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Installing HKCU keys using a Windows Installer repair, Pt. II

March 28th, 2013 by Paul Opper | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Desktop Management, Microsoft

Previously, in Pt. I of this series, I wrote about how to install HKCU registry keys (which can also be used for installing data anywhere in a user profile).  Now I’ll go into more depth on how to do this using the popular application packaging product Wise Package Studio.

Though Wise Package Studio has been discontinued by Symantec, it’s still quite popular in many packaging environments.  The main tool used for creating and editing Windows Installer projects in Wise Package Studio is the “Windows Installer Editor”, which was previously available alone as “Wise for Windows Installer” (wfwi.exe). 

Most of the packaging work will be done in the “Installation Expert” view, which is a slightly more “user friendly” or “cleaner” project editor.  After creating my new project, I’ll add a couple files to it.  The files I added are Process Explorer (procexp.exe) from “SysInternals” and it’s help file (procexp.chm).  Process Explorer is one of several extremely useful utilities available (free!) in the Sysinternals Suite. 

 

1.Wise

 

Next, I’ll add an “Advertised” desktop shortcut to “procexp.exe” from the “Shortcuts” page.  By default, when you add a shortcut to point to a file in your installation the “Advertised” check box is marked. 

 

2.Wise

 

Note that “Complete” is listed in the “Current Feature” drop down list.  By default, Wise starts with a feature named “Complete” and puts all files, registry keys, shortcuts, etc. under the “Complete” feature, but we need a “hidden” parent feature.  So, from the Features page “Add” a new feature.  Give it a name, select “<None>” from the Parent drop down list, “Hidden” from the Display drop down, and check the “Required Feature” check box; the rest of the defaults can be left.  After adding the hidden parent feature, I go into the “Complete” feature to select the hidden feature from its “Parent” drop down list. 

 

3.Wise

 

Finally, I add an HKCU registry key to the new hidden feature.  Notice now that I’ve added a new feature, I can select it from the “Current Feature” drop down list from all the pages in Installation Expert. 

 

4.Wise

 

After the project is compiled, the .MSI can be run on any system “per machine” with the “ALLUSERS” value set to ’1′.  When a new user logs onto the machine and clicks on the advertised shortcut, the HKCU key will be installed by the windows installer repair. 

 Next time, I’ll take a look at implementing self repair using InstallShield.  I hope you found this tutorial enlightening, instructive, and maybe even a little fun.  Well..uh..instructive and enlightening should be good enough! 

 

 

 

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Installing HKCU keys using a Windows Installer repair

March 14th, 2013 by Paul Opper | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Desktop Management, Microsoft

One of the more common (and tricky) issues faced when installing an application in the enterprise is how to install user data.  Typically, the application installer is run silently with no user interaction in the “system” context with administrative privileges.  This method is commonly used so that the software can install in the background without disrupting the end users work.  Fortunately, this method works for a majority of software deployments, because the installer does not need to install anything in the “user” context. 

There are situations, however, when an application requires registry keys or some data files installed in the user’s profile prior to the applications first launch.  One common post-installation method used for installing user data is called “Active Setup”; a full explanation of how to implement this method is beyond the scope of this post… and besides… there’s already been a blog post on this topic! 

A major drawback of the Active Setup method is that any user logged on to the system when the silent installation occurred must log out of their profile and log back in.  The reason is because the mechanism which initiates Active Setup compares a Local Machine registry keys to one in the User’s profile when the user logs on.  A more convenient and functional method (and slicker, I must say) to install data to the user profile in the user context is by initiating a Windows Installer repair. 

By design, Windows Installer initiates “self repair” or “self healing” when an entry point to the installed application is launched.  Typically, the entry point is an “Advertised” shortcut.  When the user clicks on the shortcut, Windows Installer will perform an integrity check to verify all the “key paths” of the installed application are present; if not present, the Windows Installer repair will install any missing component(s) and their key path.  The key path of a component is typically a file or shortcut. 

