When I execute my MSI with UAC ON the UAC is not prompted for some time. I am trying to read some registry entry in a custom action before "CostFinalize". My Registry read function will consider a default value if registry entry is not found. But in my case the registry entry is there but it fails to read because the key doesn't have read permission for "User". Although Admin have full permission.
Registry read seems to be happening before UAC prompt. How can i make sure UAC is prompted at start only so that registry read can be successful.
Issue explanation
We have an old installer written in WIX. Where we are writing a registry entry for install location something like this
HKLM\Software\CompanyName\Product\Install\CompInstallDir = [InstallDir]\Product\Component.
This registry entry does have permission for Admin only even user doesnt have read permission I dont know why (i didnt write that code). there are some other entries under HKLM\Software\CompanyName\Product\Install
Now I have to make changes in the installer code for upgrade. In which i have to read this install location i.e., [InstallDir]Product\Component and trim it to [InstallDir]. So I already have an existing custom action (from previous installer code only) which reads the registry and sets Property INSTALLDIR, also some other properties and do backup of some config files. This custom action is under "InstallExecuteSequence" which as per my understanding should prompt for UAC if required. This custom action is called before "CostFinalize".
The thing which should have been there in old installer is Writing a registry entry containing only [InstallDir] which wasn't in place. Due to which that custom action is in place which is not a good way of doing, but being legacy code have to maintain it :(
Hope I am able to explain my problem :)
In this SO thread I explain how UAC prompts are triggered.. Basically, you need a bootstrapper, and in its manifest set the execution level accordingly.
Regarding the custom action to read the registry. Why don't you use the built in support from Windows Installer to make a registry search, using AppSearch and RegLocator tables? As a general rule, its not recommended to reinvent the wheel. A default value for the search can be specified by simply defining the property (name of the search) in Property table.
The normal best practice is for the Install UI sequence to run as standard user and for the Install Execute sequence to elevate if the MSI is built to require it. ( For example a per-user install writing to per-user locations might not ever need elevation ).
The other best practice is to use AppSearch to read registry values into properties. The AppSearch also runs in the InstallUI sequence so normally the expectation is that these reads can be performed using standard user permissions.
In your case, you require admin to do the read. In all my years writing hundreds of installers I've never had that requirement. To give you better advice I'd have to ask what is the nature of this registry value and why is it only readable by administrators? After you read it, what do you intend to do with it?
Options include a bootstrapper to elevate the entire installer including UI sequence but that's usually not advised. Otherwise you need a deferred custom action running without impersonation (SYSTEM context) to do the read but at that point you can't set a property so you'd have to use the registry value right there for whatever purpose is intended.
Very strange requirement... I'm detecting a code smell.
Related
Is there a way to set a property value to the formatted install date/time?
I'm in the process of creating an MSI installer for an old VB6 application we still depend on (yes, I know, upgrade before it dies).
I'm trying to add a backup folder for the user data files in the install-folder (not my application design, nor my application). Unfortunately every user of this application has their own copy of the data file installed on their system (dedicated machines per user), and the installer has the default file. I would like to create a backup folder so that I can manually (if necessary) go back and retrieve previous versions of the file.
What I'm thinking is
c:\program files (x86)\app*.mdb => c:\program files (x86)\app\backups\201804091125
This will be rushed. Please tell me what is not clear.
Custom Action: In order to implement exactly what you describe, you generally need a custom action. This is always unfortunate since they are very error prone: Why is it a good idea to limit the use of custom actions in my WiX / MSI setups?
Alternative?: If you ask me I would install the database in a component of its own, make the file the key file and set the component to permanent and never overwrite if key path exists.
In the WiX source: for the WiX component element, set these attributes: Permanent="yes" NeverOverwrite="yes"). I am not 100% sure what will happen if you do something stupid such as setting REINSTALLMODE="amus" during installation (force overwrite all files regardless of version). It has been a while since I tested the NeverOverwrite flag. But for normal deployment done the regular way the database file should be left alone and not overwritten.
Custom Action Overview: There are properties called Time and Date that are automatically set in the installer, but the Date property will generally contain characters that are illegal in path names. It is possible to just get the properties and replace the illegal characters. However, the date separation characters are probably different based on regional settings and hence hard to predict. Your code could get messy quickly and testing would be challenging (potentially many locales to test depending on distribution scope - a truly globally capable package is challenging).
