VS 2008 Deployment project & InstallAllUsers setting

Question

 I have a 2008 deployment project that builds an MSI and installs an ActiveX. I need this to be installed on a per-user basis. Everything in my project works, the code is properly structured and functional. However, I MUST set the package to install for "Just Me" manually each time I run the installer. I need to make this the default setting and block the UI that would allow the user to change the option to install for "All Users".

The spec says to set "InstallAllUsers=False" to change the default, and "InstallAllUsersVisible=False" to hide the UI.

I have modified the project property for "InstallAllUsers=False" in the property page. However, when the Installation Folder dialog runs during the invokation of the MSI, the "All Users" radio button is still selected by default. It seems as though the UI is ignoring the property.

If I furthermore disable the UI by setting "InstallAllUsersVisible=False" this does work, but as expected from above the wrong default value is being pickedup.

Does anyone have any clue why this is ocurring? Is Visual Studio 2008 broken? I can find NO help on the web or MSDN for deployment projects, no Blogs from the Studio team either. 

Answer 1

 Ok I found the problem. Anytime that I add the Merge Modules for the Visual Studio (C & ATL) runtime the DEFAULT value for the InstallAllUsers gets ignored and the UI always prompts w/ a default of "All Users" even though I've set the property to "Just Me".

This is VERY BOGUS behavior on behalf of the Deployment Project. If the user changes the value to "Just Me" the installer does the right thing. (If I allow my users to install for All Users the install will not work properly since my activeX registers itself in HKCU instead of HKLM. Without getting into too much detail, this is the ONLY way to force a non-admin install in Vista because Current User Redirection is Broken in Vista.) So this behavior just prevents a developer from producing an installer that will work every time, by eliminating a user choice that could break the install. I can't turn off the UI selection because the project ignores the default value which I've set to "Just Me" (InstallAllUsers=FALSE").

The solution was to "exclude" the "dependancies" added when I added the output from my ActiveX project and add in the C Runtime files manually as files instead of as Merge Modules. Now the project is working as published.

This really should be reported as a bug and fixed.

Answer 2

Hi ggianop,

Thanks for the feedback. However, this forum was created to obtain feedback for the Visual Studio 2010 CTP walkthroughs. For your request, I suggest that you visit our customer product feedback site located here: http://connect.microsoft.com/visualstudio. You may log bugs against the product by following the instructions on the main page and the product group will take the bugs into consideration.

For general Setup & Deployment project issues, we have an existing blog and I recommend you to check out: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=6&SiteID=1.

Thanks,

Candy Chiang
Program Manager
Visual Studio Deployment

Answer 3

The issue isn't the setup project, or in fact in ANY tool that includes those merge modules. The underlying issue is that the merge modules themselves insist on having ALLUSERS set to Everyone (ALLUSERS=1 in their Property tables). My guess is that this is a restriction of the side-by-side installation of those Dlls.

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Phil Wilson