allows the user to take a few changes to the code and patch the script.

SID project at GitHub

DLL Testing Tool

This tool lets you easily:

test setup extension DLLs for loading and unloading
test files for self-registration and un-registration
test the UninstInitialize and UninstUnInitialize functions in a custom uninstall DLL

dlltester.zip (133.214 Bytes) Provided by Eric Olson

RegDrop

RegDrop is a component registration utility that allows you to simply drag and drop a component on it and RegDrop will register or unregister the component for you. This process is much easier than having to locate the REGSVR32 console application to register components. And more important, RegDrop gives real error messages as opposed to cryptic numeric result codes. This is very helpful in debugging self-registration problems in the files you are installing.

Visit Addison Software to download the free RegDrop utility

Send Trace Messages to a Debugger

InstallShield doesn't have a feature like TRACE in C++. Here is a trace function that you can sprinkle in your script code - it will send debug messages through the OutputDebugString Windows API. Use a tool like DebugView to catch and display these messages.

To use the Trace function, include Trace.h at the top of Setup.rul and Trace.rul at the end of Setup.rul. You need to deine _DEBUG in Build ->Settings-> Compile -> Preprocessor Defines. Also it is suggested that you add code like the following to your script, so that you will not distribute a debug version to clients, as it's a bit slow.

#ifdef _DEBUG
    SetTitle( "Debug Mode"+@TITLE_CAPTIONBAR, 0, BACKGROUNDCAPTION ); 
#else
    SetTitle( @TITLE_CAPTIONBAR, 0, BACKGROUNDCAPTION ); 
#endif

Trace.zip Written by Satya Gadepalli
File size: 1.208 bytes Last update: 2000-11-27

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