I would rather get the date and time some other way - via some programming API call where I can determine what format the data comes back in. You also need to run this custom action elevated in deferred mode to ensure it doesn't fall over with access denied (insufficient user rights for operation). This is always quite a bit of clunk to set up and get working. Maybe try the alternative approach first?
I have long considered adding a custom action to abort the install if REINSTALLMODE="amus" has been specified. I would prefer that and the alternative approach described with "never overwrite" to a custom action doing all this copying.
While I was searching for the answers I found that the registry entries are made during installation only. In my installer once the installation is done then there comes a dialogue box which contains one checkbox. Based upon the checkbox value I want to make the registry entry.
Please suggest.
All system modifications (such as file installation or registry modifications) should occur DURING installation. There is a REASON for that - to make installation transactional (all or nothing), and to allow clean uninstall and repair.
Suggestion: if you want to put some user setting (a-la 'user agreed to receive marketing emails'), better do it yourself (as a custom action for example). Or better yet, in your own program (do not put it in the MSI installer)
A custom action in principle can be run in any execution sequence (including UI sequence), so you will be able to run it any time (i.e. even after that dialog)
Another option is to collect data (checkbox value) BEFORE install. Then you can include it as part of normal install sequence (as registry element)
I have created a Wix Installer which has following structure
It has Bootstrapper
It has MSI1
It has MSI2
The task of Bootstrapper is to provide options to user as which
application he wants to install. Based on his selection MSI1 or MSI2
will be launched.
Now both MSIs need to collect information of Database.
My requirement is that if I collect DB information from MSI1, I want to pass that information to MSI2 from Bootstrapper(as after MSI1 user will choose MSI2 from Bootstrapper)
We don't want the end user to provide this database information again and again.
Please note that we cannot collect the database information from Bootstrapper itself, as the user may go to installer source and execute MSI1 or MSI2 directly.
Any one has idea how we can store values of variables across Bootstrapper and MSIs getting called from that Bootstrapper?
Write that information to a well-known registry location during the installation.
Here's a resource to the "remember me pattern" blog post that Rob has written. I know it's bad practice to just link a blog post that may not exist in the future but I also don't want to just copy most of it.
The basic idea is to save properties that may be defined by the user at run-time into the registry. When you run the installer again, you can try to read that registry location and load up the properties from a previous run of the installer so you already know what the user is going to write.
In this case, your 2nd installer will know about the well know registry location that the first installer will write the db information to. Now the 2nd installer can read this information when it is run afterwards and use it during hte installation which means the customer doesn't have to re-enter the same information for both installs.
You can combine this with custom actions to encode sensitive information and decode it at run time. This is also a very commonly used technique for remembering the install directory of a product as this is something that is commonly changed by the user at run-time.
I reread the question and realized that getting the information from the bootstrapper is not something you can do but I'll leave this part of my answer here anyways. [I think you could gather the information in the bootstrapper and pass it to the MSIs. Just write that information during the install to a registry location and you can read it if it exists when installing if the user runs just from the MSI]
Alternatively you can update your bootstrapper's UI to gather this information and pass it in to both installers. This requires a bit of research into how the bootstrapper application works and how it generates its UI and stores properties. And again, you should use the remember me technique to read the already entered properties from the registry if they exist so you can pre-populate fields with the previous values on subsequent runs of your installation.
I have a request that I know many will shout about but I don't have any other way around it. In my WIX setup I have a dialog that uses the properties set in the setup to determine a product name(with version type etc) that ties in with our algorithm and a lock code that needs to be produced. Based on these the user enters their unlock key and the custom action pulls the details from all three text boxes to ensure it is correct. I did not write the algorithm for creating these and unfortunately can't change it.
My issue is that I need to be able to create a product key in the registry before this dialog so that my lock code algorithm can read from it. So basically I need my custom actions to be elevated. I read somewhere that someone implemented a custom action to call msiexec but now I cannot find it and don't know how to go about creating this. Has anyone ever had the same issues? I have been reading that people have but I can't seem to find their solution or even if there is one. Thanks in advance
Immediate custom actions CANNOT be elevated. Period, end of story. #FACT
What can you do?
