Some application tries to install continuously (Virtualization)

[Windows 7 Application Compatibility episode 4]

Someone brought me an application, an ActiveX application, oops... not the ActiveX itself but the application that the ActiveX control installs.

Well, when the user goes to the web page, the ActiveX checks if the application is properly installed before it tries to run the application.

Usually it worked well on Windows 7 as on Windows XP.

But on some machine, it tries to install the application whenever a user goes to the page.

 Hmmm..... the developer told me that the ActiveX control checks the file under "Program Files" folder. After that, if the file is not of the latest version, then the ActiveX control tries to install the application.

Firstly, I compared some IE's security settings between the two machines but it didn't work.

So, I monitored iexplore.exe process with Process Monitor tool and I found that it looks up the virtualized files.

Ah.... I see... I don't know the exact reason but... my guess is for some reasons, the application installer could not get the admin privilege when it tried to install the application so the files were written to the virtualized folder. The the ActiveX sees the virtualized file and the installer writes under "Program Files" folder, the older file could not be updated...

After deleting the virtualized folder, everything's fine...!!!

Check "Compatibility Files" button in Explorer, if you have similar problems...