One  method for installing Current User registry keys post install is to add a top level “Hidden Feature” (note: the feature doesn’t really have to be hidden, but we do this to ensure that whoever runs the install doesn’t have the option not to install it) to the install which contains all the HKCU keys.  Mark the feature as “required” and make it the “Parent” feature to all other features in your MSI.  Move all HKCU keys to the same component in the required feature.  Finally, add an “advertised” to your application to facilitate the repair.  After the application is installed (in the system context), when a user click on the advertised shortcut a self repair will occur to install the components with the missing key paths… IF the key path doesn’t exist.

Ya see…this blog post was partly inspired by a setup I encountered on a customer location which attempted to use this method for installing the required HKCU registry keys.  When I tested the application, it was not behaving as expected.  I looked into the .MSI that installed it and found that everything had been laid out according to the prescribed method detailed above… except… the component key path holding the HKCU keys was actually an HKLM registry key which already existed on my system!  Thus, the self repair would never “kick off”.  When attempting to initiate a controlled Windows Installer repair, you must ensure the component key path is truly unique, or the repair won’t happen. 

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into Windows Installer and find this method to install user data helpful.  This was just a high level overview; next week, I’ll follow up with a more detailed post on how to implement this functionality. 

 

 

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A Wrinkle with a Bundled Wireless Driver and DPInst32…

February 21st, 2013 by Jacob Elert | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Wireless, Workstation Management

Fellow Coreteker Scott DeLand and I were recently working on a “QC” for some bundled wireless drivers, for which the customer used DPInst32.exe to install the drivers.  After the wireless driver folder has been installed to C:\ExamplePath, DPInst is launched to install that driver.  Here’s what the launch action originally looked like in ZENworks Configuration Manager (ZCM):

Command:
${WinDisk}\ExamplePath\Company\Wireless Driver\DPInst32.exe

Command Line Parameters:
/s /PATH ${WinDisk}\ExamplePath\Company\Wireless Driver

Working Directory:
${WinDisk}\ExamplePath\Company\Wireless Driver

There were a few problems with this, though.  For one, all of the installed driver folders had spaces in them.  When spaces are present in the command line parameters for some executables, they will fail without special care… and DPInst is included in this list. 

The other problem was that the install wasn’t creating an OEM file in C:\Windows\inf.  When a new driver is installed, it should create a new OEM file with an incremental counter… so if the last OEM file was OEM94.inf, the next driver install will create an OEM file called OEM95.inf.  Scott pointed out that the drivers weren’t creating a new OEM file… were they really working? 

We tested with the command line and found that if we didn’t use quotes around the /PATH parameter and the parameter contained spaces, DPInst would not work.  Now the Command Line Parameters looked like this:

/s /PATH "${WinDisk}\ExamplePath\Company\Wireless Driver"

But there was still another problem:  On some machines, this action would fail with an exit code of 768 — and on some bundles, a new OEM file wouldn’t be generated.  Exit code 768 occurs when there is already a wireless driver on the machine, which we discovered previously.  We solved the new issue by adding code 768 as a success return code in the launch action, allowing the process to complete.  The other thing that was discovered was that if the driver was of the same type as another already installed driver, it wouldn’t create a new OEM file.

I thought I’d pass this along to see if it might help others!

 

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Don’t Rename Vendor-Provided .MSI Files…

December 6th, 2012 by Paul Opper | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Microsoft Infrastructure

When packaging an application for deployment in the enterprise, you must also identify it’s dependencies — additional software required for the application to successfully install and function.  Often times these dependencies are redistributable run-times for Microsoft Visual Studio.  These redistributables are so common, they are often packaged separately and “chained” to the dependent application.

This method of installing dependencies usually works pretty well; the deployment tool determines whether to install the package, based on it’s previous installation history.  If, however, the dependency was installed outside the deployment tool’s domain — by an application a user downloaded, for example  — you may encounter errors when the dependency is re-run; this could fail your entire application package chain.

