Software Deployment

Adding a complete default set of HKCU registry keys within the MSI/MST and setting them as a key component should cause the MSI to perform a self-repair when a user who does not have the HKCU entires launches the application. Consequently, that user's profile is updated with default information which will achieve what you seem to be looking for. Unfortunately this is easier said than done since the default HKCU entries are rarely spelled out for you. You usually have to get it exactly right for the application to behave, and it can be a real PIA sometimes.

I haven't repackaged this particular application, and you didn't mention your packaging tool, but this is the general direction you should be headed in.

Thanks VikingLoki,

I'm using AdminStudio 5.5 (See my first text). I will try to set the registry keys HKCU as a key component. I just need HKCU user setting for Adobe SVG and I have got the 3 lines already and it works fine.

The program doesn't use a shortcut. WIll the key component still work?
Thanks a lot.
Gert-Tom

Oops. So you did mention the app. I must have a malfunctioning text scanning brain cell.

Hmmm. No shortcut. That may bypass the self-repair check depending on how you access the files. I'm not sure, you'll have to test that. If worse comes to worse you could add your own shortcut. Call it "Activate Adobe SVG", point it to a dummy component in the MSI. If you have nothing in there to point to, you could just add a .cmd that echos "Checking activation status of Adobe SVG" and ends, anything as long as it's included in the MSI) That would kick off the self-repair check.

Hmmm.. You could even put the dummy shortcut in the All Users startup folder and point it to something that does nothing. Then the HKCU stuff will be quickly checked at each user's login and the repair will kick in if the Adobe SVG HKCU component isn't present.

Whatever works for you.

Oh, you can also kick off a self-repair through the MSIEXEC.EXE command line utility. It's a full forced repair, but you can execute it silently.

For any apps which don't have an entry point and needs HKCU keys I use Microsoft Active Setup to refresh the key's at login from a .reg file.

Basically I export all HKCU keys's to a .reg file , deliver the file to an appropriate folder ....eg c:\program files\[vendor]\[AppName]

You'll then need to setup a key under the following HKLM path in the registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\[AppName]

StubPath = REG IMPORT "C:\Program Files\[Vendor]\[AppName]\[File].reg"

Version = 1

The above is written to the machine at MSI runtime , when windows logs in for each subsequent user Windows compare the key's in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components with the ones under HKCU if they are not present it runs the reg import delivering your HKCU key's without user intervention , the process can also be set to refresh at each login or just once but will hit each new user when they login. Not as good as MSI's repair but better than user interactions.

Thanks Foxbat5,

I understand what you like to do. It looks very good. Could you send me a screen dump of your registry where you put the following key?:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Active setup\...........................

I'm not sure how you do the stubpath envirionment,
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Gert-Tom

Hi Gert-Tom,

Can't attach a file so I'll try and explain

If you run regedit and navigate through the following path you'll be able to see the existing active set-up components used by windows.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components

You need to highlight the "Installed Components" Key and right click , select the key option and name this after your application eg "Media Player" or you could use a Guid

Highlight the new key and right click , select string and call the new entry "StubPath" (without Quotes)

Double click on stub path and put the following into the Value data field

REG IMPORT "C:\Program Files\{Manufacturer}\{Yourapplicationname}\your app.reg"

Create a similar string entry called Version and enter the Value data as "1" (again without quotes)

You need to export the HKCU key's from your package to a reg file and deliver the reg file from the MSI to the path indicated under the StubPath entry

To test , Log out after the MSI is delivered and back in again under a new user account , the entries should now have been refreshed.

Regards

Nice tip foxbat5....thats a keeper for sure.

[;)]

Yeah, that IS a neat trick. Never thought of that direction.

I'll be using that one eventually.

I don't know if this has been addressed yet, but to have a per machine install in adminstudio 5.5 all you need to do is open the property manager in devstudio and alter the ALLUSERS property to 1, if this property doesn't exist then you can just add it at the bottom.

Here's the values for the ALLUSERS property that i know of.

1 = per machine install.
2 = per user install.

hopefully this helps.

I'm sure they know that potatoes, but the thing is there's was no entry point for starting a repair like a shortcut.
Actually, allusers=2 is also used with per-machine installations. ALLUSERS=0 makes sure that it is only installed for the current user.

ALLUSERS=1 places shortcuts in the allusers profile. When a user logs on and starts a program with an advertised shortcut the repair proces is started.

The Active Setup trick worked great for me! Because i didn't want the CU-keys for all my users, i removed the security settings for the default user group on the regkey via GPO and added a application group for the users who need the keys.