[wix-users] Serious problem with FindRelatedProducts and install context

[Alan Sinclair]

>  What if UserA installed per-user and then a sysadmin installed
per-machine and then UserB tries to install per-user? That's three
different installs and none of them would logically be upgrades because the
context is different.

You're right of course, but we don't need to support those cases... not
sure what management will require if/when they happen ;-)
However I was asked for a dual-scope installer, and need to make it able to
update, forcing subsequent installs to the same scope as the original
install. Per-user will be to the usual per-user locations (to avoid needing
elevation), with per-machine going to the usual per-machine slots.

(My windows installer experience likewise has been all per-machine with
enterprise software --and that was over ten years ago-- so I'm both
ignorant and rusty.)

Thanks for the ideas
Alan

On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 4:49 PM, Edwin Castro <egcastr at gmail.com> wrote:

> I *think* burn doesn't support dual-scope out of the box. That said, you
> could write a custom BA that presented that choice to the user and passes
> the appropriate ALLUSERS and MSIINSTALLPERUSER values.
>
> I'm guessing you intend to force per-machine if the product was installed
> per-machine previously.
>
> What if a user really wants a per-user install even though there is
> already a per-machine install?
>
> What if UserA installed per-user and then a sysadmin installed per-machine
> and then UserB tries to install per-user? That's three different installs
> and none of them would logically be upgrades because the context is
> different.
>
> I don't have practical experience with per-user installs because I do
> setup exclusively for enterprise software that is intended to be installer
> per-machine only ... *but* ... The more I think about this the more I think
> it never makes sense to have installers that target both per-user and
> per-machine contexts. They really are different beasts and probably deserve
> their own separate MSI packages. I could see a single bootstrapper that was
> responsible for determining the kind of install/upgrade we're interested in
> and then installing the appropriate MSI but that would be about it.
>
> --
> Edwin G. Castro
>
> On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 4:36 PM, Alan Sinclair <anadem at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> oops, meant to write AppSearch not FindRelatedProducts (brain fail)
>>
>> The issue isn't per-machine vs per-user, it's per-machine upgrading
>> per-machine. Installing the dual-scope package, only per-user previous
>> installations are detected and upgraded.
>>
>> When version 1.0 is installed per-machine, a subsequent install of
>> version 2.0 does not 'see' the v1.0 installed product, and installs v 2.0
>> as a fresh new product (overwriting the per-machine files if v.2.0 is
>> installed per-machine .. which is what I meant by "only one set of files")
>>
>> *>  I have a feeling you'll need a bootstrapper to install the upgrade
>> MSI *
>>
>> Would that be an exe which passes  ALLUSERS and MSIINSTALLPERUSER to
>> msiexec to install the MSI?
>> Would Burn be a candidate for that? I've never used Burn. Can Burn allow
>> the user to choose per-machine or per-user in a non-upgrade install?  (for
>> an upgrade we'd want to remove the ability to choose)
>>
>> many thanks
>> Alan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 4:23 PM, Edwin Castro <egcastr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Just curious, what do you mean "there's only one set of files"?
>>>
>>> A per-user install and per-machine install should probably install to
>>> different locations. What if UserA and UserB both perform per-user
>>> installs? Those installs should not conflict with one another and should
>>> not conflict with a per-machine install.
>>>
>>> I have a feeling you'll need a bootstrapper to install the upgrade MSI
>>> with appropriate values for ALLUSERS and MSIINSTALLPERUSER depending on
>>> whether the user wants to install/upgrade per-user vs per-machine...
>>>
>>> --
>>> Edwin G. Castro
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 4:05 PM, Alan Sinclair via wix-users <
>>> wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm making a dual-scope MSI which uses the InstallScope dialog for the
>>>> user
>>>> to choose per-user or per-machine. It installs fine, but upgrades to a
>>>> per-machine installation fail.
>>>>
>>>> FindRelatedProducts seems to search only the scope in current force
>>>> when it
>>>> runs, and it's sequenced right at the start (so early it doesn't even
>>>> appear in the log.)
>>>>
>>>> My MSI has ALLUSERS=2 and MSIINSTALLPERUSER=1, with the InstallScope
>>>> dialog
>>>> changing that as required, so FindRelatedProducts looks only in per-user
>>>> scope.  If an earlier-versioned MSI was installed per-machine,
>>>> FindRelatedProducts
>>>> does NOT find it, so the install does not upgrade, and Control Panel's
>>>> ARP
>>>> shows the product twice (there's only one set of files, of course).
>>>>
>>>> Is there any way to solve this?  Can FindRelatedProducts be run later in
>>>> the sequence, after the UI? Or can FindRelatedProducts be run twice?
>>>>
>>>> Or can I add custom actions before FindRelatedProducts to look in the
>>>> registry and check previous install scope, then adjust ALLUSERS etc
>>>> accordingly so FindRelatedProducts searches the right scope?
>>>>
>>>> How can a dual-scope package be upgraded in both per-user AND
>>>> per-machine
>>>> installations?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> Alan
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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