Fortunately, many (but not all — always test!) Microsoft redistributables, like “Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)“,  are authored so that they can install over an existing install — without actually modifying anything or going into “maintenance mode”.  The screen shot below illustrates that the Windows Installer services runs the .MSI package, and verifies that it’s already installed with the same product code, package code, component IDs, etc., and simply exits without modifying the existing install.  This can be a packager’s saving grace in an unpredictable enterprise environment.

 

Wise Compatibility Key

 

Recently, however, I came across an issue with my philosophy of simply letting the redistributable re-run over an existing install. 

A package I had developed started failing.  After checking the logs, I noticed the failure occurred during the install of the dependent runtime  “Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)”.  The runtime install was exiting with a Windows Installer general failure code of “1603″. 

A look at the detailed installation log shows a more confusing error: “Error 1316.  A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file: C:\Users\popper1\Desktop\vcredist_x86\vc_red_x86.msi”.

With some help from my co-worker (Windows Installer guru Urb Bernier) we were able to find the issue: the .MSI that originally installed the Visual C++ runtime was extracted from the vendor’s .EXE bootstrap and…RENAMED!  A grievous offense in the application packaging world!  Well, that may be a bit dramatic, but it certainly violates all “best practices”.  When extracted from the vendor provided setup file “vcredist_x86.exe”, the .MSI is named “vc_red.msi”.  Perhaps the packager may have renamed the file in order to distinguish the 32-bit setup file from the 64-bit setup? 

The error “1316.  A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file: C:\Users\popper1\Desktop\vcredist_x86\vc_red_x86.msi” is Windows Installer’s way of saying it can’t access the file in the path; the “cached” path to the .MSI that originally installed the Visual C++ runtime.

You see, the issue is that you can rename the .MSI, install it successfully, re-run it successfully, and uninstall it successfully; provided you do all of these actions using the renamed .MSI.  If, however, the actual vendor install runs on that same machine, whether from the bootstrap .exe or from the extracted .MSI, it will exit with a Windows Installer general error code “1603″.

Packaging applications can sometimes be a frustrating task; because no matter how much forethought and care you put into your package, it can always be thwarted.  To be fair, I guess the same could be said for just about any other job.  

However, I hope this example illustrates why you should not rename vendor provided .MSI files!

 

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Interactive Services Detection Dialog Suppression…

November 8th, 2012 by Paul Opper | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, SCCM

I finally got to the bottom of the “Interactive Services Detection” dialog that appeared when running my SCCM advertisement.  The reason, in hindsight, makes total sense…

I was running my .MSI with a /qb-! switch, which means “display basic modal dialogs to the logged on user when running, but hide the ‘Cancel’ button”.  My SCCM program did not have the “Allow users to interact with this program” check-box marked.  Thus, when the advertisement ran, I would see the Interactive Services Detection dialog appear — because Windows Installer was trying to display the install dialogs to the logged on user.

To suppress the “Interactive Services Detection” dialog (below) that appears when Windows detects a service running as “Session 0″ (that’s a zero) user…

 

…Simply mark the “Allow users to interact with this program” check-box under Run Mode on the “Environment” tab of your program.

 

 

And that should do it!  Thanks to fellow Coreteker Voltaire for suggesting that I look at this program setting…

Troubleshooting the Interactive Services Detection can be challenging.  Unfortunately, if you are working in an enterprise environment that is still deploying legacy applications, you are likely to encounter it.  So if you are deploying an .MSI through SCCM and you are not running it silently (with a “/qn” switch), be sure to mark the “Allow users to interact with this program” check-box.

