BUG: Error 1376 Using RemoveFile Table with Windows Installer

The following error appears during the installation of a product, using Microsoft Windows Installer:

During the installation, Windows Installer is not able to remove the file MyFile.txt because it is in use by another program.

Instruct users to close all applications before installing the application.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

A developer may expect the installer program to detect that the file is in use by a specific application and report to the user which is the offending application and then instruct the user to close the offending application before continuing the installation process. The Windows Installer program detects only EXE and DLL modules in this way. It reports the error if any other type of file is opened on the target computer during the installation process.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Create a file with a .txt extension on your computer, for example, MyFile.txt.
2. Double-click the file to open it in Notepad.
3. Open a working Windows Installer database, for example, MyDatabase.msi.
4. Add a record to the RemoveFile table that refers to MyFile.txt and associate it with a component that will be installed.
5. Install MyDatabase.msi.

Please see the Windows Installer Help file for more information on the RemoveFile table and editing a Windows Installer database.