I would like to build a setup, or something like that (1 file), to deliver a single file to a target system. Plugin for an application, installable to users AppData folder.
After some research I'm still not sure in which direction to look. I can create the setup project with Visual Studio 2010, but all of the options so far seem to be way too heavy or have some flaws.
SetupProject stubbornly wants to create an application folder which I don't need, and complains about installation to user folder. Cab doesn't seem to offer automatic install, oneclick is not available for the project, etc.
Is there an easier setup technology I could use?
Requirements:
Install -> Copy 1 file to a folder
under %userprofile%\3rdpartyapp\ if
it exists (xcopy).
Uninstall -> Delete the file and also
one folder with custom settings
(rmdir \s).
Distribution -> Free for commercial
use.
Maybe I should just pack the file in self extracting c++ exe?
It may be overkill for one file, but I like InnoSetup for creating setup packages. Check it out, and see if it suits you. It is very easy to use and deploy.
Take a look at WiX toolset. It allows creating MSI-based installers, and the installer could be quite simple:
Search for %userprofile%\3rdpartyapp;
Copy the file into it, if it exists;
Fail install or maybe create it, if it does not exist.
Uninstall would be very simple: it would need to remove the installed file. To remove a subfolder of 3rdpartyapp, you can use RemoveFolderEx element.
MSI registers the installed app with Add/Remove Programs Control panel. Uninstall is handled by Windows Installer service, therefore you don't need to copy any additional files or programs to support uninstall.
I think any setup technology is too heavy for one file. I'd go with creating a simple application that would extract the file from its resources stream and copy it into %userprofile%\3rdpartyapp.
Uninstall is trickier: there should be something that can handle the uninstall process. It could be a batch or script (js, vbs) file stored somewhere in user's profile, another simple application or the same one. (Installation process can also be handled with a script.)
Related
I would like to create an installer of my program.
However because the installation is quite complicated, I need something more advanced than installshield limited edition.
I have to run another installer from my current one. It doesn't matter if the user press "cancel" or installs the program, I just need to run it.
I have to install a directory structure on user computer which has a lot of files, that's why i'm going mad with wix: 100 files and I should write all of them with my hands in that xml file? Are we mad?
I have to install files from point 2 into a registry key. That's why I was using wix
I played with nsis long time ago and I liked it, but the language is not so nice.
Wix has "similar" problem. I would love using something like C# and things like that otherwise I'll stick with wix but I need a way to add files faster to xml file, can't add 100 files manually.
Any suggestion?
You can give Advanced Installer a try. It has folder synchronization, which means it can batch add contents of folders, with the possibility to filter out certain file name patterns, for example you'd want to filter *.pdb files and add all the rest to the project automatically.
I use it myself and never had a problem.
Wix Heat can generate the wxs source files for you.
You should look at InnoSetup. It has an IDE available that allows drag and drop of files (and multiple select in a file selection dialog), can launch other applications (including additional setup files), create and modify registry settings, and supports pretty complex scripting if needed. It's pretty easy to use, and the documentation is pretty good. It comes with pretty comprehensive sample installations, too.
The installation scripts are created by the IDE and then compiled into an installer, so the script source is editable by hand if needed. It's also not XML, but more like an INI file, so it's a little easier to work with manually as well.
Best of all it's free, and so is the IDE.
I would go back to using NSIS, if you use the HMNSIS editor http://hmne.sourceforge.net/ to write your scripts you can use the Wizard mode to make a list of the files and directory structure you will use in your installer.
Running other installers and registry settings are also easily done with NSIS.
I would like to know how can I detect if help file is contained in setup file for windows platform application (msi or exe). Is there any method to get this information without installing the software first ?
Of course setup file can be created by many setup makers like innosetup, installshield and so on. So I wonder if there is some universal method to solve this.
For an MSI based install it would be very easy. For example you can use the Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller interop via C# to open the MSI as an InstallPackageClass then access it's Files collection to see if it contains the file you care about.
For a Non-MSI based install, there is no universal way and in most cases, no way period. See, that's kind of the point of MSI: to have a standards based package rich in meta data to be able to see what it's doing. When you do some proprietary script driven installer you lose that openness.
If it's a MSI file, open it up using Orca, and you can view file names.
