Have just succeeded in setting up a State migration point on our SCCM and after that got USMT to make user profile backup and restore on the reinstalled PC.
According to the log everything is OK and User data and desktop is there but hardly anything else , not even my Edge favorites or any browser favorites.
USMT is the latest 20H2
Is this what to expect or is something wrong?
I know. Disapointing but it is only a question about updates.
Please get my EhlerTech updated custom xml files for USMT and include them in your SCCM USMT package.
Basically just use MigUser.xml, MigApp.xml and Win10.xml from my xml package.
In case you only need the users profile without scanning the rest of the drive for docs, use MigUser_Profile_only.xml (faster but only grabs data inside the user profiles)
To see a more thorough XML guide go here :-)
/Thomas
Related
Our application is deployed to the target machine with an msi file. All works nicely. Our tester has gone through his plan, and one of the tests requires deleting the application's configuration file. The application is designed to alert the user with a dialog on startup saying "missing config". However, what happens is that - somehow! - the software starts the installer again and retrieves the missing file from the msi! Which is nice, but not what we want. How do we disable that behaviour?
without going into much depth of the windows installer mechanics (if you interested in that there a plenty of articles about this), the shortcut of the software is probably advertised, which means the windows installer checks if everything is in its place before the software is started.
if you can edit the msi, make the shortcut non advertised.
if you can't, install it with DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS
e.g. msiexec /i myMsi.msi DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS=1
please note that this is only a quick (and dirty) workaround,
to fix this proper you need to understand the whole windows installer advertising (also called repair or self resiliency) mechanism.
but explaining all the causes and the mechanism of the repair is far beyond this answer and there are quite some articles and posts about that on the internet (and especially on MSDN and stackoverflow)
There is a more correct answer to this, and it is NOT DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS. You set the component id to null in the MSI file to prevent repair of that individual file. See ComponentId comments here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368007(v=vs.85).aspx
Edit the MSI file with Orca to delete the Componenty ID, and write an uninstall custom action to delete the file at uninstall if it's there.
In addition, that's a redundant test. Windows will restore that file for you if it's missing, so the idea that you need a test to notify that it's missing is pointless. The true test should be that Windows will restore the file if it's lost, and your app needs to do potentially nothing about the missing file.
You don't mention what tool you are using to make your MSI but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Visual Studio Deployment Projects (.VDRPOJ).
One of the (many) horrible things about this tool was that it fails to expose the foundational concept of components. Instead it makes every file a key file of it's own component and hides the existence of the component from you. I say 'was' because Microsoft killed this project type in VS. There are around 50k people complaining on UserVoice to bring this tool back and I'm guessing that 49,990 of them don't know what a key path is.
Windows Installer has a concept called the component rules and each component has a keypath. The keypath teaches MSI how to handle repair scenarios. But your tool has to allow you to be able to control this to make it work.
Windows Installer is functioning exactly the way it's supposed to function. You just aren't up to speed on what that is.
However, if you want to ignore Windows Installer best practices and continue using the tool you use today, the trick is to install the app.config file as a different file. Then have the application copy the file to the real file name on run. Windows Installer won't service what it didn't install.
Several answers have been provided that can work:
You can install the file with a blank guid. Then you need to remove it on uninstall using the RemoveFile feature. You will also run into issues if you want to replace it during an upgrade. Could be tricky at times.
You can disable the advertised shortcut(s), but this affects too much in my opinion.
Finally you can use my suggestion to install a separate non-advertised shortcut to use to launch the application. Such a shortcut bypasses the self-repair check. It may still be invoked by other means such as missing file associations, COM registration or similar, but those are exception states.
However, my preference is that an application can start without a config file present, if at all possible. I always suggest a good startup routine with "internal defaults" available. The startup routine should also degrade gracefully if faced with any file system access denied conditions.
Most importantly you should place this config file in the userprofile so you can generate the file on first launch for the user in question. It can even be copied from a read-only copy in the main installation directory.
