per user or per machine install?

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

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

a shortcut is one way!
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