Software Deployment

Why do you not want to edit MSTs? It's the simplest and most accessible way to get MSIs to behave the way you want. In this case, you probably need to set a property and write a registry entry to simulate the behaviour of the registration dialog and then simply remove the registration dialog from the sequence. That, of course, assumes that the registration dialog is part of the MSI: it may be part of a function called by a DLL or EXE, run by a Custom Action.

Considering my lack of progress not editing MST's I'm giving it a look. I've cracked open the 1033.mst for RPCORE.msi but haven't found anything related to Registration except for the same registry key (in components) I've been toying with and others have used with past Roxio versions.

I'm new to editing someone elses MST's. This page was about all I've found relating to Roxio for Dell. I do not have any of the listed options. http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/detail.asp?id=990

Sorry, I didn't realise the product came with its own MSTs! Anyway, that doesn't preclude you from adding your own. Create a nice simple one with just your changes and add it to the transform list when applying the package:

MSIEXEC /i whatever.MSI TRANSFORMS=1033.MST;SomeOther.MST;Your.MST

ORIGINAL: Snack

Any ideas how to supress the Roxio Creator DE Registration dialogs without editing MST's?
I'm running Roxio Creator DE v3.3.0

For install I used the steps here to circumvent apps I did not want: Drag to Disc, BlueRay.
Worked like a charm, excpet on launch i get the Registration dialogs.
http://itninja.com/link/microsoft-msde-home5

I've tried modifying the following Reg key with a 1 or 2 with no success.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Roxio\Registration\RoxioCentral33]
"RunRegApp"=dword:00000002




When you start Roxio first time it will write this to the registry

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sonic\Registration\Roxio Central Core 3.0]
"RemindForNLaunches"=dword:00000005
"RemindAfter"=dword:00000003
"ShowRegistration"=dword:00000001 (If this stand to 00000000 no registration will come).
"ReminderCount"=dword:00000002
"Last"=dword:46dbe68a

You will have to make a reg file (OR script) that write these values right after the installation.

Thanks Oynes, that has me going in the right direction withe the registry key location and entries but...
that only affects the current user (which in this case would be Admin during Sysprep setup) and I need to affect all users.

I need to affect all users
- The Default user Registry settings are apparently pulled from ntuser.dat and therefore cannot be change easily via regedit (?)
- Don't want to bake the setting into the master image as then we're tied to a specific make/model/version of the software and it's reg entries.
- I tried adding the entry to HKLM with no luck
- Thinking of tryin to add a script in the Default User startup folder to run the Reg update but then it ends up running all the ime unless you delete it when finished and then it only runs for the first user to log on.

Hi Snack,
you need to alter the package with an MST.
Or you could run a logon script to do the job.
If you are going the MSI/MST route, read this post from John McFadyen carefully:
http://itninja.com/question/distribution-message21
This is the guide for things like this.
Regards, Nick

Thanks nheim, nice post that you linked too.
I'm struggling with finding exactly what to modify in the MST
and alternately...
how to run a per user Registry mod that runs only once per user.

Hi Snack,
create a new top feature and make all previous top features sub features of it.
create a new component and associate it with the new top feature.
create your regkeys and associate it with the new component
set the key of the new component to one of the new regkeys.
Make sure you have an entry point for self healing like an advertised shortcut.
If this is not the case, you need Active Setup to do a reinstall of the new top feature in each profile.
Regards, Nick

When following the above working from jmcfadyen's post I ended up with an install that installed nothing :)

Without adding the "duplicate" file piece (which I don't fully understand - what file do I duplicate for a Reg update?) it worked but only for the user that installed it. Any other user only recieves Roxio HKCU entries once the Registration Piece launches and it sets the entries as not registered - I've searched and searched for where this is coming from to see if I could simply mod it, but it's nowhere to be found in the MST file.

Hi Snack,
please post all the changes you made in the MST.
Load the MST in ORCA against the original MSI.
Shift-Ctrl-C all the lines you changed and paste it here.
Regards, Nick

I'm not an big expert on this but I had an consultant at my work and he explained that the registry setting about the registration can't be found in the MST file. Because there are modules in the installation packages who writes these values.There is no program (I'm using Wise) that can read and change the settings from these modules.

We are trying to find a solution for this we too, I'll let you know if we have any progress.

oynes,
ehm say what?

So the consultant at your place is saying that it is impossible to change registry information original located in the merge module in a transform? In that case I would suggest abit more clarification of what he exactly means as it seems rubberish to me [;)]

Kim, my reading of Oynes' post is that there is at least one Cusom Action which writes the information and that is why the registration key location doesn't appear in the Registry table.

Oynes, if that's the case, you can use your install authoring tool to step through the installation as it runs and run a process monitor alongside. As soon as you see the registration information being written, you can probably assume that the last Custom Action to run (which should be highlighted in the tool's debugger) was responsible. Then, you can stop that CA being run in your transform.