When you generate a file from internal defaults and put it in a userprofile location, the file will have no interference with Windows Installer at all. The issues that results is how to clean up user data on uninstall. I discussed this with Stefan Kruger (MSI MVP) at one point, and I agree with his notion that user data is indeed user data and should not be automatically dealt with by your installer at all. Leave it installed, and clean it up via system administrator tools if necessary - for example logon scripts.
I need to periodically distribute an updated set of files (DLL, javascript) as a patch release to multiple windows PCs of various versions (vista/XP/7 etc.). Currently I have a link on my website for each user to download the setup.exe file and manually install the patch (replaces the existing DLLs). In order to eliminate the manual process, I'm researching how to run a program automatically on windows (I assume that means a service) which will check my server periodically for an update, download it and automatically trigger the setup.exe (or some similar process to get the patch files replaced).
I'm not a windows developer per se, but have downloaded and tried to check various options (in order to not reinvent the wheel) such as Sparkle, DDay, CSAutoUpdater, Npackd and just started looking into Google Omaha - but most assume that check happens when the windows application is started using their libraries/components. I need to run an autoupdater independently of the app I'm trying to update - so I need to first get all users to run a setup.exe which should install and start my windows service so that it can run with windows daily to run a program to check, download and install the update.
I found some sample code for writing windows service on stackoverflow, codeproject also, but couldn't find how to autoinstall it (ideally with no UAC hassles for newer windows versions). All required using instalutil or some other manual process to install and start the service.
Any guidance on this would be great! Thanks - and apologies to the long winded question. Will update with additional results as I try out other products.
As you mentioned Npackd I would like to describe how this can be done using it.
I agree with selbie that the simplest solution would be to just create a task with Windows scheduler.
For Npackd you would need your own repository - an XML file accessible via HTTP, for example as http://www.yourserver.com/rep.xml . Here is a simple example for a repository: https://gist.github.com/raw/4132983/dabecde48c796d4fdfa2f645bb744ac58640572c/TestRepository.xml . A user would download Npackd (http://code.google.com/p/windows-package-manager/downloads/list) and add the URL to the list of repositories.
I would define 2 packages: one for the program itself and one for the auto-updater. This way if somebody wants to update the program manually, he can do this too.
You could create or delete a Windows task using the command line tool schtasks.exe available on every Windows system.
The update command itself would be also very simple:
npackdcl update --package=<package>
In order to eliminate the manual process, I'm researching how to run a program automatically on windows (I assume that means a service) which will check my server periodically for an update, download it and automatically trigger the setup.exe (or some similar process to get the patch files replaced).
You likely want the Windows Task Scheduler service for the "periodic" part of your statement. You use that to launch whatever code you would need to actually do the "check for update", download, copy, etc... I don't think you need a Windows Service.
You can likely script a Task Scheduler event. Or do it more programmatically with the API.
You can do as follow:
Maintain the version of the of the dll,exe etc in DB.
Check the version of the Installed version with the version in DB, before the application start up.
If the versions are diff, ask the user to update to the latest version from server.
If he clicks on YES. Update the files from server.
Prasad.
I am using windows installer to create setup project.
How I can remove/delete application files from AppData\Roaming folder when application uninstalled.
I tried added a special folder and set DefaultLocaltion to [AppDataFolder] but it didn't working.
Do I need to do anything else?
I'd need to understand what you are trying to do to give you specific advice. In general what you are trying to do would be OK removing files from CommonAppDataFolder but not AppDataFolder as trying to clanup user data from multiple user profiles is not a best practice. Additionally trying to cleanup Roaming Profile User data is outright impossible because the other users aren't logged on.
You'll want to read:
Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide
Assuming you are trying to do what I think you are, you'll need a cleanup script / exe that you leave behind on uninstall and a custom action to write to the registry during uninstall ( MSI can't do this natively ) to call that script/EXE. You'll want to leverage the Active Setup trick as described here:
Using Active Setup to Repair User Settings
The way it'll work is your uninstall leaves the EXE and registry entry behind so that when a user logs on it's roaming data gets pulled down from the server to local and Active Setup realizes it hasn't run the script yet. The script runs (once) and the data is deleted. When the user logs off the data is replicated / deleted on the server. Then they log on again it doesn't run again.
