InstallAware

Hi there;
Hoping you can help me. I am trying to figure out how I can determine the location of where a user has installed my primary application. The reason that I need to know this is so that I can install addtional 'add-on' components to the same Installation folder location in which the primary application was originally installed.
Here is an example:
Let's say that I have installed the main application to C:\\Program Files\\MyApp
Now a month later the customer buys an add-on component that enables them to say, burn CD's. I need to place the CD burning add-on component into that same path/location (C:\\Program Files\\MyApp).
The problem of course is that the customer can install the main application anywhere they want so I can't rely on it always being in the default location.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks,
Steve

hi try to create a registry where u save $TARGETDIR$ and when u run installer again just read it from same registry

Thanks very much for the reply.
I figured that I would need to save that info to a ini or registry entry, however my problem is that being a newbie, I really don't understand the process involved in doing that within InstallAware.

Can anyone provide some additional details on how to do this?

Just use Write Registry, if you are working in the MSIcode view. OR, use the Registry view in the visual IDE. Create a new key somewhere in the registry, and record the value $TARGETDIR$.

To read the previous location, you want to use the Read Registry command in your MSIcode script. Find the line where $TARGETDIR$ is initialized (this is usually in the form "Set Variable TARGETDIR...". There, use Check Registry to see if your registry key exists. If it does, read the value and set $TARGETDIR$ to that value; otherwise, just accept the default value of $TARGETDIR$ (do not override).

That works great!
Thanks very much Michael.

Microsoft explains that the need for storing this information is a 'problem of MSI properties not persisting across installations'

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;251389

InstallAware lets you persist variables in your setup script across installations - working around this built-in MSI limitation. Just use the Set Variable command with the Persist check-box selected.