InstallAware

Is there a way to persist a set of user-defined variables (other than writing to registry or external file) at first time install and reference those variables at a maintenance install? I thought IA persisted variables automatically but it appears only to do so for certain variables that it knows about.

Steve Lang
JeVal Software Engineering

Yes, this is true. Only known variables are persisted. If you think all variables should be persisted, this could be added as a feature request. In the past it was suggested that having all variables persisted at the end of the install might lead to strange situations when setup is started again (ex: if the reboot variable was true, setup would restart expecting to reboot again).

Thanks Michael for the response.

Having all variables persisted would be a great help.

One can always initialize (or reinitialize) variables such as REBOOTNOW and REBOOTCOMPUTER so as to maintain proper program flow. Alternatively, the Set Variable command could have a persistance option that one would select on a per-variable basis.

When user-defined variables are not persisted, then it becomes very difficult to support new dialogs that solicit additional setup info. When setup is run in MAINTENANCE mode, user-defined variable context is lost, resulting in modify and repair installs not working properly. Presently, in order to maintain context, one has to write user-defined variables to an external file or a registry key at the end of a first-time install and then read them back in on a MAINTENANCE install. This is cumbersome and would be simplified if user-defined variables were persisted.

I cast my vote for adding user-defined variable persistance as a feature request.

Thanks for considering this issue.

Steve Lang
JeVal Software Engineering

That's a good suggestion! I think we'll see some action on that item.

slang wrote:
"Alternatively, the Set Variable command could have a persistance option that one would select on a per-variable basis."

I think this is a very good idea. I also wanted to have such a feature as I could remove some registry entries then, which I only made for the installer to remember...