By default Windows Installer does not remove the files created by your application, after the installation. To do that you need to either write your own custom action, that will run upon uninstall, or depending on the tool used for authoring the MSI, you can use built-in options for cleaning the application locations, as some tools have this support.
I got Team Explorer Everywhere so we can use TFS on the Mac Mini we got to test Iphone apps. Since we're using XCode for phonegap, we need to use the commandline program and it is giving me a lot of grief.
What I've done so far (Listing out for anyone who stumbles on this so they can use it):
-Downloaded the trial (free)
-Set the path using PATH=$PATH\:/FOLDERLOCATION
-Accepted EULA and got trial product key... for command line program (tf eula/tf productkey -trial)
-Set up workspace:
tf workspace -new WORKSPACENAME -server:http://SERVERNAME:PORT/FILEPATH -comment:"WORKSPACENAME" && prompted for username -> domain -> password
-Trying to setup the folder path (Fixed):
tf workfold -map SERVERFOLDERPATH LOCALFOLDERPATH -collection:http://SERVERNAME:PORT/FILEPATH -workspace:WORKSPACENAME && prompted for username -> domain -> password
-Make sure I can check out/check in (On hold):...
The error I'm getting right now is "An argument error occurred: First free argument must be a server path." This is what I've been following ever since I got the path set, but I think the versions are different because mine doesn't seem to be set up the same. Any help at all would be appreciated, and I'll keep up with the post as I figure parts out because there doesn't seem to be much online that I can find on TFS on macs.
Update: As normal, I'm an idiot. Have to put the options at the end of the command and have to have the serverfolder path as the first thing after -map. Now I just need to figure out how to use the damn thing. I'll post any other questions I have and try to get all the correct commands up for the selfish reason of having them somewhere in case I forget them later.
Update 2: The mapping hasn't worked out as well as I'd hoped, it seems a combination of my unfamiliarity with Unix/Mac file systems and some settings being missing is keeping me from using 'tf get' to load all of the test data I was trying to get. I'm planning on trying again after I get the location of where my boss wants the data saved and after I can look into something that would save the workspace so it won't say that it can't find the map path every time...
It looks like you're setting up your workspace and some working folder mappings just fine, after the edit. If you're having problems doing a tf get after this, then there are some common problems that might be occurring. TFS workspaces can be a little bit opaque and having a better understanding of them can sometimes help you understand where the problem is:
Team Foundation Server requires a workspace to be configured before you can get files out of source control, edit them or check them back in. A workspace basically simply contains working folder mappings that map your local path(s) to server path(s).
Workspaces are stored on the server and are uniquely identified by your computer's hostname, your username and the workspace's name. A cache of this information for the local host is saved on the client. This implies:
If you remove a workspace on the server, your workstation will be unable to connect.
If you remove the cache, your local computer will not be able to identify the workspace based on working folder mappings until the cache is rebuilt (which happens every time you connect to the server.)
If you change your username or local workstation's name, you cannot access those workspaces.
(Note that very early versions of the Teamprise command line client had certain issues on Mac OS that made identifying the local workstation name difficult. This is fixed, however, in Team Explorer Everywhere.)
Because you can have multiple workspaces for a single server on a single workstation, you can't always simply provide server paths to tf commands, since server paths are ambiguous. ($/ exists in every workspace, for example.) So the command line client resolves paths based on the current working directory and/or the arguments provided. Meaning that you can run tf get foo.txt if you're in a working folder, or you can run tf get /tmp/foo.txt if /tmp is mapped.