 

 

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How to import the HKCU values of a different profile into your registry…

August 2nd, 2012 by Paul Opper | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Computer Support, Desktop Management, Desktop OS, Microsoft, Uncategorized, Windows 7

When troubleshooting an application installation issue — or an issue with the application itself — on the Windows operating system, it’s often necessary to view the registry.  The Windows registry holds a wealth of information and settings that determine just about everything related to how Windows operates; what it looks like, where and what users can access, and how applications behave.  If you know where to look, or what you’re looking for, this can be a pretty easy task; the “Find” function in the Registry Editor works pretty well.  However, if the issue is with registry keys under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) hive, it can be a challenge.  You see, the keys under the HKCU hive are unique to each users profile; thus, when you view the registry keys under HKCU in the Registry Editor, you are viewing the keys of the current logged-in user profile.

In an enterprise environment, applications are typically distributed via a configuration/distribution system such as Novell ZENworks Configuration Mannager (ZCM) or Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).  When software is installed through these systems, the application installers can be configured to run as the logged on user, under the system profile, or even as a “dynamic” administrator.  If the installer writes values to the HKCU profile they are written to the profile that ran the installer.  Thus, there is often need to view the HKCU values of a different user profile.  Adding more complexity to this, you may find yourself in a situation where the user profile under which the HKCU values are located doesn’t have access to the Registry Editor.  In this situation, you need to import the profile’s HKCU hive into your registry so you can view it.

The HKCU values for a profile are stored in a file called ntuser.dat, located in the root of the users’ profile.  On Windows 7 the path is c:\users\(profile)\ntuser.dat.  There are a few ways to import the ntuser.dat into the registry with Registry Editor, but the quickest and easiest way I’ve found to do this is using the following command from an elevated command prompt:

reg.exe load HKLM\TempHive c:\users\(profile)\ntuser.dat

Now the HKCU values of the profile you imported can be viewed under a key called “TempHive” in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.

Hopefully, this will help you to resolve that issue you’re looking into!

 

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Thinking Outside The Bundle…

June 7th, 2012 by Paul Opper | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging
Once you’ve honed your packaging skills, and created some cool application bundles; you’re not done yet.
 
Having a great bundle installation without the ability to cleanly remove that bundle is like having a powerful engine in a motorcycle… with no brakes.  Oh sure; it’s great as long as you’re going forward, but if you need to stop and make changes (for example, if you have to change enterprise mail system clients), you just might have no choice but to re-image every motorcycle.  Okay, that’s where the metaphor breaks down a bit, but you get my point.
 
Anyway, here are a couple issues that I see as important that — if left unattended — could really grow into larger problems.
 
The bundle “Uninstall” – one should put as much effort in testing and implementing “best practices” for the bundle UNinstall as we do for the install.  By default, a bundle’s uninstall actions are simply the Install actions in reverse; this is OK for simple bundles, like a bundle that installs only one .MSI.  However, many bundles are more complex.  Ensuring your bundle uninstalls without error is also important.
 
I disable the default “Uninstall” action for most of my bundles and add custom uninstall actions to avoid errors, especially for bundles that install dependent bundles (I generally leave dependent bundles installed).  This leads me to…
 
Dependent bundles - I think most packagers are aware that it is a best practice to determine an application’s dependencies and, whenever possible, bundle the dependencies as standalone bundles to allow the software deployment/management system (for example, ZCM) to manage them.  This will reduce errors when an application attempts to install a package that is already installed or uninstall a shared dependency; it also saves time.
 
If you keep these things in mind, you can get on your bad motorbundle and ride…  and stop when you want…
:)
 
 
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Active Setup – Solve Problematic HKCU Keys…

March 29th, 2012 by Aaron Gierak | 1 Comment | Filed in Application Packaging, Desktop OS, Microsoft, Windows 7

Hello fellow packagers — ever have an issue with trying to get a program to lay down the HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) keys?  Well, let’s break down how to fix this issue.  I am going to show you how to set up Active Setup within your applications MSI/MST file in order to have this HKCU stay on the machine, no matter how many users log into the system. 

