Vista and common documents folder (FAQ from C6 NG)

[NewsArchive]

Using the CSIDL_COMMON_DOCUMENTS folder is sensible. However, am I confusing
2 things or should my installer NOT prompt for Current User (see attached
image).

I am wondering that if they chose to install for Current User only then this
might negate the use of the CSIDL folder.

TIA

John Fligg

[NewsArchive]

John,

If your installer requests administrator execution level, the user that is
running the setup is different from the user that may use your
application!!!! During an "administrative setup" you should never modify
HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) and other per-user settings (e.g. writing to the
user profile, etc.).

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

To be a more specific, if your Vista-aware installer is running as an
administrator and writes to HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) or to a user's profile,
it may very well be writing to the wrong locations!

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

>To be a more specific, if your Vista-aware installer is running as an
>administrator and writes to HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) or to a user's profile,
>it may very well be writing to the wrong locations!

I have to wonder who MS designed Vista for!<g> How is regular people
supposed to install software on this OS? I'm not talking people like
you and me, I'm talking about the computer challenged people. Heck I
think I may have problems remembering how to do this on Vista;)

As a side note: Why would I, or anyone else, who runs Vista _not_ log
in as administrator _all the time_? I.e. make it behave like XP does?
I know this can be an issue in corporate environment, but I don't
exactly have corporate environment in my home office;)

Best regards,

Arnór Baldvinsson
Icetips Creative, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.icetips.com

Subscribe to information from Icetips.com:
http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Arnor,

> As a side note: Why would I, or anyone else, who runs Vista _not_ log
> in as administrator _all the time_? I.e. make it behave like XP does?

That doesn't work either - at least not with a default install. Admins
in Vista have lost all kinds of rights unless they rip them back from
the grasps of the MS beastie.

MS went from insecure to paranoid - one extreme to another.

I showed Vista to my Sister, who is an intelligent person but not one
that is truly in love with computers, and she was bewildered and lost
by many of the changes. From a users perspective I think MS lost sight
of the real world. The folks at Redmond need to get out of their
cubicles more often.<g>

--
Lee White

http://CWaddons.com
http://LodestarSoftware.com
http://DeveloperPLUS.com

"DOS & CPD. When men were men and we didn't do windows!" Lee White

[NewsArchive]

Hi Lee,

>I showed Vista to my Sister, who is an intelligent person but not one
>that is truly in love with computers, and she was bewildered and lost
>by many of the changes. From a users perspective I think MS lost sight
>of the real world. The folks at Redmond need to get out of their
>cubicles more often.<g>

With the limited stuff I've seen and read about Vista, it sounds like
a fair conclusion:( That lean little mac is starting to look better
and better - at least for photoshop and stuff like that;)

Best regards,

Arnór Baldvinsson
Icetips Creative, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.icetips.com

Subscribe to information from Icetips.com:
http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

I agree. Vista is a nightmare!

And it made my wife a shop-aholic <BG>. I see an unprecedented peak in
business due to the release of Vista. This month alone, 24 companies
switched from InstallShield (msi) or Wise to SetupBuilder 6. Consulting is
totally booked - things have gone through the roof ("...please convert our
msi installer to SetupBuilder...").

What Lee said. Even if you are logged on as the System Administrator under
Vista, it does not make it behave like XP does. So we have to follow the
new rules. This can be tricky because the same installer and software
should work on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista (or perhaps even the old
non-NT based systems).

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hello Friedrich

At least somebody is making money out of all this, and doing something useful
for all of us. Thank you for your efforts,

We have about 1000 farmers as customers (no offence Arnór!) and I foresee huge
problems getting the install to work properly (and migrating our data files
from their existing location under Program Files) with all the various
hardware/software combinations (I ran into a Win95 just the other day).

To me, it looks like c:\myapp with the data files in the same folder or a
subfolder is the way to go at this stage - comments?

Regards

Daan Marais

[NewsArchive]

Daan,

Unfortunately, there is no general answer to this question. It all depends
on your application.

If you have your data files and your application under c:\myapp (or any of
its subfolders), then writing of data should not be a problem. UAC does not
"protect" your c:\myapp folder.

The problem is that there is a Vista group policy named "Only Elevate
UIAccess Applications That Are Installed In Secure Locations". To make it
even worse, this is enabled by default! You can be sure that 95% of all
Vista users have absolutely no idea how to turn this thing off.

So if you install your program into the c:\myapp folder, Vista will not give
UIAccess privileges and user rights to your application. UIAccess
applications are applications designed specifically to assist with user
accessibility. These applications typically send information to other
applications. An example of a UIAccess application is an on-screen keyboard
application. Or applications that need to send messages (e.g. using the
SendMessage API) to other applications.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich

Thank you - that was my understanding although it seems dumb to extend UAC
protection to Program Files - I thought that the main idea was to protect the
OS itself.

The UIAccess story is more important to me from the perspective of c:\myapp -
if this is a reasonably stand-alone type of app but obviously it uses API's -
is the limitation only on UIAccess applications/is there a list of these
applications somewhere?

Sorry to bug you, but this will be a showstopper for us (and will certainly
lead to another SB6 Dev sale in the next day or two!)

Regards

Daan

[NewsArchive]

Hi Daan,

You are not bugging me at all.

Yes, this limitation is only on "UIAccess" applications. But I have seen
only five or six UIAccess applications of this type. Most applications
should run with uiAccess=false.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner