[Package Issue]: Rustlang.Rust.MSVC does not install when scope is specified

[fgimian]

Please confirm these before moving forward

• I have searched for my issue and not found a work-in-progress/duplicate/resolved issue.
• I have not been informed if the issue is resolved in a preview version of the winget client.

Category of the issue

Installation issue.

Brief description of your issue

Rust installs to C:\Program Files much like various other packages, but can only be installed with no --scope parameter specified.

Please note that this seems to affect other Rust packages such as Rustlang.Rustup too.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a terminal as Administrator
2. Run winget install --scope machine Rustlang.Rust.MSVC
3. Run winget install --scope user Rustlang.Rust.MSVC

Actual behavior

Administrator in ~
🕙 [ 09:10:36 PM ] ❯ winget install --scope machine Rustlang.Rust.MSVC
No applicable installer found; see logs for more details.

Administrator in ~
🕙 [ 09:16:36 PM ] ❯ winget install --scope user Rustlang.Rust.MSVC
No applicable installer found; see logs for more details.

The errer in the log appears to be:

2024-05-13 21:10:39.320 [CLI ] Terminating context: 0x8a150010 at C:\__w\1\s\external\pkg\src\AppInstallerCLICore\Workflows\UpdateFlow.cpp:bc

Expected behavior

Installation should succeed, at least with --scope machine. Various other similar packages like 7zip.7zip work in this situation.

Environment

Windows Package Manager v1.7.11261
Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.22631.3447
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.22.11261.0

Screenshots and Logs

No response

[Trenly]

It seems there is no scope specified in the manifest because the installer is a Wix installer.

There is an issue with the Wix compiler where when applications are installed in User scope the installer will write entries to HKLM, which is the registry for Machine-scoped applications, when it should be writing to HKCU. Because of this bug in Wix, specifying Scope: user for any installer in the manifest would cause installation detection issues, and specifying Scope: machine wouldn't allow it to be installed in user scope.

I'm not sure this can be fixed until the Wix compiler is updated

[stephengillie]

Should some kind of error or informational message be presented when a user attempts to install a Wix package with a scope specified? Since this bug is known, pass that info to the user in the client somehow?

[Trenly]

Should some kind of error or informational message be presented when a user attempts to install a Wix package with a scope specified? Since this bug is known, pass that info to the user in the client somehow?

The thing is, it doesn't affect all Wix installers, just most of them. Some ISV's have implemented workarounds where they write their own ARP entries and suppress the ones that Wix adds.

I think that perhaps --scope could be added as an allowed value in the UnsupportedArguments list, that would be a fairly minor change in the schema