I have gone through the several samples in the web.I understood to protect software by giving
Password for each application.I am not asking about abstract concept because I had developed one concept for mine.My question is Where can I implement this codes ?
I read about various options in visual studio such as setup project,clickonce.In setup project I can't add any executables or any script to password protect before installing my application.
I want user to give password during installation so that the installation process proceeds and finished succesfully
How can I achieve this in visual studio ?
To be honest, the only way that I know that you will be able to do this in Visual Studio (your actual question) is to write your own application to be an installer. Even then the password will probably coded into your installer, so will be easy to hack. I would recommend you either look into another technology or addin. Why not copy protect the application and by an off the shelve plug in to do the security? In this area I really wouldn't re-invent the wheel - it's not worth the effort (and therefore cost)
Related
I have a Windows App SDK based desktop application. I am using the single-project MSIX packaging in VS2022. What I need to figure out is how to get the installer to launch 3rd party installers (Nvidia Cuda for instance) as part of the application install. What should be pretty straight forward is lost in the weeds in the sparse documentation on MSIX. I also will eventually want to overlay multiple MSIX installs in one location. I am pretty sure I can't do this directly from Visual Studio but it seems possible using the MSIX Tool. Any pointers would be helpful.
While MSIX doesn't have install custom actions, for some things we can still customize some things at the user system.
Handling this externally from the package deployment is the recommended method. There may be other options, however.
With source code you can modify the app to detect if you need to do something and do it. If "it" needs elevation you need to add the allowelevationcapability in the manifest and there will be a UAC prompt for the user.
With or without source you can instead add the PsfLauncher of the Package support framework to run a script on launch of the app. PsfLauncher will take care of the detection on if run before for you. And the same elevation concerns apply.
As these methods run in the user context they really aren't any good if elevation is needed, hence not the recommended way.
Tim Mangan.
First of all, don't start using the MSIX Packaging Tool. As I said in previous SO threads, that tool is designed for IT pros, not for developers.
Second, as Tim concluded, I wouldn't recommend overcomplicating yourself to deliver those third-party installers via MSIX.
Instead of overcomplicating yourself with integrating the Package Support Framework into your MSIX package, I would think twice if it is worth deploying the application as MSIX. Last time I checked you could still get an identity for your app even if you deployed it with an MSI (I may be wrong here).
If you choose to keep the MSIX for your app, maybe a cleaner solution is to build an EXE wrapper (also called bootstrapper in the packaging world) over it to handle the third-party package installations, and when done with those it can launch your MSIX installation?
Unfortunately, so far Microsoft isn't making it easy for us to define a non-MSIX dependency.
We have developed a .Net 4.0 VSTO Excel AddIn in VS2010 that we are deploying via ClickOnce. Our deployable seems fine on Windows XP but is extremely problematic when installed on Windows 7. The problems all seem to relate to when the AddIn needs to be removed via Excel (i.e. it has been soft deleted by Excel [eg. due to failure, etc] and it is then 'Remove'd by the user via the Excel | Options | AddIns | Manage | COM AddIns dialog.
The above leads to a situation where an AddIn is re-installed after the above has occurred, it is not exposed within Excel - i.e. the Excel AddIns tab (which would normally appear if there is one or more AddIns installed) vanishes forever. It becomes even more of a problem when we are developing/debugging, as we are renaming/removing AddIn instances on the fly - so much so that developing VSTO on Windows 7 is no longer feasible
Note that the AddIn is not in the hard deleted (disabled) list - it has been removed. I have tried installing/re-installing/uninstalling, rebooting, removing registry items (cleaning up cache/after-uninstall), removing file system files from C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Apps\2.0, clearing cache (via mage and/or rundll32 as per Clear the .NET-downloaded application cache without Mage?). There seems to be a clear difference of behaviour between XP and Windows 7.
Has anyone had similar problems ?
The only alternative I can see is a deployment project with a fully blown MSI, however this is no where near as neat - requires local Admin access, etc
Many thanks
Travis
Not sure if you have read about the tutorials about publishing Office solution using Clickonce. If you haven't, you can find them via the links below. Worth reading.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/bb772100(v=vs.100).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/bb608591(v=vs.100).aspx
Regarding using windows installer, it's not extremely hard to do, especially with Visual Studio 2010 setup project. Here's a very detailed tutorial that can guide you through all these. It helped me a lot when I was trying to deploy the Excel add-in, and I hope it'd help you too in some way.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff937654.aspx
Also you might want to ask yourself these questions to determine whether or not using Clickonce/Windows installer is the right choice.