Active Setup helps to lay down Current User data when an application is deployed or even installed straight from the MSI itself.  Active Setup can be set to do a repair and check for the current user keys that the application needs in order to fully run right.  I am going to show this process, as its one of the most common processes to use with Active Setup.

Windows has keys that it will look for before it kicks off the full install of the MSI.  These keys can be found under:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\<UID>

…and also under:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\<UID>

The <UID> should be unique, based off the application you’re using.  Now, the best value to use for the <UID> would be the Globally Unique IDentifier (GUID); I suggest using the Product Code for the GUID.  There are many options you can use for the GUID, but for this example I am going to use the Product Code for the application.  This Code can be found in AdminStudio in a few locations: General Information, Property Manager or Direct Editor->Property table (these locations might be a little different depending on your packaging tool).  Most packaging tools will still have a Property table where you can find the Product Code.  Make sure to write down the GUID you will be using, as we will need this information later on.

So let’s take a deeper look into this process, in order to make these keys no longer an issue.  Let’s begin by opening the MSI we would like to edit.  You can also use a MST transform file if you are working with a vendor MSI.   

Once the application is open you will want to navigate to the Registry section of your MSI/MST.  When you are in the Registry section of your MSI/MST, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\

Under the Microsoft folder, right click the folder and select New and make a new Key, in order to make a new folder under Microsoft.  We will label this folder “Active Setup”.

You might be saying “Hey, I don’t have a Software folder under HKLM”…  This is fine, it just means we need to make one.  It’s easy as pie; you would make the parent folders the same way we did with the “Active Setup” Folder.  Just make sure you build the folder structure as indicated above.

We need to set up two more folders the same way we did with our “Active Setup” folder.  This time, however, we will name the first folder “Installed Components”, under the “Active Setup” folder.  Under the new “Installed Components” folder, make another folder and label it “ProductCode”.

Once we have all our folders set up we need to make a “New string Value” under our “ProductCode” folder.  To do this you can right click on the “ProductCode” folder and you will see the option “New string Value” under the drop down list.  We are going to label our “New string Value” as “StubPath” (Windows will run anything under the “StubPath” whenever there is a command under it).  If the current user key is already on the system, msiexec will not run the repair again because the key is already in the location it should be.

When you have your “StubPath” string created, double click it; we need to make some changes to the values in this string.  You will see the Edit Data box come up; in this box we are going to use the following commands in the Value Data field:

Msiexec /fu (ProductCode or GUID) /qn

These are what the switches are doing that you are adding to the msiexec:

/f – Repair
 
 /u – all required user-specific registry entries
 
 /qn – Silent mode with no UI.

 (For other repair options and switches I have added a link to Microsoft’s “msiexec” page:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759262%28v=ws.10%29.aspx)

This new key will run once the application is launched.  Make sure to test your application out, and check those keys you have made.  The best way to check the MSI/MST is to launch the MSI/MST though the command line. 

I hope this helps to clear up and issues with Current User key, and gives you a better understanding on how to fix the issue.

 

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Basic MSI – A Simple Need (Part 2): Refresh the Desktop

March 22nd, 2012 by Derek Socall | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Microsoft

(For background, please see Part 1 of this post)

Now that the Broadcom WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software desktop icon has been removed, we need a simple way of refreshing the desktop from within the MSI. 

The Post-Icon Removal MSI-Called Desktop Refresh

At first thought, it seemed that there must be VBScript out there that could accomplish this remedial task. 

Scouring the web turned up several suggestions, but none of them worked properly.  Some would work from a script being manually executed, but then would fail if executed through a custom action (WScript method access challenges, to name one).  Others simply didn’t work at all.  Trying to give focus to the desktop, and then using a “sendkey” function for a “F5″ refresh, wasn’t going to cut it this time either.  C code, found on the web, claimed it could accomplish what was needed; but not having much experience with writing and compiling C made it an unviable option.  The proposed solution would need to work regardless of what was open and running on the desktop during the installation.

