I have created an installer in Visual Studios 2010 and i added some custom actions. It is meant to be a workstation installer so it would check to see if certain files exist in the destination folder and move shortcuts around after. However if i use a UNC path or a mapped network drive path as the destination folder and use the commands My.Computer.FileSystem.FileExists and System.IO.File.Exists they return false on a network drive. Is there a way to figure out in a custom action if the file exists. Currently I am using Windows XP to run the installer so UAC is not a factor here.
Custom actions in a VS setup project run with the system account, which has no network privileges and so can't get to see them. Also, mapped drives are a user-profile thing, not system-wide, so they belong to a particular user, so the system account won't see them because of that too.
So there isn't a good way to do this. It might work if the custom action ran with the installing user's account, but then it would not be elevated, and you'd need to go into the CustomAction table in the MSI file and turn off the the msidbCustomActionTypeNoImpersonate bit.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368069(v=vs.85).aspx
Related
I have a visual studio setup project which installs my files to the program files folder and also writes some stuff into the registry and in addition some of the files are com visible (so there is more confusing stuff written to the registry).
Therefore I have to install it as an administrator - this works fine. And this administrator and every other administrator is able to start the program. But using a standard user I am not able to start the program.
All registry entries are there for the standard user - and it also has enough rights to access the file in the Program Files folder.
Could there be a problem with the ComVisibility? (Which is needed because it's actually a DLL working as a plugin for Solidworks)
You just need to look at the code in your app and see what it does that limited users can't do. Installing it for all users does not mean that it automatically allows limited users to violate security. Just find out what it's doing when it gets the security error (which is what you believe it is).
Limited users have never been able to write to restricted areas such as the ProgramFiles folder, CommonFiles folder, HKLM etc. That's a common reason for limited user issues with apps.
I have a Visual Basic 6.0 application that I want to install for All Users, for example, the setting are held in a single spot regardless who logs into the computer. I have the following code to locate the common location:
Const ssfCOMMONAPPDATA = &H23
Dim strAllUsersPath As String
strAllUsersPath = CreateObject("Shell.Application").NameSpace(ssfCOMMONAPPDATA).Self.Path
On Windows XP, this path points to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ folder. The setup copies the settings file there and everything is great. The Visual Basic 6.0 app can change it at any time.
On Windows 7, this path points to c:\ProgramData folder. The setup, which requires administrator privileges, copies the file there. However, when my Visual Basic 6.0 application starts and accesses the file, Windows 7 copies the settings file to a C:\Users{USER LOGIN}\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ and performs all the operations on it there. As a result, because for each user, Windows 7 copies the settings file to a separate user directory, the users end up having a different settings file.
Am I storing the file in the wrong location? Am I doing it in the incorrect manner?
This one has bitten me too. The ProgramData folder has shared Read Access, no shared write access. You can of course change the permission on the folder during install, but I think that goes contrary to how Microsoft meant it to be.
See this other question for some useful links
How Microsoft thinks it should be done.
I have a setup project that installs my app to the typical program files directly.
My app periodically saves some temporary images to the apps installation folder. It seems on Vista, the permissions are not setup for write permissions. I can change it manually in windows explorer and it works, but I would rather have the setup project do that automatically.
How can I do this?
Is there a better/more normal place to put temp images that won't have permissions issues?
It is not Vista specific, this will happen with any kind of user account that doesn't have admin privileges. Your program just can't write to folders like c:\program files\blah. That UAC disables admin privileges has been publicized for a long time now. Use Environment.GetFolderPath() to get the path to an ApplicationData folder that you can write to.
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756940.aspx for details on UAC issues for vista. These problems can also occur in other versions of windows when running applications from non-admin accounts. You should only write data to app data or temp directories and not program files.
I'm probably just being very thick here, but it's not clear to me where I'm supposed to install 'new' user-specific programs on Windows 7 (and presumably Vista too, though I've not specifically looked at that scenario yet).
Under Windows XP (rightly or wrongly) we always installed our programs into folders under 'Program Files' and accepted that they'd be kind-of available to everyone. From what I can gather under Windows 7 I'm supposed to install my software under the user's AppData folder (possibly AppData\Local\MyApp). That makes a degree of sense, but the fact that this folder is 'hidden' by default means that we're going to have 'fun' talking our users through support stuff.
I want to install our software so that it's user specific (the Users bit in Windows 7 makes perfect sense) but I do want the user to be able to access it if required. Our program also includes a 'data' subdirectory which it needs to write into while it's running (embedded database), but as the program is intended to be single-user/standalone, the data folder being inside a user-specific folder isn't going to be a problem.
My problem is just that whole 'hidden folder' aspect of AppData. As much as I've trawled the MSDN, I can't work out where else I'm supposed to install user-specific programs. Taken one way it would seem to be something like AppData\Local\MyApp, and another way it would seem to be just as valid under the user's My Documents\MyApp equivalent.
Has anyone got a clear guide for where all this stuff goes? I found the MSDN docs confusing. :-)
Not really.
The directory that serves as a common
repository for application-specific
data for the current roaming user.
AppData is, surprisingly, for application data, not for installation (Click Once/Silverlight applications aside). You can, and should still install into Program Files, just don't expect to write into that folder.
You can install software into AppData if you want it to follow a user about in an Active Directory environment, which happens if you put it in AppData\Roaming (the SpecialFolder.ApplicationData location).
You can also install into AppData if you want the software to be available to just the user that installs it. This can be useful if, for example, you have multiple users on the same machine, who all want to run different versions of the software in complete isolation.
