Issues with Shockwave 11.5.2.602 / 11.5.6.606 MSI installer

Question

<UPDATE 8/3/09> Nearly all of the issues mentioned below are still present in the MSI installer for 11.5.6.606 - the only one that Adobe have fixed is the one where the MozillaPlugins 'Version' value is left blank by the MSI by default - this is now created correctly, but all of the other issues remain.
Personally I have given up trying to use this MSI package to deploy Shockwave until Adobe get their act together - instead I am using a wrapper to wrap the Shockwave executable inside an MSI file and deploying it that way, although this is not ideal.
I have created an MST file which will fix the MSI installer for version 11.5.6.606, which I will post to another forum shortly, but I am not planning to keep it updated for future versions as I don't really have the time.
Hi,
I've tried submitting the following via the Adobe Customer Support portal and via the Feature Request/Bug Report form, but the first told me that I needed to 'get in touch with Adobe Enterprise Solutions team for getting help' and that 'to get in touch with them you have to purchase a contract', and the second resulted in a bounced email address saying that '[email protected]' 'does not exist at the organization this message was sent to'.
In short, attempting to contact Adobe to report issues with their installers sucks, and I am posting this here in the vain hope that someone at Adobe might read this message and possibly forward it to the relevant people. Some of the issues have already been reported here on this forum, but some of them are new, and I guess others might be interested in them too.
Hi,
I would like to report some issues with most recent version of the Shockwave installer, available in MSI format from the following location:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?k=4E6102EB-DA7C-2795-C744826EFDE2A098&l oc=en_us
This is the installer for version 11.5.2.602, with a digital signature dated 06 November 2009 10:52:21
When downloading this version of the installer in Windows Installer (MSI) format, the following issues manifest themselves, most of which are not a problem when using the Full EXE installer available from the same page.
First of all, when installing the MSI file using Group Policy Software Deployment, if you log on to the computer after the MSI file has been deployed and view a web page that contains Shockwave content, you receive the following errors in the Windows event log:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1004
Date:  16/12/2009
Time:  16:51:23
User:  CRGS\DefaultUser
Computer: ITO01
Description:
Detection of product '{7D0F2155-D7D3-42CE-903F-684ADD77FF89}', feature 'Adobe_Shockwave_Player_', component '{E89F323D-7BDB-46E1-A0FD-6227821F94EA}' failed.  The resource 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Application Data\Adobe\' does not exist.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date:  16/12/2009
Time:  16:51:23
User:  CRGS\DefaultUser
Computer: ITO01
Description:
Detection of product '{7D0F2155-D7D3-42CE-903F-684ADD77FF89}', feature 'Adobe_Shockwave_Player_' failed during request for component '{3D3697FC-DB90-46D8-9ED4-5D54B4901F62}'
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
If you are logged on as an Administrator, then the computer will immediately attempt to 'repair' the Adobe Shockwave Player installation in order to create the missing folder 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Application Data\Adobe\', which leads to a significant delay in the initialization of the Shockwave content on the web page. If you are logged on as a non-Administrator, the errors will still appear, but the 'repair' operation will fail due to insufficient permissions to create the above folder.
I have done some testing and it seems as if this problem can be easily resolved by removing the code from the installer which tells it to create an empty folder in the 'Application Data' folder called 'Adobe\Shockwave Player 11'. This code seems to be entirely unnecessary, as no files are created inside this folder as part of the installation, and I have removed it successfully from my own copy of the MSI without it causing any issues. I have found some other people who are also experiencing this problem in the following forum post:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2379350 (post number 8)
and since this 'repair' operation causes all customised registry settings to be reset back to defaults as part of the repair, it would be very helpful if this 'feature' could be removed from future versions.
Secondly, there are a number of registry keys which are created incorrectly by the MSI installer when the above 'repair' operation takes place, which need to be corrected to prevent further issues from occurring:
Under '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1F3CB77D-D339-49e0-B8E4-FECD6D6F8CB8}\LocalServer32]', the 'default' value is set to the following by the MSI:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Adobe\SHOCKW~1\SWHELP~1.EXE"
(Please note that there is a double quotation mark at the end of the value, but not at the beginning)
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\Adobe\Shockwave 11\SwHelper_1152602.exe"
According to a forum post (http://forums.adobe.com/message/2379350, post 15), this causes DCOM errors when Shockwave is launched, if the MSI 'repair' has taken place as described above.
The above registry value should be set to the following in the installer's Registry table:
"[INSTALLDIR]Shockwave 11\SwHelper_1152602.exe"
so that the MSI installer works the same as the executable one.
Under '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{6EF568F4-D437-4466-AA63-A3645136D93E}\1.0\0\win32]', the 'default' value is set to the following by the MSI:
Adobe\SHOCKW~1\SWHELP~1.EXE
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Adobe\Shockwave 11\SwHelper_1152602.exe
Also, under '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{6EF568F4-D437-4466-AA63-A3645136D93E}\1.0\HELPDIR]', the 'default' value is set to the following by the MSI:
Adobe\SHOCKW~1\
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Adobe\Shockwave 11\
Once again, the above registry values should be set to the following in the installer's Registry table to fix the issue:
[SystemFolder]Adobe\Shockwave 11\SwHelper_1152602.exe
[SystemFolder]Adobe\Shockwave 11\
Under '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000}]', the 'default' value is NOT SET by the MSI by default:
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
Shockwave ActiveX Control
This value should be set in the installer's Registry table to fix the issue.
Under '[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\Shockwave 10\location\common]', the 'default' value is set to the following by the MSI:
Macromed\common\
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\common\
Also, under '[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\Shockwave 10\location\coreplayer]', the 'default' value is set to the following by the MSI:
Macromed\Shockwave 10\
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Shockwave 10\
Also, under '[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\Shockwave 10\location\coreplayerxtras]', the 'default' value is set to the following by the MSI:
Macromed\Shockwave 10\xtras\
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Shockwave 10\xtras\
The above registry values should be set to the following in the installer's Registry table to fix the issue:
[SystemFolder]Macromed\common\
[SystemFolder]Macromed\Shockwave 10\
[SystemFolder]Macromed\Shockwave 10\xtras\
The MSI installer does not create '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dcr]', '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dir]', or '[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dxr]'
Wherease the executable installer creates all three of these keys and populates them all with the following 'default' value:
"Content Type"="application/x-director"
These keys and values should be set in the installer's Registry table to fix the issue.
The MSI installer creates a value under the following registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OptionalComponets\SwDi r]
However this registry key is obviously misspelt (missing an 'n' in 'OptionalComponets') and should read as follows:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OptionalComponents\SwD ir]
This key name needs to be changed in the installer's Registry table to fix the issue (also pointed out in the following forum post: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2379350 (post number 10)).
Under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/ShockwavePlayer], the 'Version' value is left blank by the MSI by default:
Whereas the executable installer creates the value as follows:
1152602
This registry value should be set to the correct version in the installer's Registry table to fix the issue.
Finally, the MSI installer creates a number of registry values under the following path:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/ShockwavePlayer\Mime Types]
These values are *in addition* to the values created under the following path:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/ShockwavePlayer\MimeTypes]
(Note there is no space between 'Mime' and 'Types' in the second key path)
The executable installer *only* creates registry keys under the 'MimeTypes' key, and it seems as if this is the correct formatting for the key (also pointed out in the following forum post: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2379350 (post number 11)).
The unnecessary 'Mime Types' registry keys and values should be removed from the installer's Registry table to avoid any potential issues.
I am sorry that this is such a long list, but it seems as if a number of things have been changed in the transition from 11.5.1.601 to 11.5.2.602, and it would be very helpful if these changes could be put back to how they were before, so that the MSI and the executable installers function in the same way as much as possible.
Message was edited by Borgquite - added 11.5.6.606 update

