icudtl.dat and *.pak files missing

[smayoral]

Hi,
we have developed a Windows application that embeds Chromium. Everything works fine but "sometimes" and "at some computers" after a Windows reboot, icudtl.dat and *.pak files are missing from the installation directory. No idea how this happens...
* Some kind of virus removing these files
* Some Windows configuration

Has anyone had this problem?
Thanks

[Czarek]

Anti-virus software could remove these files. Unlike .dll files they are not linked statically, they are loaded dynamically. Some .pak files contain html/javascript code, so this could be detected as suspicious. You can check the problematic files with https://www.virustotal.com/ which can scan using many AV programs at once. You should verify your app installer if it installs files correctly, so that OS knows these files are part of your application.

[smayoral]

Hi Czarek,
thanks for your answer. These files (.dat and *.pak) belong to Chromium Version 3.3578.1863 and are copied to all computers but only some of them have this problem.
These PCs have no anti-virus, "Windows virus and threat protection" may be responsible, have to check.
And we check the app installer too but this should be ok because many other PCs do not have this problem.

[nitin1438]

Hi Czarek,
thanks for your answer. These files (.dat and *.pak) belong to Chromium Version 3.3578.1863 and are copied to all computers but only some of them have this problem.
These PCs have no anti-virus, "Windows virus and threat protection" may be responsible, have to check.
And we check the app installer too but this should be ok because many other PCs do not have this problem.

Is there any progress on this issue? I get exact same error and unable to find the reason. I checked the anti-virus logs and it has not removed these files. Can Windows update remove these files? I saw Windows updates running and rebooting the PC where this issue happened.

Thanks!
Nitin

[jozefizso]

This issue will happen when the installer (we use MSI packages) is updating existing CefSharp/Chromium files while the browser subprocess is running. It holds lock to several files which are being marked by Windows Installer to be delete at next reboot.

You will see this in the log file:

MSI (s) (DC:64) [15:27:27:762]: Executing op: FileRemove(,FileName=icudtl.dat,,ComponentId={2EDEDB25-E9D1-4C35-B447-36E76B39D6DE})
Info 1903.Scheduling reboot operation: Deleting file C:\MyApp\x64\icudtl.dat. Must reboot to complete operation.

The app will continue to work until you restart the computer. The fix is either to repair the installation after restart or rework the installer or implement logic in the app to redownload missing Chromium files.

[smayoral]

Yes, we reworked the installer as you suggest and the problem seems to be gone.
Thanks for the post!

[whatisron]

Are any readers of this able to clarify what "reworking" of the installer is needed to correct this issue? I've got a report of someone experiencing this with my application.