When it comes to your choice in deployment technologies, you don't
need to limit yourself to just one option. The key is to choose the
right tool for the right job. While there is no single rule or simple
answer, there are some general guidelines you can use to help make the
best decision for your specific needs.
Does the application install any COM components?
Does the application require registering any components for COM-Interop?
Does the application install any services? Does the application have to
install to a specific location or to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC)?
Does the application have any components that are conditionally
installed, based on the operating system or runtime environment?
Does the application require user input at installation time?
Does the application require configuration of system-level services such as
Active Directory or COM+?
After the application is installed, does it create files, write to the
registry, or affect the system in some way that would leave resources behind when the application is removed?
If you answered yes to any of
these questions, then Windows Installer is the best choice for
your needs. However, if you don't need to address the scenarios
described in the list above, then ClickOnce is an excellent candidate
for your deployment solution. If you want to leverage the distinct
benefits provided by ClickOnce, then understanding the capabilities of
ClickOnce early in your application design process is critical.
Deploying an early version of an application with ClickOnce, but then
belatedly realizing a need to move to Windows Installer, would create
a difficult upgrade path that can be avoided through careful up-front
planning.
From my experience, on one of my production projects we have also used MSI. And problems with click once were avoided. So my answer - yes you need to have MSI Project or MSI installations. And with MSI installations you can either use default MSI Project or external, e.g. Wix or Wise Installer or something else. Second way with custom installer is much more harder.
For situations with removing I've used mage and manual delete add-in from cache and registry. It helps, but looks like hacks.
Also each time when dealing with VSTO ClickOnce unclear, I've thought to use some external libraries. Unfortunately I haven't such opportunity to use something 3rd party to make my work easier due to requirement to project. But you can check and try. May be Add-in-Express libraries will help you, especially when they have good technical support.
What we found was that the way to get ClickOnce working for VSTO on Windows 7 was to do this within Excel - i.e.
Add/Remove Programs : uninstall
Excel | Options | AddIns | COM | Go
Add | browse to the ClickOnce setup.exe | OK | etc
Close down Excel
Go into Excel
AddIn appears
I'm sure you can play with the Add/Remove programs uninstall (versioning) so the user doesn't necessarily have to manually uninstall
ClickOnce is gr8 when it works - it's journey to get there tho and needs to be tightened up big style
We are creating an excel plugin but need some guidance as we're new to excel development (but not new to programming).
Here's what we want: Once the user installs the plugin, they will authenticate w/ our server to ensure they are a subscriber to our service (the plugin will save login info and password so they don't have to enter credentials everytime). From there, the user will be able to type in custom formulas (UDFs) in Excel and pull data from our mysql database.
Here's what we've tried:
We started w/ VisualStudio (C#) and got excel to output some mysql data when the spreadsheet starts up. Looking into it further, people have suggested to use ExcelDNA to create UDF's. So, we did some reading on ExcelDNA and have created a helloworld xll but haven't been able to find anything on how to authenticate the user. Should we be using ExcelDNA? VisualStudio? Something entirely different? thx!
Excel-DNA is exactly right library to use (I'm the developer, but still...).
You would probably use Visual Studio as your IDE to make the .NET assembly with functions and macros in. But your .NET .dll will be integrated into Excel using the Excel-DNA .xll instead of the Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) libraries that ship with Visual Studio Professional.
Nothing in Excel-DNA (or any of the other add-in frameworks I know of) gives you a pre-built implementation of the authentication feature you ask for. But implementing it yourself should not be too hard - you'd do your check and possible username/password prompt in the AutoOpen handler of the add-in, and enable or disable the functionality based on the result from your web call. You should be a little bit careful if you are making a potentially slow web request during the add-in load...
You could also implement the log-in via ribbon interface, with an indicator of the current status and a button to log in. That way users would not be confused about why your add-in 'is not working' when the functions are disabled.
On the Excel-DNA CodePlex site http://exceldna.codeplex.com there are links to other projects based on Excel-DNA. The best place for support is the Google group at http://groups.google.com/group/exceldna. I also monitor the 'excel-dna' tag on StackOverflow, but often the group is nicer for ongoing back-and-forth discussions and explanations.
I would like to know if you could share some (trusted) sources of information (books, URLs) that you consider the most relevant for learning Windows Installer. They could be for starting on this technology or for an advanced or professional level of knowledge.
Where can a future deployment engineer start and where can he/she go to keep on the right direction (step by step)?
I'm obviously biased but I think my blog and the WiX toolset are good ways to learn:
http://robmensching.com/blog
http://wix.sf.net (click on the Manual or Tutorial links on the right)
Some people like Phil Wilson's "The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer" but I never read it. I learned straight out of the MSI SDK.
I did 7 years of writing InstallScript installers before ever picking up MSI. While there is a huge difference between procedural script-driven imperative installs and data driven declarative installs, they both do the same fundemental thing: deploy software.
I became an MSI Expert but studying everything I could on the domain, writing LOTS of installs and by blogging for 7 years and answering over 4,400 posts on the InstallShield community forums. The only way to go in my book is to have been there and done that.
So the first step in your quest should be to understand the Windows Platform and related technologies very thoroughly. These evolve over the years but you should get a decent understanding of:
Fundamentals
Registry
FileSystem
NTFS
ACL's
DLL Types ( Win32, COM, .NET Assembly)
Win32 API
.NET Base Class Libraries
Service Control Manager Drivers ODBC
SQL IIS Active Directory ( GPO, LDAPand so on )
Global Assembly Cache
WinSxS Cache
DLL Hell
Good and Bad Installer Behavior
The second step is
Tools
Now let's start to writing installs. As Leslie ( Easter I assume ) said in another answer, pick a tool and learn how to use it to accomplish the above things. But don't stop there, as soon as you can go to the next step.
MSI
Start digging deep down into how your tool is working behind the scenes as soon as you can. Just as you can write C# in .NET and look at the IL with ILDASM, learn to use ORCA and see what is happening. Read the MSI SDK. Yes, it's rough and cryptic but I spent 3 months commuting beween DC and TX and I spent at least 16 hours a week traveling away from internet connections but nothing except the SDK to read. Read it, know it, live it... the cryptic help topics will eventually start to click and become second nature.
And finally, read my blog: DeploymentEngineering.com and every other blog you can find.
There is not a simple answer. The primary reason is that most install developers use a specific tool which in turn hides the bulk of Windows Installer behavior. While it would be nice if those developers had an in-depth knowledge of Windows Installer, that's not the case.
My suggestion would be as follows:
Focus on a specific tool. Many of the development environments offer a trial period and some are free. The on-line help for these tools plus the act of building some sample packages will be a useful process.
If practical, consider taking a training class for the tool. I know Flexera sells their basic and advanced InstallShield course manuals. They are a bit over-priced, but it does include need-to-know Windows Installer specifics. The problem you'll run into is that most documentation is specific to the tool without explaining a lot of the connectivity to Windows Installer.
You'll need the Windows Installer SDK -- in addition to the help file, there are some interesting tools and VBScript scripts. Orca is one tool that is included with the SDK and there are similar tools on the Internet (SuperOrca, InstEd, etc.). The SDK is not a great read but it is a great reference. As you come across specific questions regarding Windows Installer use the SDK help file to understand the deeper internals.
Google 'windows installer blog'. You probably don't want to hear that, but there are many great blogs available that cover many bits and pieces of Windows Installer. Make sure you pick up the Windows Installer Team blog.
No matter what path you choose, you'll find learning Windows Installer to be a hands-on process. I hope this helps!
I'm also biased, but this might be helpful. I recently revisited WiX for a real-world Windows Installer project and wrote up my solution which ultimately plugged into a continuous integration server.
The steps in the article take you through using WiX, localizing the MSI, and creating a bootstrapper for installing any prerequisites.
For learning, Tramontana's tutorial WiX helped me a lot.
A nice little blog post about how to debug custom actions is WiX and DTF: Debug a Managed Custom Action and how to generate an MSI log.
I am working on in installer project that needs to gather some info and act on it during the install (mainly online key retreival and registration). The Setup Project UserInterface templates seem inflexible and poorly documented so I am looking at opening a WinForm as a Custom Action.
I know this is possible because I see reference to it in many places but this is my first Windows Installer experience and so far it is mired in googled contradictions, partial or outdated information and guesswork... erg....
Does anyone have (even a pointer to) a clear concise description of how one gets this done in a VS 2008 WinForm project...
Many thanks for inputs
There is no guarantee that the .net framework is installed when the installer is launched (especially on Windows XP). A best practice is to keep your installer away from any dependencies.
Put the online key retrieval and registration in your application rather than doing all that stuff during install.
Create a standard installer class. In the class create your form and show it (ShowDialog is prefered)