For both of them, you should be able to do an administrative install, which would extract the files, but not register anything. Depending on where the exe came from, doing an administrative install changes, since each vendor(installshield, innosetup, etc) has their own way to run an administrative install.
for a MSI it's simply
msiexec /a <msi_filename>
For an exe you'll have to look up how to pass the /a argument.
I am developing a package using Installshield 2008 Primer Edition and Project type is Installscript MSI project.
The problem I am facing is during installation I am installing some of the files to the following location C:\Program Files\Company\SystemFiles from this location I am copying and adding the set of files into System32 folder, it contains DLLs and OCX files, copying into the System32 folder has been done using Installscript.
Due to this during uninstallation, the installed file is getting removed from System32 due to this other dependent application which requires the same set of DLLs have stopped working.
I have approached Installscript to copy files from ProgramFiles to System32 Folder rather than using built-in options because we have an issue during the upgrade in order to avoid that I am using Installscript.
Even I have tried several workarounds like setting the file attributes after file copies to System32 using Installscript like FILE_ATTR_SYSTEM which sets the system attribute but still files are getting removed during uninstallation.
Any idea how to give file attributes as PERMANENT or SHARED; will this help, and if it will, then how can I set it using Installscript?
I have 2 ideas
1)I think you can use SHARED option as this wont remove the files while uninstallation.
2)Also when i was facing similar issue , what i did was putting all the required files in the installation directory itself so that while uninstalling only the installed files will be removed.(I know this is not a best solution)
(NOTE:I have worked on Install shield some 6 years back and so remember only certain things)
You can also disable logging from Install Script. This will make the installer "forget" that it installed specific files groups or features.
You should make sure to enable logging once again after you have copied the files that you want to permanently leave on the system.
If you don't remember to enable logging after you have disabled it, your uninstall process may not work correctly.
Syntax is as follows:
Disable(LOGGING);
//Add code to copy your permanent files here
Enable(LOGGING);
For InstallScript projects:
To prevent the files in a particular Component from being removed during uninstall:
1-Select the Components view from within the Organization folder.
2-Select the component that contains the files you do not wish to remove during uninstall.
3-Change the "Uninstall" property in the right pane to a value of "No."
For MSI Projects:
To prevent the files in a particular Component from being removed during uninstall:
1-Select the Components view from within the Organization folder.
2-Select the component that contains the files you do not wish to remove during uninstall.
3-Change the "Permanent" property in the right pane to a value of "Yes".
I see this is an old question but I just came across this. Seems to be a common problem. One good solution is to stage the files to a private directory mostly program files and then have a custom action do the copy and register (ocx etc). Installshield remembers what it copied so it tends to remove them. Do not disturb anything else like logging (my recommendation). Set conditions on the custom action so that it doesn't run during Uninstall.
Although sometime back I did another weird implementation which only programmers are used to doing.. Packed the files as resources and created my own code to extract and deploy (Something that Process Explorer kind of tool does). There were certain use cases that warranted this kind of implementation. But again this is complicated and obviously reinventing the wheel. Unless you are good with C/C++ and Windows API this would be difficult. I would still suggest you stay away from this kind of implementation because it is also considered a "virulent behavior". Yet, so far I never got warnings from the Anti-malware products.
My installer requires there be two files in the same directory in order for it to install.
The installer (.msi file)
An organization specific config file that the installer copies. (This file is customized by the organization and then distributed to it's end users).
Since there are two files, the file has to be distributed as a zip file. Which presents the issue of if a user tries running the .msi without actually extracting the zip... only the msi file gets extracted. I am able to detect the issue in the install process and tell the user they need to unzip the file... but you know how noone actually reads error messages.
So, I'd like to make it more foolproof and so i was wondering if there was a simple tool that i could let my customers (ie the organization) be able to make modifications to the config file and when finished create a .exe file which when clicked would extract to a temp folder and then run the msi. I know there are solutions for this which require commercial software. I'm wondering if a simple freeware tool exists that can do this.
Edit: Accepted Solution Notes:
The one issue i ran into is the iexpress wasn't designed to be used for .msi files. As a result on the step that asks you for the Install Program. It's a combo box which if you had added a .exe file in the previous step could just select the .exe file from. Instead you have to manually type in
msiexec /i yourinstaller.msi
I was very pleased to find such a simple solution that's built in to windows. The only way this could be better is if it allowed for wildcards so that your iexpress project would be able to handle changes in the msi file's name which occur with each version. And defaulting the Install Program to the .msi file. These minor inconveniences are offset by the fact that end user wouldn't need to install any new software to create the package so I have stopped looking for other tools.
You could try using iexpress.
It enables you to package up a set of files which can be extracted, with the option of running an installation command automatically after extraction. It also has options to enable you to prompt users about things, show a EULA, restart the computer, etc..
I believe it comes as part of Windows (part of IE?) - try running iexpress.exe from the run dialog to get the UI.
The Wix project has a bootstrapper and packager for dealing with this kind of thing.
I've used wix a lot but haven't really looked at the bootstrapper/packager much - last time I had a quick look it wasn't really usable but that was a long time ago so it may be better now.
I'm guessing that the config file is something like a properties file, and that you want users to set the values of the properties "foo" and "bar". You don't need a separate tool to update the file.
I would do this:
Put one or more dialogs in the install that ask the user what the values of foo and bar should be, and set a couple public properties accordingly.
Write a custom action that writes the config file out to whatever location you want, including whatever values you want for foo and bar. This would be pretty easy in vbscript.
Put the custom action somewhere in the execute sequence (ideally as a deferred execution action, since you're making changes to the system).
Add an entry to the RemoveFile table, so the config file is removed on uninstall (assuming you don't want it to be left behind.)
Add an entry to the LaunchCondition table, to prevent users from doing a silent install. Or if you want silent install to be allowed, make the names of the public properties that hold the config data known, and make them part of the LaunchCondition. You would block "msiexec /i myapp.msi", but you could choose to allow "msiexec /i myapp.msi FOO=Something BAR=SomethingElse".
How to run the exe file to other system?
Using VB 6
I copied the exe file to other system, then run that exe file, it not working it showing error
“component comdlg32.ocx or one its dependencies not correctly registered a file is missing or invalid”`
Can any one help me how to avoid this error?
When deploying VB6 applications, you should create a Setup, this will manage the DLL's that the VB6 application depends on. Since it is not enough to just copy the .Exe and .Dll's. You also need to register them.
The creation of the setup is included in the VB6 environment.
You can read this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830761 which is very comprehensive.
1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830761 for more information.
Or if you just want the redistributable files check this kb http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290887
Copy and register the comdlg32.ocx on other system. Link: Fix Missing Comdlg32.ocx Run time Error in Portable apps.
Create an installer for your program.
Unless you are deploying your program to really old versions of Windows (prior to XP), one nice alternative is to create an XCopy package using reg-free COM. This is fairly easy for most simple programs using Make My Manifest though it can be done by hand or using other tools if you invest in a little study.
Even then a formal installer package is usually desireable though, if nothing else to create Start Menu shortcuts and set up application workspace directories.
Keep in mind that even the PDWizard is difficult to use blindly. Packaging and deployment is a topic that requires some learning investment.
Outdated or missing comdlg32.ocx runtime library is causing this error. Here is a copy of comdlg32.ocx (~60 Kb Zip). Download the file to the Desktop and extract the comdlg32.ocx to your the Windows\System32 folder.
Note: If you already have a copy of comdlg32.ocx, backup the existing file to a different folder and delete it from System32 folder.
1. Download comdlg32.zip and save to Desktop.
2. Unzip the file using WinZip or any other utility.
3. Extract comdlg32.ocx to Windows\System32 folder.
4. Type the following command from Start, Run dialog:
regsvr32 %Systemroot%\System32\comdlg32.ocx
Typically a VB 6 app will consist of an .exe some .dll libraries and a config.ini file. The exe is the starting place and it consumes the dll's and config.ini and other resources to run => you have to have all parts in the same directory for the app to run typically called "packaging" an app. E.g. An installer simply ensures that all those files in a packaged app are placed on a users computer in an Windows application directory, and creates a shortcut launch icon so that a user can click the shortcut in the start bar and the app will run.
To "package" your app (put the dll's and exe in the same folder) you can use an Add-In called "Package and Deployment Wizard":
And here is a demo of using it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT7jaoAiKDo
You can either package and create an installer and package or just create a package:
Now if the Deployment Wizard doesnt show as an add-in on your VB6 Editor Installation, go to editor's program folder and find the tools Tools folder, i.e:
Then you should be able to find the Deployment Wizard there:
Open it to use it.