After consulting with the Application Packaging Team at Coretek, a suggestion was proposed by Voltaire Toledo to use AutoIT to generate a script.  AutoIT “…is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting.  It uses a combination of simulated keystrokes, mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks in a way not possible or reliable with other languages (e.g. VBScript and SendKeys)” (http://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/). 

It was amazing how easy it was to create the script using AutoIT.  The best part was that it worked!  Here are the steps:

    1. Download and install AutoIt v3 from the site above.
    2. Create a folder in which to store AutoIT scripts.
    3. Right click in the folder.  Under “New”,  select “AutoIT v3 Script”.
    4. Rename the script to something more appropriate.
    5. Right-click the script and choose “Edit Script”.  The AutoIt SciTE script editor will open:

Script Editor

    1. Open an “Untitled”, empty, script window on first launch.  Enter the following line of code, with any additional comments, in the editor window:

ControlSend(‘Program Manager’, ”, ”, ‘{F5}’)

Hint – As seen above, “;” delimits a comment

  1. Save the script and close the script editor.
  2. Right-click on the recently-created script and choose “compile script”.  Choose either the 32-bit or 64-bit option (depending on the architecture of the system on which the executable will be run).
  3. The resulting executable file will appear in the script folder.

Now that an executable exists that can refresh the desktop, in any one of the aforementioned scenarios, it must be added to the basic MSI’s installation routine. 

This can be accomplished using a custom action from within InstallShield.  Here are the steps:

    1. Open the existing MSI or MST in InstallShield.
    2. Create a new custom action in InstallShield:

Custom InstallShield Action

  1. Choose to run an executable from the binary table.
  2. Click the “Browse” button to browse to the executable that was created from the AutoIt script earlier.
  3. Set the script to “immediate execution” and “always execute”.  Add any necessary install conditions to control when the custom action runs (at install, uninstall, maintenance mode, etc.).
  4. Ensure that the custom action is placed in the MSI’s execution sequence AFTER the changes to the desktop have been made (the registry key has been deleted as explained in Part 1), so that the desktop refresh shows the intended changes!

Viola!  Mission achieved!

 

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Basic MSI – A Simple Need (Part 1): Delete a Difficult Desktop Icon

March 15th, 2012 by Derek Socall | No Comments | Filed in Application Packaging, Desktop Management, Microsoft

Sometimes it’s necessary to refresh the desktop after certain actions are performed through a MSI.  It may be that the desktop background has changed, or that icons have changed and need to be refreshed, etc. 

Removing a Difficult Desktop Icon

In our particular case (and as is used in the examples in this post), Broadcom’s WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software was installed.  This example customer always removes icons from the start menu and desktop in application installers deployed in the enterprise.  This is where a seemingly simple customization became a challenging one — it’s a good thing that I’m always up for a challenge!

Normally, removing icons from the desktop would require the packager to write a script to delete “.lnk” files from the current user or “AllUsers” profile’s “Desktop” folder.  However, in our scenario, the “My Bluetooth Places” icon is unique in that it cannot be so easily deleted:

My Bluetooth Places

Thanks go out to “Scorps” at the Video Help Forums for demonstrating how to get this done through the Windows registry.  Here are the steps:

  1. Open up the registry editor (Start> Run> regedit)
  2. Browse to the following key:
     
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{6af09ec9-b429-11d4-a1fb-0090960218cb}
  3. Delete the entire key {6af09ec9-b429-11d4-a1fb-0090960218cb}!
  4. Refresh the desktop to apply/show the changes.

With that being said, creating a VBScript to delete a registry key is relatively simple:

Option Explicit 
Dim WshShell, regKeyDelete 
Set WshShell=CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 
regKeyDelete="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{6af09ec9-b429-11d4-a1fb-0090960218cb}" 
WshShell.RegDelete regKeyDelete

 

Refreshing the desktop, on the other hand, posed to be a challenge!  Stay tuned to Part 2 to see how this task was accomplished…

 

 

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