Do webupdates work with users with non administrator rights?

[NewsArchive]

Before I start implenting a webupdate for some of my customers, typically
you have to have administrator rights to install any software.

Now assuming the main program has been installed on the workstation by the
administrator will the Wupdate.exe work ie update the workstation with the
latest update if someone with USER priveledges runs it or will the
administrator have to log into to perform the webupdate?

Cheers

Richard

[NewsArchive]

Depends on what you are updating.

If you are updating objects in a directory, then you simply need to have
sufficient rights to overwrite the objects in that directory.

If you are updating objects in the registry, then you need to have
sufficient rights to that registry key (or if there has been some policy
setup by the ADMIN).

I always require Administrative Authority to run SetupBuilder just to avoid
any hassles like half the install going and then running into an object that
couldn't be overwritten.

But, if you are just installing regular software without hitting things
outside the directory itself, you shouldn't have an issue.

I've seen customers of mine try and do stupid things like changing exe's and
dll's and files to have specific owner and administrative rights, for some
unknown reason, I think they just have too much time on their hands.

If you are installing software for computer professionals (like Clarion6 for
example), just install it. If you are installing software in a vertical
market arena, I'd require the ADMIN rights and let them deal with it so it
doesn't end up a headache for you when something gets screwed up.

That's my opinion. :-)

-Robert

[NewsArchive]

Hi Robert

> If you are installing software in a vertical market arena, I'd require the
> ADMIN rights and let them deal with it so it doesn't end up a headache for
> you when something gets screwed up.

You roll out to a lot of customers, do you find the updates get screwed up
alot, in my experience I havent had the problem but I'm not saying its
impossible?

If so what seems to be biggest reasons or causes?

Cheers

Richard

[NewsArchive]

Hello,

We have over 2600 customers, but our local office only supports 60% of them.
My other offices manage their regional customersa. That does not include
all the potential customers which evaluate our software on a daily basis.
Since I hardly go into our support department, you got me curious so I
pulled up our call notes and searched for all call notes with "Install" in
it for the last 120 days (BTW: we process about 320 support calls per week)
There were about 25 installation issues/questions/problems.

I had a few people getting none-completed downloads, but we fixed that with
SetupBuilder Integrity check. Other issues were that the user didn't have
administrative rights and wanted us to wave our magic wands to grant them
access. :-)

Our installation is a little complex, (Using Setup Builder scripts) and we
do our own recovery. We didn't want to install software and then get a mix
and match of TPS FILES on uninstall, so the beginning of the Setup Builder
script, I create a sub-folder called "_install" and I copy the ENTIRE
contents of that directory to it. Then the installation process runs. The
_install folder stays out there until they upgrade to the next version,
where it gets wiped out and created again.

So, if a user has an issue, we can always just manually move back the
_install folder and they act as if the installation never ran. It's our
"auto-recovery" mechnism. In fact, it allows us to actually execute the
software in the _install folder the next day or even a month later incase
there is a conversion issue or question.

We do our own file upgrades (no longer use File Manager) and I try and make
sure NO FILE LAYOUT CHANGES between revisions, only major releases. Then,
it minimizes the 47 errors that happen for some reason or another. As we
move all our customers to SQL, these issues will finally go away, because we
have a lot of customers who just like to mix and match TPS files because
again, they have too much time on their hands.

If the script is written good, making sure they have ADMIN authority,
checking enough diskspace, and has a good recovery setup, I've had no issues
with SetupBuilder - I love it.

-Robert