Automatic deployment of VS.NET MSI-package

[Jakob Olsen]

Hi,

I didn't know which group to post this in, so I did something I usually
don't do which is post the message in multiple groups - sorry for that!


My problem is that I have build a .NET application and made added a
deployment project to the solution that creates an MSI-package. This works
fine when I manually installs the MSI-package, but I also want to be able to
make an automatic installation so I can run something like this in the
command-window:
MyProject.MSI /servername=http://server /run=Everyone

How can I do this?

My main problem is that I want to make Everyone the standard choice for
"Install MyProject for yourself, or for anyone who uses this computer". But
I would also like to use some other parameters like servername.

Y/Jakob

 

[Phil Wilson]

VS 2005 is better in this area because there's an IDE build setting for
Everyone/Just me called InstallAllUsers IIRC, but VS 2003 uses Just me by
default, so:

If you google for FolderForm_AllUsers you'll find more on this topic, but
basically:

1. Get Orca from the Windows Installer section of the Platform SDK.
2. Use it to edit the Property table in your MSI file in two ways:
a) Change the value of FolderForm_AllUsers from ME to ALL.
b) Add the property name ALLUSERS (case sensitive) and give it a Value of 1

You can then do a silent install of your MSI file for everyone with:
msiexec /i <path to msi> /qn

there are several /q options for various levels of UI display.

You can pass properties in uppercase:
msiexec /i <path to msi> /qn SERVERNAME=whatever

so you can use them in custom actions, but I'm not sure if that's what you
mean by your /servername.