VS2008 deployment project
I have added some shortcuts to the desktop and to the program files menu, 
but they are only installed for the user who installed the software. I have 
the InstallAllUsers property set to True in the setup project (I also have 
InstallAllUsersVisible set to False in the Installation Folder of the User 
Interface) so I would have thought it would create the shortcuts in the All 
Users desktop folder, but it creates them in the current users folder.
Any suggestions appreciated.
TIA
Phil.

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:51:10 -0700, Phil <N/A> wrote:

> VS2008 deployment project
> I have added some shortcuts to the desktop and to the program files menu,
> but they are only installed for the user who installed the software. I  
> have
> the InstallAllUsers property set to True in the setup project (I also  
> have
> InstallAllUsersVisible set to False in the Installation Folder of the  
> User
> Interface) so I would have thought it would create the shortcuts in the  
> All
> Users desktop folder, but it creates them in the current users folder.

I don't have a quick way to check this at the moment, but my recollection  
is that when configuring the special folders for the setup project,  
there's an "All Users" Start Menu folder that you need to use as the  
destination.

I might be misremembering, so no promises :), but you might look into that.

Pete

>> VS2008 deployment project
>> I have added some shortcuts to the desktop and to the program files menu,
>> but they are only installed for the user who installed the software. I 
>> have
>> the InstallAllUsers property set to True in the setup project (I also 
>> have
>> InstallAllUsersVisible set to False in the Installation Folder of the 
>> User
>> Interface) so I would have thought it would create the shortcuts in the 
>> All
>> Users desktop folder, but it creates them in the current users folder.
>
> I don't have a quick way to check this at the moment, but my recollection 
> is that when configuring the special folders for the setup project, 
> there's an "All Users" Start Menu folder that you need to use as the 
> destination.
>
> I might be misremembering, so no promises :), but you might look into 
> that.
>
Thanks for your reply.
When I go to View> Editor> File System I see Application Folder, User's 
Desktop and User's Program Files. If I right-click I get the option to Add 
Special Folder. However there is no option to add All User's Desktop nor All 
User's Program Files.
Besides what does the InstallAllUsers setting do, if it doesn't control the 
location of these folders?

That folder is the DesktopFolder Windows Installer property, and that's 
documented to be public desktop so it should work. However......
InstallAllUsers is a request, not a certainty. The ALLISERS value in VS 
setup projects has a value of 2 which effectively means try a per-machine 
install but if the user is not in fact privileged then fall nack to a 
per-user install. Given what you're seeing, that's my theory. And no, it 
doesn't tell you it's falling back to per-user.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367559(VS.85).aspx

-- 
Phil Wilson

"Phil" <N/A> wrote in message 
news:qbmdnQVUbMkDODfVnZ2dnUVZ8vmdnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
> VS2008 deployment project
> I have added some shortcuts to the desktop and to the program files menu, 
> but they are only installed for the user who installed the software. I 
> have the InstallAllUsers property set to True in the setup project (I also 
> have InstallAllUsersVisible set to False in the Installation Folder of the 
> User Interface) so I would have thought it would create the shortcuts in 
> the All Users desktop folder, but it creates them in the current users 
> folder.
> Any suggestions appreciated.
> TIA
> Phil.
>

> That folder is the DesktopFolder Windows Installer property, and that's 
> documented to be public desktop so it should work. However......
> InstallAllUsers is a request, not a certainty. The ALLISERS value in VS 
> setup projects has a value of 2 which effectively means try a per-machine 
> install but if the user is not in fact privileged then fall nack to a 
> per-user install. Given what you're seeing, that's my theory.

OK. That sounds like a possibility. When I tried it, I created a new user on 
my machine which was not in the local administrators group, so perhaps it 
never had the permission (I also tried it with a restricted user, and that 
wouldn't install at all - it could execute the application installed using 
the other user, but there were no shortcuts available). I shall try again 
with an administrator user, and see if it works then.

> And no, it doesn't tell you it's falling back to per-user.
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367559(VS.85).aspx
>

That article states:
If ALLUSERS=2, the installer always resets the ALLUSERS property to null or 
1 based on whether it determines to do a per-user or a per-machine 
installation.
Is it possible I could somehow read this property in my installer class?

Thanks,
Phil.

On Aug 20, 3:49 am, "Phil" <N/A> wrote:
> > That folder is the DesktopFolder Windows Installer property, and that's
> > documented to be public desktop so it should work. However......
> > InstallAllUsers is a request, not a certainty. The ALLISERS value in VS
> > setup projects has a value of 2 which effectively means try a per-machine
> > install but if the user is not in fact privileged then fall nack to a
> > per-user install. Given what you're seeing, that's my theory.
>
> OK. That sounds like a possibility. When I tried it, I created a new user on
> my machine which was not in the local administrators group, so perhaps it
> never had the permission (I also tried it with a restricted user, and that
> wouldn't install at all - it could execute the application installed using
> the other user, but there were no shortcuts available). I shall try again
> with an administrator user, and see if it works then.
>
> > And no, it doesn't tell you it's falling back to per-user.
> >http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367559(VS.85).aspx
>
> That article states:
> If ALLUSERS=2, the installer always resets the ALLUSERS property to null or
> 1 based on whether it determines to do a per-user or a per-machine
> installation.
> Is it possible I could somehow read this property in my installer class?
>
> Thanks,
> Phil.

From 2005 experience, look at the "Installation Folder" step in the
User Interface Editor of your deployment package. One of the step's
properties reads "InstallAllUsersVisible". Setting to true exposes two
radio buttons during actual install.

> From 2005 experience, look at the "Installation Folder" step in the
> User Interface Editor of your deployment package. One of the step's
> properties reads "InstallAllUsersVisible". Setting to true exposes two
> radio buttons during actual install.

Thanks for your reply. I'm already aware of this. As I said in my original 
message I have InstallAllUsersVisible set to False in the Installation 
Folder of the User Interface. I don't want the option to install for a 
single user to be available, I always want it to install for all users.
It would appear that if InstallAllUsers is set, it will attempt to install 
for all users, but may only install for the single user, if they don't have 
the necessary permissions.

Cheers,
Phil.

> I shall try again with an administrator user, and see if it works then.

I tried this now and it works. The shortcuts are available to my other user
accounts when I perform the installation from my main account which has
administrator rights on the local machine.

>
>> And no, it doesn't tell you it's falling back to per-user.
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367559(VS.85).aspx
>>
>
> That article states:
> If ALLUSERS=2, the installer always resets the ALLUSERS property to null
> or 1 based on whether it determines to do a per-user or a per-machine
> installation.
> Is it possible I could somehow read this property in my installer class?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
It would be really nice if I could pop-up a warning message, saying that the
software had only been installed for the one user because they do not have
the permission required to install for all users.

Cheers
Phil

> Anyone have any thoughts on this?
> It would be really nice if I could pop-up a warning message, saying that
> the
> software had only been installed for the one user because they do not have
> the permission required to install for all users.
>

Not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it seems to do the trick:

In the custom actions editor I set the CustomActionData property to:
/AllUsers=[ALLUSERS]

Then in my installer class the following code will allow me to determine
whether a single user install has occured:
Context.Parameters("AllUsers").ToString <> "1"

I tried using:

Context.IsParameterTrue("AllUsers")

but this doesn't seem to work (still returns true when the parameter value
is null).