On 13/12/2012 02:38 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:
> During a commercial application suite installation:
>
> "Can't access [insert db table name]. Consult
> C:\Users\Administrator\Temp\{Long CLSID String}\{Another
> CLSID}\Randomlygeneratedfilename.txt for details."

This is TRWTF. Everything else flows from here.

> Of course, this is a popup window, so you can't cut and paste the string
> anywhere.

Naturally.

> WTF #2: there are many CLSID directories under Temp. Each with two dozen
> randomly generated text files with various installation information
> messages. Finding the one with the actual problem took over an hour.

Yeah, but it's the temp folder. It's *expected* to contain lots of temp 
files, all with random names. The problem is that this is where the log 
file has been hidden, not somewhere you can actually *find* the thing.

> WTF #3: After talking with the app's customer support, it turns out that
> the installer requires 8dot3name to be enabled on the drive because it
> can't parse spaces in directory names, and can't use "C:\Program
> files\Microsoft SQL Server\osql.exe" but needs
> "C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\osql.exe"

...this is also very wonky.

> At this point, I need to point out that this is the installation of a 64
> bit entreprise-grade application that came out two months ago, not some
> legacy 16bit app designed for Windows 3.1

I thought "enterprise-grade application" and "legacy 16-bit app" were 
the same thing? ;-)

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