Answer 1

Have posted an updated version of the MST to my webspace here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/minkus/shockwave/shockwave115606mst2.zip
This new version fixes the following issues (changes to this version in bold):
MsiInstaller repair & errors on first run as non-admin (removes 'AppData' directory entries)
DCOM errors once Shockwave is installed (adds double quotes to the beginnning of LocalServer32 value)
Incorrect TypeLib paths in the registry (fixed to use built-in [SystemFolder] property)
Default CLSID description value missing (set to 'Shockwave ActiveX Control', as per the executable installer)
Incorrect Shockwave 10 paths in the registry (fixed to use built-in [SystemFolder] property)
Misspelt 'OptionalComponets' registry key (renamed to 'OptionalComponents')
Missing .dcr, .dir, .dxr Content Type registry values (included in the executable installer)
Fixed incorrect AppID registry key (set to use installer's [VERSION] variable)
Removed 'Launch SWDNLD.exe' shortcut created in Programs subfolder (people don't want this - see here)
I have tested this on my network and it all seems to work fine. Unfortunately my original plan to use the executable installer didn't work out as it does not include the Shockwave 10 compatibility components described here and here, so it looks like I'll have to keep this MST file up to date with the latest versions until Adobe fix the problems themselves...
If you want to see the changes that I have made, load up Adobe's 11.5.6.606 MSI file in Orca, then use Transform / Apply Transform to apply the MST, and look for the entries in green.
Please post any feedback to this thread, and I will try to respond if I can help!
Chris Hill