One more point - the configuration data for Team Explorer Everywhere is shared between the TFS plug-in for Eclipse and the command line client. So if you're more comfortable using a GUI to set up your workspace(s), you can do that and then use the CLC as you see fit. You don't need to be a Java programmer to use Eclipse - simply download Eclipse and install the TFS plug-in for Eclipse into it, and select Window > Open Perspective > Team Foundation Server Exploring. After that, you'll have the full GUI Team Explorer experience and this perspective will be restored when you open Eclipse, so you won't even need to worry about the Java IDE bits if you don't want to.
I am working on a WinForm application, that allows working to work with "projects" (think about the application as Visual Studio, and projects as VS Solutions).
My question is - where should the application keep its logging files?
Some requirements include:
the application might not be running as an administrator (so saving in the %ProgramFiles% installation folder is not a good option)
The logs should be accessible to end-users (either for review, or for sending to the support team). (This means that hard to find folders, like %AppData%\Company\Application\Version\ProjectName... are not a good solution either)
The application might generate logs even when there are no open projects (so saving the logs in the project's folder is good only when there's a project, but not a final solution).
I was thinking of creating a "working folder" when the application is installed - something along the lines of C:\Application\, and then save the logs in a subfolder, like %WorkingFolder%\Logs\ProjectName
Thanks for the input.
Somewhere in the user's directory is actually the correct place to store them if they are specific to the current running user.
Some programs create folders at the top level of the User's directory, next to Documents and Desktop, others do it in Documents.
Creating it in C:\ might cause issues if the user doesn't have write access to the root directory. You can pretty much guarantee the user will have write access to the Home directory.
The other option is to look for an environment variable, and if its set use the value as the location, if not default to the User's home directory.
If the logs are user only you should store them at %AppData%\Company\Application Name.
If the logs are shared (any user can see any log) you should store them at:
%ProgramData%\Company\Application Name (for Vista+)
or
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\Company\Application Name (for XP-)
As for user access, you can add a shortcut to the start menu to the appropriate location or have a link within the program.
Another option in Vista+ is the Public folder (%Public%) which has links throughout Explorer for easy access to.
Where should I write program data instead of Program Files is a good blog entry by Chris Jackson from Microsoft. While it isn't an "official stance" it holds some excellent information.
You can always ask the user to configure this. Set a default path, maybe the application directory. During installation or while setting up the application you may prompt the user to input the path they want to use for logs. That's fair, right. If they're advanced enough to use logs they're good enough to configure a path too.
What do you plan to do with the logs. Are they technical, of for financial/security audits?
The EventLog is a nice place for technical logs, because you can access it remotely (within the Domain) and it is cleaned up automatically.
The %AppData% is also a good place for technical logs, specially if you are unable to connect to the eventlog. You can find the log files, and you can direct the end-user to them, but they are not "in the face" of the end-user. You can include a "send log to the maker" button to receive them.
For logs that needs be accessed by end-users, the My Documents (or a subfolder) looks good.
You can just to add button / menu item to easy open folder with logs.
Best place fo logs are %AppData%\AppName or %temp%\AppName.
Never use %MyDocs% or %Program Files%.
I'd suggest adding that question to the installer so that the user that installs the software can decide where best to put the logs. Though C:\[AppName\ sounds like a reasonable default for your requirements.
Edit: Just thought off, it would probably be worth warning the user if the select a bad location (in Program Files or in the root of the system drive etc) and if they choose to create a new directory, automatically give that directory correct permissions during the installation.
I think %APPDATA%\YourCompanyName\YourAppName is the preferred location. To overcome your stated objection of this location being hard to find, you could pretty easily and quickly implement a simple support screen in your app to allow the end user the ability to access and email these logs without too much trouble, so that the user will not have to remember or manually navigate to the long path name to get to the logs.
I don't really like the idea of the user being able to set this location via the installer because of possible naming and permission issues.
If the app needs to maintain the log only for the users current logged in timespan, then you could keep it in c:/temp.
Most of my winapps, i leave it there, so automatically it gets deleted once the user logs off..
Ofcourse, this primarily depends on your requirement.