ClickOnce Error: The application is improperly formatted

  • Thread starter Thread starter Diane Yocom
  • Start date Start date
D

Diane Yocom

I've spent the last day trying to figure out what's wrong with my ClickOnce
deployment. I've found this question asked a lot in forums, but no helpful
answers...

I've created a WinForm application through VS2005 on my WinXP SP2 machine.
I then published it to a network drive (on our Novell network). The
deployment worked well and I was able to install it on my machine and
several others. There are some machines, however, where it won't install.
I keep getting the error "The application is improperly formatted" error
whenver we click on Setup.exe. I'll post the full error log below.

I've successfully installed on WinXP SP1 and SP2 machines. I've not been
able to successfully install on WinXP SP1 and SP2, as well as Win2000
machines, so I can't narrow it down to an OS. I've run windowsupdate on
several of the machines and still no joy.

I've tried (and failed with) the following:
- Publishing to my local machine, then copying the deployment up to the
network drive
- Copying the deployment files off the network to the machine with the
problem
- Unclicking "Sign the ClickOnce manifests" in the
Project-Properties-Signing page, then redeploying
- Creating a new test certificate through the Project-Properties-Signing
page, then redeploying

Other info:
- I've got the app set up as a "Full trust application" for the "ClickOnce
Security Settings"
- I have not manually modified the manifests after they were created

Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Diane


ERROR LOG:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 5.1.2600.65536 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.42
System.Deployment.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
mscorwks.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfdll.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfshim.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later
in the log.
* Activation of J:\MyDirectory\MyApp.APP resulted in exception. Following
failure messages were detected:
+ Exception reading manifest from file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP: the
manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
+ Manifest XML signature is not valid.
+ The system cannot find the file specified.


COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [1/4/2007 12:35:09 PM] : Activation of
J:\PSD_MIS\cccp\TESTIN~1\CCCPWI~1.APP has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [1/4/2007 12:35:09 PM]
System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestParse)
- Exception reading manifest from file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP: the
manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String
localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
at
System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore
subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState,
IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options,
ServerInformation& serverInformation)
at
System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore
subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState,
IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
at
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri
activationUri, Boolean isShortcut)
at
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object
state)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException
(SignatureValidation)
- Manifest XML signature is not valid.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at
System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream
s)
at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String
localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
- The system cannot find the file specified.

- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at
System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.VerifyPublicKeyToken()
at
System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.Verify(CmiManifestVerifyFlags
verifyFlags)
at
System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream
s)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.
 
One extra bit of information...

This app seems to install fine on all of our developers' machines, but not
on regular users' machines (even when we try installing under an
Administrator user). Is there anything that a Visual Studio developer might
have that would affect the workings of ClickOnce or
System.Security.Cryptography?

Diane

Diane Yocom said:
I've spent the last day trying to figure out what's wrong with my
ClickOnce deployment. I've found this question asked a lot in forums, but
no helpful answers...

I've created a WinForm application through VS2005 on my WinXP SP2 machine.
I then published it to a network drive (on our Novell network). The
deployment worked well and I was able to install it on my machine and
several others. There are some machines, however, where it won't install.
I keep getting the error "The application is improperly formatted" error
whenver we click on Setup.exe. I'll post the full error log below.

I've successfully installed on WinXP SP1 and SP2 machines. I've not been
able to successfully install on WinXP SP1 and SP2, as well as Win2000
machines, so I can't narrow it down to an OS. I've run windowsupdate on
several of the machines and still no joy.

I've tried (and failed with) the following:
- Publishing to my local machine, then copying the deployment up to the
network drive
- Copying the deployment files off the network to the machine with the
problem
- Unclicking "Sign the ClickOnce manifests" in the
Project-Properties-Signing page, then redeploying
- Creating a new test certificate through the Project-Properties-Signing
page, then redeploying

Other info:
- I've got the app set up as a "Full trust application" for the "ClickOnce
Security Settings"
- I have not manually modified the manifests after they were created

Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Diane


ERROR LOG:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 5.1.2600.65536 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.42
System.Deployment.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
mscorwks.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfdll.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfshim.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later
in the log.
* Activation of J:\MyDirectory\MyApp.APP resulted in exception. Following
failure messages were detected:
+ Exception reading manifest from file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP: the
manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
+ Manifest XML signature is not valid.
+ The system cannot find the file specified.


COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [1/4/2007 12:35:09 PM] : Activation of
J:\PSD_MIS\cccp\TESTIN~1\CCCPWI~1.APP has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [1/4/2007 12:35:09 PM]
System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestParse)
- Exception reading manifest from file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP: the
manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String
localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
at
System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore
subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState,
IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options,
ServerInformation& serverInformation)
at
System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore
subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState,
IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
at
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri
activationUri, Boolean isShortcut)
at
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object
state)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException
(SignatureValidation)
- Manifest XML signature is not valid.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at
System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream
s)
at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String
localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
- The system cannot find the file specified.

- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at
System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.VerifyPublicKeyToken()
at
System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.Verify(CmiManifestVerifyFlags
verifyFlags)
at
System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream
s)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.
Click to expand...
 
And one more bit...after I installed XP SP 2 on one of the machines that the
ClickOnce install didn't work on, it started working. However, it doesn't
work on another SP2 machine and it does work on another SP1 machine.
Clearly it has to do with the machine setup, but isn't ClickOnce supposed to
work on Win98 and above?

Diane

Diane Yocom said:
One extra bit of information...

This app seems to install fine on all of our developers' machines, but not
on regular users' machines (even when we try installing under an
Administrator user). Is there anything that a Visual Studio developer
might have that would affect the workings of ClickOnce or
System.Security.Cryptography?

Diane

Diane Yocom said:
I've spent the last day trying to figure out what's wrong with my
ClickOnce deployment. I've found this question asked a lot in forums,
but no helpful answers...

I've created a WinForm application through VS2005 on my WinXP SP2
machine. I then published it to a network drive (on our Novell network).
The deployment worked well and I was able to install it on my machine and
several others. There are some machines, however, where it won't
install. I keep getting the error "The application is improperly
formatted" error whenver we click on Setup.exe. I'll post the full error
log below.

I've successfully installed on WinXP SP1 and SP2 machines. I've not been
able to successfully install on WinXP SP1 and SP2, as well as Win2000
machines, so I can't narrow it down to an OS. I've run windowsupdate on
several of the machines and still no joy.

I've tried (and failed with) the following:
- Publishing to my local machine, then copying the deployment up to the
network drive
- Copying the deployment files off the network to the machine with the
problem
- Unclicking "Sign the ClickOnce manifests" in the
Project-Properties-Signing page, then redeploying
- Creating a new test certificate through the Project-Properties-Signing
page, then redeploying

Other info:
- I've got the app set up as a "Full trust application" for the
"ClickOnce Security Settings"
- I have not manually modified the manifests after they were created

Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Diane


ERROR LOG:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 5.1.2600.65536 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.42
System.Deployment.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
mscorwks.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfdll.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfshim.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed
later in the log.
* Activation of J:\MyDirectory\MyApp.APP resulted in exception. Following
failure messages were detected:
+ Exception reading manifest from file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP: the
manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
+ Manifest XML signature is not valid.
+ The system cannot find the file specified.


COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [1/4/2007 12:35:09 PM] : Activation of
J:\PSD_MIS\cccp\TESTIN~1\CCCPWI~1.APP has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [1/4/2007 12:35:09 PM]
System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestParse)
- Exception reading manifest from file:///J:/MyDirectory/MyApp.APP: the
manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String
localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
at
System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore
subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState&
subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options,
ServerInformation& serverInformation)
at
System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore
subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState&
subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
at
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri
activationUri, Boolean isShortcut)
at
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object
state)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException
(SignatureValidation)
- Manifest XML signature is not valid.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at
System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream
s)
at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String
localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
- The system cannot find the file specified.

- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at
System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.VerifyPublicKeyToken()
at
System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.Verify(CmiManifestVerifyFlags
verifyFlags)
at
System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream
s)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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