1) Use a setup.exe bootstrapper that is manifested to require admin and a Launch Condition in the MSI that enforces it was launched by the bootstrapper. ( Bootstrapper passes a property to the MSI SETUPEXEDRIVEN=1 is what InstallShield calls it. ) This ensures that the entire UI sequence is elevated. (Not a best practice but I'm putting it out there for you.)
2) Write to HKCU instead of HKLM ( will likely require license code to be refactored but hey it was a broken design anyways. )
3) Refactor the installers interface to the license API. I've done this before. I once worked for a company that expected the installer to call an EXE to validate a license. One big problem is the EXE is out of process and cannot communicate back to the installer. So they started writing "ISVALID" to the registry and I was then expected to write a VBScript around the EXE to flush the value, call the exe and then check the value and set the MSI property. Ummmm can you say #FAIL? The optimal solution was to force the dev team to create an API for the license code that I could call directly from a standard MSI custom action that didn't require elevated permissions or any other hackery.
The installer I'm writing using WiX 3.0 uses a RegistryValue element to modify an existing registry value (originally written by our main product). I'm trying to figure out a way to restore the registry value when the user uninstalls my utility. I'd like to avoid using a custom action, but that might be the only recourse? TIA.
I did this. The registry value in question was the application associated to a file extension, but it could be any registry value.
My first idea was to use a "custom action" for install and uninstall to preserve
and restore, respectively, the associated regy state. This
seemed simple enough.
I created a setup project in VS2008 and built the CA's as javascript files. The "on install" script grabbed the existing regy value and stashed it into a well-known place. The "on uninstall" script would look in the well-known place, and then put the value found there, back in the original location.
Easy, right?
There were two problems:
the script that ran during install, to preserve the pre-existing registry value,
runs AFTER the registry has already been updated
with the values for the newly installed thing. So it preserved the new setting instead of the setting that was there before the MSI ran. Not useful.
The script that runs during uninstall, runs AFTER the registry values, and in fact the entire directory subtree,
have been deleted. Including the stashed value. So it had lost its state.
To solve that I wrote another script that
re-orders the custom actions so they run at the proper times.
There's actually one more twist. Obviously, the "Restore" script (on
uninstall) won't work if it is run after the registry entries for the app have been deleted. I can't remember now, why... but I also determined that this script could not run before that. Somehow that wasn't working either.
So, I modified the MSI to run the restore script
twice. In phase 1, it transfers the stashed value to a "parking lot" in the registry.
Then the application's Keys and Values in the registry get deleted, but the parking lot remains. In
phase 2, outside the transactional protection, the restore script retrieves the state from the parking lot, restores
the file association, and then deletes the parking lot.
I can't remember exactly why I needed to do this in 2 steps, but I remember fighting with it for a while before coming up with that solution.
The way it works in development:
set the on install and on uninstall CA's in the VS project
build the VS Setup project
run the post-processing script that modifies the MSI.
When using the MSI, it's a little more complicated than I originally thought but it works.
If you are using WiX, you may have more control over the time and ordering of the steps, so may not need that post-processing step.
Finally, you said you wanted to avoid a CA. To me, CA's are avoided because they are painful to produce in C++, and producing them in .NET is often inappropriate. But, it's pretty simple to use Javascript for CA's. Some people think script is the wrong tool for the CA job. I think that's wrongheaded. I think script is a very good tool for this purpose. And once you can accept script as a good tool, then you don't need to hold your nose about creating a custom CA.
The registry table is incapable of writing a registry value during an uninstall so it is correct that this must be done via custom action. I am of the opinion that using script is bad. Whether you choose to listen is up to you. I can tell you that just the other day I was called into to trouble shoot a situation where some wrote a vbscript CA that was failing because the file system object had been unregistered as part of a security lockdown process.
I suggest C++ or C#/DTF depending on your needs.
Faced with similar issue, need to update the registry value on install and restore to previous value on uninstall.
Is the only solution possible is creating a custom action for this purpose?
I found a extension for wix that has fucntions for this purpose
link to wix extensions