Distributing an MSI that needs a mapped drive
Hi,
I have a couple of MSI packages that have shortcuts to files on mapped drives. When I try to distribute them with SMS 2003 they fail because the local administrator (or whatever account it is installed with) doesn't have that drive mapped, even though the logged in user does.
Does anyone know how I can get the MSI to not check for the mapped drive during install? Or is there a way to map the drive for the local administrator for the duration of the install?
--
Thanks
David Kirk
I have a couple of MSI packages that have shortcuts to files on mapped drives. When I try to distribute them with SMS 2003 they fail because the local administrator (or whatever account it is installed with) doesn't have that drive mapped, even though the logged in user does.
Does anyone know how I can get the MSI to not check for the mapped drive during install? Or is there a way to map the drive for the local administrator for the duration of the install?
--
Thanks
David Kirk
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Answers (7)
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Posted by:
revizor
18 years ago
Easy workaround:
install shortcuts as regular files inside the Start Menu folder
The drawback is that if a person without that drive map logs on and opens Start Menu, it might take some time for the access request to time out (broken shortcuts/ freezing of Start Menu - not-so-fun stuff)
install shortcuts as regular files inside the Start Menu folder
The drawback is that if a person without that drive map logs on and opens Start Menu, it might take some time for the access request to time out (broken shortcuts/ freezing of Start Menu - not-so-fun stuff)
Posted by:
skylizard
18 years ago
Simple answear no,
SMS uses local system account as you know already, so won't have privilages connecting to or mapping any drives.
Only way round this to to have the application run as the logged on user (user must then have proper access permissions and have a mapped drive already setup, could also maybe make a batch file to run prior to the setup running which maps the drives)
Good luck.
SMS uses local system account as you know already, so won't have privilages connecting to or mapping any drives.
Only way round this to to have the application run as the logged on user (user must then have proper access permissions and have a mapped drive already setup, could also maybe make a batch file to run prior to the setup running which maps the drives)
Good luck.
Posted by:
YatesAG
18 years ago
Not sure if I am understanding you correctly. We have several msi packages with shortcuts to mapped drives. You can set the path to the files in a Property, then use that property as a parameter in the shortcut table.
Posted by:
rpfenninger
18 years ago
David
Do you need the drive letter mapping to the correct path and executables or just a simple drive letter?
Then try the subst command. You can map the appropriate drive letter like this:
subst k: c:\temp
This will active your k: but simply lead to c:\temp
Hope that helps
Roland
Do you need the drive letter mapping to the correct path and executables or just a simple drive letter?
Then try the subst command. You can map the appropriate drive letter like this:
subst k: c:\temp
This will active your k: but simply lead to c:\temp
Hope that helps
Roland
Posted by:
dkirk
18 years ago
Hey YatesAG,
I have done as you suggested, but still no luck. Here is what is in the Shortcut table:
I've managed to get around it by doing as revizor suggested and creating a .lnk file and deleting anything with a reference to K:. It's not the nicest solution, but it seems to work.
--
Thanks
David Kirk
I have done as you suggested, but still no luck. Here is what is in the Shortcut table:
Check,ProgramMenufolder,Check,ShortcutsComponent,[DIRPROPERTY1]check7.exe,,,,1,DIRPROPERTY1I've managed to get around it by doing as revizor suggested and creating a .lnk file and deleting anything with a reference to K:. It's not the nicest solution, but it seems to work.
--
Thanks
David Kirk
Posted by:
williamp
18 years ago
Hello -
I had a similar problem a while back when I wanted to install a shortcut which defines the "Start In" location as%JavaHome%\bin where JavaHome is a system environment variable typically pointing to C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_10
This could not be done within the shortcut table (I tried using a custom action to place [%JavaHome] into a property, but no such luck).
So I simply created the shortcut in a devel machine and installed it as a .lnk file as revizor suggests. Ugly, but it works, as long as they don't have to be advertising shortcuts.
Still, I wonder why Windows Installer handles shortcuts in such a static restrictive manner.
Regards, William
I had a similar problem a while back when I wanted to install a shortcut which defines the "Start In" location as
This could not be done within the shortcut table (I tried using a custom action to place [%JavaHome] into a property, but no such luck).
So I simply created the shortcut in a devel machine and installed it as a .lnk file as revizor suggests. Ugly, but it works, as long as they don't have to be advertising shortcuts.
Still, I wonder why Windows Installer handles shortcuts in such a static restrictive manner.
Regards, William
Posted by:
YatesAG
18 years ago
In the shorcut table, in the WkDir column, enter the property you created with the network path, e.g:
create a property NETWORKPATH=[path]
in Shortcut table, for the shortcut, WkDir=NETWORKPATH
The path is the full path to the executable, not just to the folder, i.e path = \\server\folder\exe
create a property NETWORKPATH=[path]
in Shortcut table, for the shortcut, WkDir=NETWORKPATH
The path is the full path to the executable, not just to the folder, i.e path = \\server\folder\exe
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