Windows – VB6 install on Windows Vista as a Standard User

vb6windows-vista

I have a VB6 application that needs to be installed on Windows Vista as a Standard User. Using Visual Studio 2005 I have created a setup project that will place the application in a standard user safe place or folder. I also have a dll that I want to install and register to the users application data folder. Once my windows installer is created in VS'05 I flipped the word count properties' 3rd bit using msiinfo.exe so that Vista will not prompt Admin credentials when it runs the msi. The application installs without any problems until it tries to register the dll to the users application data folder. When it reaches that point it throws an error stating that it cannot register the type library for the dll. It appears the installer does not have the authority to register a dll to the users folder. Is this correct? My understanding was that Vista only complained about standard users updating or changing items that affected all users of a machine. Any ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Best Answer

Steve

My suggestion is, if you are able, to use regfree com / manifest files instead of registering the ocx/dll files, which as you mention is a real chore under a basic user account.

There is an excellent free app you can use to build the manifest for you as well here: http://mmm4vb6.atom5.com/

We have been using this for a few years now, with no issues.

EDIT The MMM website is down. I see here that the author was having trouble with their hosting and has provided another location to get Make My Manifest - download it here.

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R – Make UAC optional in Windows Installer on Vista

Unfortunately, the Windows Installer does not provide a way to create a single package that can install per-machine and per-user but only prompt for UAC on the per-machine case. The issue is that the bit that can suppress the UAC prompt is stored in the SummaryInformation stream and is not modifiable while the package is executing.

How to get Application Data folder/Word template folder in Vista

You should use [AppDataFolder] instead. I can't find anything about "appdir" in the windows installer property reference.

Edit after question edit: The shell folders key (great blogpost btw) where you get your appdir value from is a very old and deprecated way to get at the system folders. It is only there for backwards compatibility and you should not rely on it. Especially if you live near Raymond Chen.

Edit 2: Since the real question turns out to be "how do I find the user's word template folder"... The word template folder is not always

[AppDataFolder]\Microsoft\Templates

This is because the template folder can be configured under tools - options - file locations - user templates. Ironically we are back to searching the registry if we want to detect this:

  <Property Id="USERTEMPLATES">
     <RegistrySearch Id="SearchUserTemplates"
             Root="HKCU"
             Key="Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General"
                 Name="UserTemplates"
             Type="raw" />
  </Property>

This registry value is normally not present however, and you cannot specify a default value that contains [AppDataFolder] here (I tried).

Instead, I would try to define two components, one which installs to USERTEMPLATES and one which installs to [AppData]\Microsoft\Templates. You can then make use of Condition elements to test for the existence of USERTEMPLATES, and install only the right one.

Best Answer

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How to get Application Data folder/Word template folder in Vista

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