Tao of the Windows Installer, Part 3

re: Tao of the Windows Installer, Part 3

Peter Thomas — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:30:39 GMT

Installing Per Machine has become very important for my company. Our product's service pack installations are complex enough that we they have their own product code. We use MSI calls from IS script to detect which features of our product were installed and then update the appropriate files and perform the required configuration.

If the product was installed "per user" then we would have to run the service pack as the same user who installed the main product. This is because the MSI calls will report that the product was not installed for that use so you can't detect which features were installed.

re: Tao of the Windows Installer, Part 3

Mark Rovetta — Fri, 26 May 2006 22:57:47 GMT

“Rule 30: Per-machine Installs are Easier to Manage”

I’m not sure that this should be a rule or claimed as a best practice. It really depends upon the situation. Per-user installation is important for management and deployment with Group Policy. Also, my understanding is that an application installed with administrator authorization via User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista will be installed in the per-user-managed state.

This is another example of something that needs to be considered when planning the deployment of a package, and even during the package development process: Should the application be available to only particular users or all users of a computer?

As a general rule, the better package is the one capable of being easily customized for deployment as either a per-user installation or per-machine installation.

Rule ##: Test packages for both per-user and per-machine installation deployment

• Consider whether the application should be available to only particular users or all users of the computer during the development process.

• Test that the package works correctly for both the per-user installation and per-machine installation contexts.

• Make the package easily customizable and let customers decide whether to deploy it per-user or per-machine.

re: Tao of the Windows Installer, Part 3

Windows Installer Team — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:45:16 GMT

“Rule 30: Per-machine Installs are Easier to Manage” - I’m not sure that this should be a rule or claimed as a best practice. It really depends upon the situation.

Yes, it could do with a bit of re-wording. This rule sounds a bit more like a statement of fact than a rule to follow.

In fact a lot of the "rules" could be bent or broken depending on the situation - they are just intended to point out obvious places you could have problems and how to avoid these.

[Author: Richard Macdonald]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

re: Tao of the Windows Installer, Part 3

Mark Rovetta — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 02:04:14 GMT

Rule 37: Enable the DisableMedia Policy

“When enabled, users cannot install from anything except a local fixed drive or a remote server.”

Is that correct? I thought with this policy set, it is still possible for the user to reinstall the product from media if the user has a correctly labeled media source.

Can this be revised along these lines?

Rule ##: Enable the DisableMedia Policy to limit unauthorized installation from media

This policy can prevent unauthorized installation of applications. When this policy is enabled, users and administrators running a maintenance installation of one product are prevented from using the Browse Dialog to browse media sources, such as CD-ROM, for the sources of other installable products. Browsing for other products is prevented regardless of whether the installation is done with elevated privileges. It is still possible for the user to reinstall the product from media if the user has a correctly labeled media source.

re: Tao of the Windows Installer, Part 3

Peerke — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:15:30 GMT

<b>Rule 31: Keep the Original Source Files Available</b>

What about laptop users?!

Windows Installer best practices

Aaron Stebner's WebLog — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 03:29:42 GMT

I recently noticed a series of in-depth articles that have been posted on the Windows Installer team...