InstallAware

Hi,

I have a quite a few questions about your product, and accidently posted the majority of them to your technical support forum. Rather than relist them here, here is the link.

http://www.installaware.com/forums/view ... 1788#11788

It also appears that my post was too long, and the forum software was truncating it so I am now listing my remaining questions here.

8. One of my concerns with the patching is that according to the Microsoft Documentation for “User Account Control (UAC) Patching” when applying a MSI Patch (MSP) the original install must be run from removable media for Windows XP otherwise it will fail. (This limitation does not apply to Vista.)
- So, if I understand this correctly then if I used the MSI Patch approach I would be OK on Vista when installing from a UNC but, not Windows XP.

9. Would InstallAware’s caching of the setup source get around this limitation on XP?

Thanks.

Doug

Please post technical questions in the technical support forum. This thread is now being moved.

We have been experimenting with building installations and patches with the Codegear Special Edition of Installaware 6 which came with Delphi 2007.

Unfortunately, no matter how we try, we are not able to produce a patch that can be silently applied by a non-administrator to a previous installation (that was installed by an administrator). Both the main installation and the patch are signed with the same valid Verisign-issued certificate. We are testing under Vista. When testing as a non-administrator, the patch cannot locate the original installation and asks the user for the location of the files - something we absolutely need to avoid! (When running as an administrator the patch can locate the files; the original setup was installed for all users; the original setup is a web deployment build).

I have searched the Installaware forums and am concerned that the following topics appear not to have reached a satisfactory conclusion (and they are months and months old):

http://www.installaware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2831&highlight=patching

http://www.installaware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11734&highlight=#11734

Are we correct in coming to the conclusion that Installaware does not have a solution which allows a program installed into Program Files to silently patch itself when run by a non-admin user under Vista (and it is signed with the same certificate that the original installation was signed with)?

If we are wrong and Installaware can generate such a patch, is there a sample setup and patch project that we can download from somewhere and experiment with?

We need to hear that Installaware can provide a solution to this issue, else we will have to evaluate competitive installation and patch creation
products such as the dreaded InstallShield.

Thank you and regards, Richard

Are we correct in coming to the conclusion that Installaware does not have a solution which allows a program installed into Program Files to silently patch itself when run by a non-admin user under Vista (and it is signed with the same certificate that the original installation was signed with)?

Unfortunatelly, you are right. When a per machine installation is done by an administrator, only an administrator is able to patch that application. Guest or nonadministrator users don't have enough rights to modify per machine installations.

I am confused - is this a limitation of InstallAware?

Or is it because the MSI installer is treating this scenario as a "managed install"?

http://blogs.msdn.com/windows_installer ... -list.aspx

According to the MS documentation performing a credential free patch for an application that was originally installed per-machine should be possible. Or is there something in the conditions that I am missing?

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372388(VS.85).aspx

Here's a thread on a MS newsgroup where one person talks about getting it to work. (See the response from Superfreak3 on Aug 17 12:07PM.)

http://groups.google.com/group/microsof ... 505e64498e

To anyone at InstallAware,

I am currently reviewing the InstallAware 7 evaluation (and I have the Codegear v6 edition).

The only thing stopping me from purchasing your product is the fact that you do not seem to support "User Account Control (UAC) Patching", which is simply patches that may be applied by non-administrator users. As the previous poster noted, go to this link and you will see that Windows Vista does in-fact support this:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372388.aspx

What your installation seem to be missing is the "MsiPatchCertificate" and "MsiDigitalCertificate" tables, which are required to support non-administrative user patching. The MSP file must also be digitally signed with the same certificate that was used on the original first installation MSI file.

I know that this is 100% supported in two competing products, namely InstallShield and Advanced Installer (download the evaluation and you will see patching works for non-admin users).

If you add these missing items to your product, and patching finally works properly on Windows Vista for non-admin users, then I'll be more than happy to purchase it.


Regards,

RH

I want add my voice to R77's comments. This is an important issue to us, also. My customers should be able to patch a pre-installed package without logging in as administrator. InstallAware, please respond to R77's question. Thanks.

AGG

AGG wrote:I want add my voice to R77's comments. This is an important issue to us, also. My customers should be able to patch a pre-installed package without logging in as administrator. InstallAware, please respond to R77's question. Thanks.

I second that.

Is there a chance that this Vista patching problem been fixed under InstallAware version 9?

Any follow up by IA technical support for patching with UAC issue?

Please have a look at the following link.
http://www.installaware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10795&p=41234#p41234

Regards