If you want settings to only apply on the local machine then you use AppData\Local, which is SpecialFolders.LocalApplicationData - this will make AD administrators very happy as the roaming profile size won't suddenly jump up 50Mb or whatever the size of your software is.
If you wanted to create settings which apply to all users then you're looking at SpecialFolders.CommonApplicationData
You should remember never to rely on the actual name of the directory - localisation issues mean this can change and the location does change with OS versions two. You should be using the special folder enumeration in your software, or the equivalent in your installer.
Could you not install into Program Files, but use AppData as it's supposed to be used, and store your database in there?
Windows 7 added the FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles known folder and by default this maps to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs. This is used by MSI when ALLUSERS=2 & MSIINSTALLPERUSER=1.
On Vista and earlier there is no canonical per-user application folder but just using %LOCALAPPDATA% is pretty common. Sadly MSI will just use %ProgramFiles% on these systems.
It's 2019, and I just installed Visual Studio Code (a Microsoft product) in the default folder of
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code
This is probably for getting around the requirement to have an administrator or UAC prompt authorise the installation
Windows 7 folder structure is deeply inspired on Unix structure:
/usr/ -> C:\Program Files\ -> binaries: executables and dynamically linked
/etc/ -> C:\ProgramData\ -> global settings
/home/ -> C:\Users\ -> a folder for each user
~/.* -> C:\Users\Hikari\AppData\Roaming\ -> settings for each user
Windows has more folder, like My Documents for files with content produced by user, AppData Local and Roaming (which Unix usually handles with NFS).
It's about time for us developers to start using these structures. We must separate at least binary files that don't need to be replicated, global and user settings.
When a setup is installing an app, this setup should expect to have permission to write on Program Files. Once the setup is finished, Program Files should be writable only for other setups aiming to update binaries to other versions.
Please install executable files to the %programfiles% folder in Windows - a simple MSI based install package can perform an active setup for any new user who logs onto the machine to create the user specific files and folders in their profiles %appdata% folder. You see this behaviour for Internet Explorer, Adobe reader, etc. - It's the little MSI installer window that pops up the first time you log onto a machine which has those applications installed. - Thanks - a system admin :)
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that user-specific program files is just asking for trouble and is a damn stupid thing to do.
A much more sensible approach is to install different versions of your program to:
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.1\Program.exe
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.2\Program.exe
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.3\Program.exe
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.4\Program.exe
I would then place a bootstrapping launcher at:
\Program Files\Your Program\ProgramLauncher.exe
Then, the user application data folder will only contain data, including an INI/XML/Settings file that indicates the version of the program that this user is working with.
Such an approach satisfies the core tenant of keeping data and executing code separate, allows every user to run a specific version of the code, and offers a small amount of de-duplication by ensuring the same executable code is not copied multiple times across user folders.
Otherwise, go right ahead with installing programs to AppData and undoing the years it has taken us to achieve clean separation of code and data. I found this thread because I noticed that Chromium and DropBox are installing code to AppData. I'm going to uninstall those program, and change the permissions on my AppData folder to exclude execution to ensure I can easily spot other programs attempting the same BS.
When creating a setup/MSI with Visual Studio is it possible to make a setup for a simple application that doesn't require administrator permissions to install? If its not possible under Windows XP is it possible under Vista?
For example a simple image manipulation application that allows you to paste photos on top of backgrounds. I believe installing to the Program Files folder requires administrator permissions? Can we install in the \AppData folder instead?
The objective is to create an application which will install for users who are not members of the administrators group on the local machine and will not show the UAC prompt on Vista.
I believe a limitation this method would be that if it installs under the app data folder for the current user other users couldn't run it.
Update:
Can you package a click once install in a normal setup.exe type installer? You may ask why we want this - the reason is we have an installer that does a prereq check and installs anything required (such as .NET) and we then downloads and executes the MSI. We would like to display a normal installer start screen too even if that's the only thing displayed. We don't mind if the app can only be seen by one user (the user it's installed for).
ClickOnce is a good solution to this problem. If you go to Project Properties > Publish, you can setup settings for this. In particular, "Install Mode and Settings" is good to look at:
The application is available online only -- this is effectively a "run once" application
The application is avaiable offline as well (launchable from Start Menu) -- this installs the app on the PC
You don't actually have to use the ClickOnce web deployment stuff. If you do a Build > Publish, and then zip up the contents of the publish\ folder, you can effectively distribute that as an installer. To make it even smoother, create a self-extracting archive from the folder that automatically runs the setup.exe file.
Even if you install this way, if you opt to use it, the online update will still work for the application. All you have to do is put the ClickOnce files online, and put the URL in the project's Publish properties page.
Vista is more restrictive about this kind of thing, so if you can't do it for XP you can bet Vista won't let you either.
You are right that installing to the program files folder using windows installer requires administrative permissions. In fact, all write access to that folder requires admin permsissions, which is why you should no longer store your data in the same folder as your executable.
Fortunately, if you're using .Net you can use ClickOnce deployment instead of an msi, which should allow you to install to a folder in each user's profile without requiring admin permissions.
The only way that I know of to do this is to build a ClickOnce application in .NET 2.0+
If the user of your application has the correct pre-requsits installed then the application can just be "launched".
Check out:
Microsoft Family.Show
IF UAC is enabled, you couldn't write to Program Files. Installing to \AppData will indeed only install the program for one user.
However, you must note that any configuration changes that require changes to the registry probably(I'd have to double check on that) administrator privilege. Off the top of my head modifications to the desktop background are ultimately stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.