Although Microsoft hasn't yet acknowledged it, Flexerasoft -- the company that makes InstallShield -- has issued a warning about installing last Tuesday's IE patch roll-up, MS 14-037/KB 2962872. At this point, it looks like InstallShield 2012 and 2013 crash on startup after the patch is applied. There's also a report that a much earlier version, InstallShield 2008, crashes and InstallShield for AdminStudio Edition versions 10 through 12 get clobbered. No word as yet on InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio.
Oddly, the problem -- or at least one of its manifestations -- is tied to handling of HTM files. The InstallShield user interface crashes on an access violation.
Posters on the Microsoft Answers forum report that uninstalling KB 2962872 solves the problem.
Flexerasoft has posted a limited workaround:
Moving the .htm files to a backup folder has been shown to reduce the impact of the issue for some InstallShield customers. Please note that by taking these steps, the InstallShield Start Page and inline help will be limited and navigating to some views may still trigger a crash. Those using this method should save their projects frequently.
Steps to implement this limited workaround:
Move *.htm from\<ProgramFiles>\InstallShield\<version>\Program\<LanguageCode>
To a new folder\<ProgramFiles>\InstallShield\<version>\Program\<LanguageCode>\HTM-Backup\
Move *.htm from\<ProgramFiles>\InstallShield\<version>\Program\<LanguageCode>Express\
To a new folder\<ProgramFiles>\InstallShield\<version>\Program\<LanguageCode>Express\HTM-Backup\
The workaround lets InstallShield start and run normally, but reports say it crashes on exit.
There are also sporadic reports of additional problems with KB 2962872, particularly slowdowns. For example, Jan on the TechNet IE blog posted a demo of an IE script that opens 15 popups. Run it on IE after KB 2962872 is installed, and your computer will come to a grinding halt. Ricardo500 on the Microsoft Answers Forum reports that he saw a major slowdown running OutlookWebApp on the University of Illinos computer system. Entilza reports that its custom Autocad program started crashing. There are also complaints about misbehaving security programs -- specifically Norton 360.
As usual, if you encounter similar, recent problems with IE, the first approach is to uninstall the patch.
This story, "Black Tuesday patch KB 2962872 crashes InstallShield, causes slowdowns," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.