Windows Installer BSOD
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After packaging and deploying a fairly mature (version 4.5 at the time) VB / VC++ 6.0 Windows application for beta release, the lead developer on our project left the office for an extended vacation. When the lowly troglodytes left behind arrived at the office the next morning, we discovered to our horror that every NT 4 / Windows 2000 machine which had installed the new package was experiencing the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. We checked the application on each developer machine (running the application without the install package, of course) and everything seemed fine. So the nightmare began, starting with one developer testing the installation on different machine configurations, and eventually dragging in the entire development team for over a week tracking down the impossible bug. We eliminated code changes as a possible cause early on, and after packaging, configuring, and reconfiguring the installer, came to the reluctant conclusion that the installer wasn't to blame either. Database scripting and updates? No such luck. Finally, after eliminating every other aspect of the beast, it came down to the media files accompanying the application- a few images, one or two avi files, and a couple of custom fonts. After adding these one at a time to a test machine, the Blue Screen of Death finally appeared. The cause? One of the custom fonts had been poorly compiled by our lead developer in his haste to put the office behind him, and adding this font to the font directory made Windows very, very unhappy. Thankfully we were able to pacify the angry mob of disgruntled beta testers before the culprit returned, keeping our BSOD from becoming a bloody reality.
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After packaging and deploying a fairly mature (version 4.5 at the time) VB / VC++ 6.0 Windows application for beta release, the lead developer on our project left the office for an extended vacation. When the lowly troglodytes left behind arrived at the office the next morning, we discovered to our horror that every NT 4 / Windows 2000 machine which had installed the new package was experiencing the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. We checked the application on each developer machine (running the application without the install package, of course) and everything seemed fine. So the nightmare began, starting with one developer testing the installation on different machine configurations, and eventually dragging in the entire development team for over a week tracking down the impossible bug. We eliminated code changes as a possible cause early on, and after packaging, configuring, and reconfiguring the installer, came to the reluctant conclusion that the installer wasn't to blame either. Database scripting and updates? No such luck. Finally, after eliminating every other aspect of the beast, it came down to the media files accompanying the application- a few images, one or two avi files, and a couple of custom fonts. After adding these one at a time to a test machine, the Blue Screen of Death finally appeared. The cause? One of the custom fonts had been poorly compiled by our lead developer in his haste to put the office behind him, and adding this font to the font directory made Windows very, very unhappy. Thankfully we were able to pacify the angry mob of disgruntled beta testers before the culprit returned, keeping our BSOD from becoming a bloody reality.
:laugh:. Never knew a font could cause a BSOD!
-- Ranju. V http://blogorama.nerdworks.in --