I have created a Word Add-In setup.exe file with installshield and I'm trying to find out how to install it without needing administrative privileges. Furthermore, I need the installation to be silent(No UI). I was able to get that to work by extracting the msi file from the executable and run it using
msiexec /i setup.exe /passive
This works perfectly on my machine, but it won't work for any other user in the client's system. The client uses a different system, so when I try the same command, I see that the files are added to my program files, but it isn't in my list of installed programs and the registry keys aren't set. I am not able to make any changes to their system, so I'm trying to find a way to bypass this whether it be third party programs or a little cheat I can use in the command prompt.
I have attempted the following:
Turning off UAC prior to running the command above.
I have removed the node from the manifest file.
numerous commands in the command prompt.
Does anybody else have any other suggestions or an idea of how I can fix this?
Thanks!
Admin access is needed if your app is installing into an area of the system where regular user does not have rights. If you want to be able to install it without having admin rights, it should install under their own user folder (think about %appdata%). Google Chrome is an example of that.
Related
I have a Windows installer script for a Windows application I'm delivering to customers. I want to have the application installed as a Windows service.
I've been reading up on various ways to do this. The closest I've found that can do this from a command is sc.exe as described in Create windows service from executable here at Stackoverflow, but this command requires running it as administrator, which as far as I can tell, also requires submitting an administrator's password.
In my build script, there's no way to right-click and "run as administrator".
Is there any way to do this from a build script (I'm using my company's installation packager to do this, which uses Ant-like XML build files with an command and statements -- so, much like running at the Windows command line). If I could figure out a command-line implementation that my customers can use I could give them this package.
Thanks for any tips.
Scott
I've written a Win32 program that at regular intervals retrieves content from a dedicated server on the internet.
Sometimes the Win32 program itself needs to be updated. What I do is exit the said program and run a download-program which replaces the main exe I need to uopdate. This works for users running in Administrator mode but not other mode that has sufficent rights for most tasks. The program runs on it own directory which is not under "c:\Windows\program files\".
I've set a manifest file to no avail.
Is there a workable workaround solution for this (any)?
For security reasons you cannot place files in Program Files without admin rights. If you would be able to this you could in theory change Windows files and place malware as well.
Same goes for Linux and OSX systems.
However you could prompt the user for an Administrator password and gain the admin rights in that way.
You need your updater program to have admin rights. You achieve that by adding the requireAdministrator option in the requestedExecutionLevel section of the application manifest. You said that you have tried this to no avail. Well, you must have got something wrong because this is the solution. You just need to persevere until you get the manifest correct.
I presume that when you say that the [program is not under the Program Files directory you refer to the updater. If the program being updated is not under the Program Files directory then there would seem to be no obvious reason that the updater needs admin rights. If that is so then you need to investigate further.
I'm currently working on my applications installer and I'm wondering where the executable files should be installed to in Windows 7.
If I'm installing as admin my executables files get put in C:\Program Files.
If I install my product as a normal user where should the executables be put?
Thanks in advance.
Which installer are you using?
MSI runs in elevated privileges. You can install your application in program files folder
Put the files in the user folder.
This will mean that the application is only available to that user.
You should probably store that in the AppData directry, as I saw you mention in reply to #ChrisF. Remember that the user can move this directory though, so I wouldn't point to it explicitly. There is an environment variable that you can grab, that only applies to the logged-in user, which is %AppData%.
Keep in mind that putting it in %AppData%/Roaming would follow the user across multiple machines on the same Domain and %AppData%/Local would just stay on the one machine.
The executables should be under Program Files, who's precise location may vary from installation to installation. This means that the setup should run elevated. If InnoSetup makes .msi files, they will request elevation. If it makes a file called setup.exe, it will also request elevation. If for some reason the exe has a different name, like GetStarted.exe, then you should hand create an external manifest (GetStarted.exe.manifest) and put in requireAdministrator for the requestedExecutionLevel which will ensure your installer requests elevation.
Regardless of how it requests elevation, if the user doing the install is an admin (eg you) they will just have to click consent. If they are not an admin they will need to get an admin to consent for them. After that the installer will be able to write to Program Files.
If it's important to you that non admins be able to install the app then have the executables go under the users profile - but that would not be my first choice. The protection given to Program Files means that users are less likely to find themselves with messed up copies of your application if you install it to the protected area.
I have a setup program that I want to install to a local folder. I also do not need it to write any settings to the registry. On Vista, and maybe on Windows 7, executables named similar to setup or install require admin privileges, I would like to be able to run it without admin privileges, to make sure that it does not write to the registry. Is there a way to force this type of mode, sort of in a sandbox?
If you are producing the installer and using MSI, set bit 3 of PID_WORDCOUNT in the MSI package (per this question).
The answer to this question is relevant if you are producing the installer but aren't using MSI - see create a manifest that prevents elevation.
I read in this article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709628.aspx
That Windows detects Installers through file names, following this tip, Is it better to include setup in the file name for the installer
I mean ProductSetup.msi is better than Product.msi???
It's hard to think that Windows does this kind of detection :-)
This only applies to EXE files. If you've got an MSI file, it's up to the MSI file to specify which parts of the MSI require elevation or not.
That's news to me, but it does seem like Windows Vista treats files differently when they have "setup" in their name. It will probably just prompt you for administrative rights up front if it detects that it's an installer, which is what you'd want.
Also worth reading is How User Account Control Affects Your Application, to ensure that your setup runs as administrator embed the correct manifest into the setup EXE. This way it doesn't matter (to Vista) what your installation is called.
That said however, if you expect the application to be installed on a terminal server then if your installer is called something like SETUP.EXE or INSTALL.EXE Terminal Server will automatically kick into "install mode". Should save you some headaches from those customers who don't know they should be in install mode first, or choose not to install via Add/Remove Programs (which also kicks install mode in automatically)