I have an executable file to install a software in Windows 7, which will unzip a number of folders inside it.
I tried with 1 computer and it worked. I tried with another computer and there left a number of folders that were not unzipped.
I assume this is some sort of Windows 7 security settings but I failed to google for a satisfactory solution.
Thanks.
I would need more specifics about the different machines you are using it.
If it is a security issue, you will be able to successfully run it as an administrator. Do this by right clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator.
If the user you are using is not the administrator you will be prompted for an account and password, otherwise you will see just an extend UAC warning message you can accept.
The nature of the .exe could determine why it might not successfully unpack as well as the location the files are going to when being unpacked.
Related
I have a French client with the French version of Windows 10. However, our Installshield-built installer is looking for C:\Users\username\Local Settings\Application Data, and fails with "Error 1320. The specified path is too long"
We tried to see if we could connect to the appropriate Local Settings\Application Data folder (in English), but it is either not accessible or even as admin we don't have privileges to go there (even from an admin command line).
I understand Windows 10 has some sort of invisible aliases or compatibility for these standard folders?
Are there any tricks we could use to get the software installed?
Disclaimer: this is a hack and the correct answer was provided by slugster - rebuild the MSI
Now that that's out of the way I do have a suggestion for you that might be able to resolve the problem for you. You can try creating the path that the installer is looking for and then creating a symlink to link that folder to the correct folder on the users machine. no guarantee that this works but might be worth a shot. If you need more info on creating symlinks check out hte TechNet page for MkLink
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.
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'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.