per user or per machine install?

[ms news]

Most applications installation need to install some parts as per machine,
other parts as per user, e.g. the executables, the hehp files, the COM class
registry info, etc. The per-user part includes things like user specific
configurations either stored in file or under current_user registry hive.
As I understand it, a msi package is either per user or per machine, not
both at the same time. So how can msi be able to cope with the
before-mentioned real world situation? Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Phil Wilson]

People do these things in a couple of general ways:

1. If you associate files and registry entries with a HKCU registry entry
and install per-machine, each new user that logs on causes the repair
mechanism to kick in. It's not really a repair, but it cause the components
associated with the HKCU keypath registry entry to be installed.

2. The application can just handle it. A base template set of files or
registry entries can be installed (HKLM, say) and when a new user logs on,
the application can create files or registry entries in the HKCU and
user-specific folders for that user based on the templates. I think this is
the most common scenario because the state of each user needs to be
maintained across multiple uses of the app.

 

[Bugbear.1973]

Just make sure that your MSI has an advertised msi entry point to
trigger the repair. Otherwise the user will need to go to Add / Remove
Programs and manually launch an install / repair of the package

 

[Pierrot_FR]

A quick and very simple question : how do you add an advertised entry point into your MSI to trigger the repair ??

Note: I'm using AdminStudio but I'm not an expert on it.

 

[Angele Karlheinz]

Hi,

a shortcut is one way!
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