Windows Installer “This action is only valid for products that are currently installed” – “MSI_DBG: Provided descriptor less than minimum size”

I suppose that you try to use MsiGetProductInfo to get a property other as described in documentation. For example you can get in the way the value of the "PackageCode" property (INSTALLPROPERTY_PACKAGECODE) without any problem, but you can't get the value of the "UpgradeCode" property with respect of MsiGetProductInfo and receive the error 1605 (ERROR_UNKNOWN_PRODUCT).

UPDATED: OK, now I understand you problem. How you can find in the internet there are a bug in MsiGetProductInfo, so it work not always. Sometime it get back 1605 (ERROR_UNKNOWN_PRODUCT) or 1608 (ERROR_UNKNOWN_PROPERTY) back. In the case as the only workaround is to get the version property manually. I could reproduce the problem which you described on my computer with the Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 MUI (UpgradeCode = "{00140000-001A-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}") and wrote a workaround where I get the product version from the registry. In the example I get information only from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products. If you have an interest to products installed not only for all users you have to modify the program. Here is the code

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace EnumInstalledMsiProducts {
    internal static class NativeMethods {
        internal const int MaxGuidChars = 38;
        internal const int NoError = 0;
        internal const int ErrorNoMoreItems = 259;
        internal const int ErrorUnknownProduct = 1605;
        internal const int ErrorUnknownProperty = 1608;
        internal const int ErrorMoreData = 234;

        [DllImport ("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern int MsiEnumRelatedProducts (string lpUpgradeCode, int dwReserved,
            int iProductIndex, //The zero-based index into the registered products.
            StringBuilder lpProductBuf); // A buffer to receive the product code GUID.
                                         // This buffer must be 39 characters long.
        // The first 38 characters are for the GUID, and the last character is for
        // the terminating null character.

        [DllImport ("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern Int32 MsiGetProductInfo (string product, string property,
            StringBuilder valueBuf, ref Int32 cchValueBuf);
    }
    class Program {
        static int GetProperty(string productCode, string propertyName, StringBuilder sbBuffer) {
            int len = sbBuffer.Capacity;
            sbBuffer.Length = 0;
            int status = NativeMethods.MsiGetProductInfo (productCode,
                                                          propertyName,
                                                          sbBuffer, ref len);
            if (status == NativeMethods.ErrorMoreData) {
                len++;
                sbBuffer.EnsureCapacity (len);
                status = NativeMethods.MsiGetProductInfo (productCode, propertyName, sbBuffer, ref len);
            }
            if ((status == NativeMethods.ErrorUnknownProduct ||
                 status == NativeMethods.ErrorUnknownProperty)
                && (String.Compare (propertyName, "ProductVersion", StringComparison.Ordinal) == 0 ||
                    String.Compare (propertyName, "ProductName", StringComparison.Ordinal) == 0)) {
                // try to get vesrion manually
                StringBuilder sbKeyName = new StringBuilder ();
                sbKeyName.Append ("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Installer\\UserData\\S-1-5-18\\Products\\");
                Guid guid = new Guid (productCode);
                byte[] buidAsBytes = guid.ToByteArray ();
                foreach (byte b in buidAsBytes) {
                    int by = ((b & 0xf) << 4) + ((b & 0xf0) >> 4);  // swap hex digits in the byte
                    sbKeyName.AppendFormat ("{0:X2}", by);
                }
                sbKeyName.Append ("\\InstallProperties");
                RegistryKey key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey (sbKeyName.ToString ());
                if (key != null) {
                    string valueName = "DisplayName";
                    if (String.Compare (propertyName, "ProductVersion", StringComparison.Ordinal) == 0)
                        valueName = "DisplayVersion";
                    string val = key.GetValue (valueName) as string;
                    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty (val)) {
                        sbBuffer.Length = 0;
                        sbBuffer.Append (val);
                        status = NativeMethods.NoError;
                    }
                }
            }

            return status;
        }

        static void Main () {
            string upgradeCode = "{00140000-001A-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}";
            StringBuilder sbProductCode = new StringBuilder (39);
            StringBuilder sbProductName = new StringBuilder ();
            StringBuilder sbProductVersion = new StringBuilder (1024);
            for (int iProductIndex = 0; ; iProductIndex++) {
                int iRes = NativeMethods.MsiEnumRelatedProducts (upgradeCode, 0, iProductIndex, sbProductCode);
                if (iRes != NativeMethods.NoError) {
                    //  NativeMethods.ErrorNoMoreItems=259
                    break;
                }
                string productCode = sbProductCode.ToString();
                int status = GetProperty (productCode, "ProductVersion", sbProductVersion);
                if (status != NativeMethods.NoError) {
                    Console.WriteLine ("Can't get 'ProductVersion' for {0}", productCode);
                }
                status = GetProperty (productCode, "ProductName", sbProductName);
                if (status != NativeMethods.NoError) {
                    Console.WriteLine ("Can't get 'ProductName' for {0}", productCode);
                }

                Console.WriteLine ("ProductCode: {0}{3}ProductName:'{1}'{3}ProductVersion:'{2}'{3}",
                                   productCode, sbProductName, sbProductVersion, Environment.NewLine);
            }
        }
    }
}

which produce on my computer the correct output

ProductCode: {90140000-001A-0407-0000-0000000FF1CE}
ProductName:'Microsoft Office Outlook MUI (German) 2010'
ProductVersion:'14.0.4763.1000'

ProductCode: {90140000-001A-0419-0000-0000000FF1CE}
ProductName:'Microsoft Office Outlook MUI (Russian) 2010'
ProductVersion:'14.0.4763.1000'

instead of errors in the ProductVersion before.

I can see that you've only tried the ServiceConfig element, which came with MSI 5.0. However, there's another ServiceConfig element in UtilExtension, which has been there for a long time and it seems that the thread you mention in your question confirms that it works.

The util:ServiceConfig element contains 3 parameters you'd like to use: FirstFailureActionType, SecondFailureActionType and ThirdFailureActionType, all accepting the same enumeration of values - none, reboot, restart and runCommand.

Try it out and if it works, it is far better choice than a custom action.