MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Windows Installer FAQ (the basics)Return Codes and Error Codes or TextError Codes2716 - Could not create a random subcomponent name for component '[2]'

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2716 - Could not create a random subcomponent name for component '[2]'

The root cause for this seems to be plain stupidity. Microsoft allow the specification of long component names (default 72 characters) but don't tell you that there is a shorter limit on the "real" safe length.

It is not enough that component names be unique, they have to be unique to the left most 'x' characters where Microsoft don't want to tell you what 'x' is. The documentation for this error now suggests this value could be 40...

MAKEMSI commands which automatically create components are the most likely reason for a failure of this type, check that you have not reset "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_PREFIX" as when this is non blank the generated component ID will be non blank within the first few characters as MAKEMSI follows it with a unique number.

If you don't want the prefix then the chance of a problem can be reduced by setting "COMPANY_COMPLETE_FEATURE" to something shorter like "ALL". If this fails you can redefine "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_MAX_LENGTH" (to 40), MAKEMSI will created unique component names within its restricted length.

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