Hi Oynes,
that is not the problem we are talking about here.
Apparently, the program itself writes some kind of registration stuff into the HKCU registry hive.
Have a look at your own posts above, you contradict yourself!
Now, Snack is trying to write this registration stuff with the installer through the help of an MST.
Regards, Nick

Hey ho, I'll see if I can figure out how to capture the changes I've made. I don't have Orca, just Wise.

As to the Registry entries in question - They are not written during installation, not the keys nor any of the values.
On first launch of any Roxio component for each individual user a web based registration interface launches. Then and only then are the keys and base values created.

Has anyone found out how to stop the registration box from coming up for each user profile when they first launch the program?

Has anyone found out how to stop the registration box from coming up for each user profile when they first launch the program?No, no-one has. Or.........have they? It's always a good idea to use the tools right in front of you. http://itninja.com/link/microsoft-msde-home5

ORIGINAL: VBScab

Has anyone found out how to stop the registration box from coming up for each user profile when they first launch the program?No, no-one has. Or.........have they? It's always a good idea to use the tools right in front of you. http://itninja.com/link/microsoft-msde-home5


As discussed earlier in this thread changing the reg values listed in the link you provided will only work for the user profile that the change was made in. I need to find a way to make this change for every user profile.

Need a little help with this. I have created my new top feature and made all other features sub features of it
Changed Feature SoleFeature to
SoleFeature RegSuppress 16
Added
RegSuppress RegSuppress 1 16

Added new FeatureComponent
RegSuppress RegSuppressUser

I get confused on the new component
Added new Component
RegSuppressUser {FB1D5CEF-CFAD-49A2-98AE-C8612957A7E6} Root 4 RegUser1

Added new Registry
RegUser1 1 SOFTWARE\Sonic\Registration\Roxio Central Core 3.0 ShowRegistration #0 RegSuppressUser

Modified Shortcut component to RegSuppressUser

It doesn't work and I'm unsure why

ORIGINAL: nheim

Hi Snack,
create a new top feature and make all previous top features sub features of it.
create a new component and associate it with the new top feature.
create your regkeys and associate it with the new component
set the key of the new component to one of the new regkeys.
Make sure you have an entry point for self healing like an advertised shortcut.
If this is not the case, you need Active Setup to do a reinstall of the new top feature in each profile.
Regards, Nick

Hi Joe,
you need some changes here and an additional entry.

In the Feature table, the new top feature should have an empty Parent.

The component line has to look like this:
RegSuppComp {FB1D5CEF-CFAD-49A2-98AE-C8612957A7E6} TARGETDIR 4 REG0062

The reg entry should look like this:
REG0062 1 SOFTWARE\Sonic\Registration\Roxio Central Core 3.0 ShowRegistration #0 RegSuppComp

You need to connect the component to the new feature.
Add a line to the FeatureComponents table:
RegSuppress RegSuppComp

That should do the trick.
Regards, Nick

The formatting removed my tabs when I posted so my top feature did have an empty parent.

I'm wondering about a couple of things though. What was wrong with my choice of the Component name and registry name?

Also I don't seem to understand the component field in the Shortcut table for my shortcut. I changed it to RegSuppress but this does not trigger the msi to repair when a new user logs in and launches the program for the first time. Maybe I'm not understanding what an advertised shortcut is?



ORIGINAL: nheim

Hi Joe,
you need some changes here and an additional entry.

In the Feature table, the new top feature should have an empty Parent.

Hi Joe,
looks like my post and your editing on post #19 overlapped.
The edited version looks fine to me.
It's not a good idea to choose the same name for a feature and a component.

To the shortcut:
You have to put it under a component, which gets installed with the main feature.
If the shortcut belongs to a component, which is part of the profile, it won't be there, when you start a certain profile.
An advertised shortcut points the target column to a feature. On a "normal" shortcut, the target points to executable file.
Hope, this sheds some light on this.
Regards, Nick

So if I understand this right I would have a shortcut entry in the shortcut table where the Component would be RegSuppComp and the Target would be my top level feature RegSuppress?

StartProgram ApplicationMenuFolder Copy RegSuppComp RegSuppress /Launch Copy RoxioCentral.exe 0

If you want an advertised shortcut then make sure:
file to be launched is the keypath of its component
Component_ column in the Shortcut table has the value of the above component
Target column in the Shortcut table has the value of the feature holding the above component

Have a look at the Shortcut table or more detailed information:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa371847.aspx

So does this mean I will need to also modify the entry for the main exe in the Component table?

Do you know of a common application that utilizes advertised shortcut(s)? Being able to trace though the process would be big help.

So does this mean I will need to also modify the entry for the main exe in the Component table?
If the "main exe" is the keypath for its own component then no.
As you are specifying the Component in the Component_ column in the Shortcut table the keypath of the component is used if you define the feature as the value of the Target column in the Shortcut table.

Shortcut table from the SDK:
Component_ (column)
The external key into the first column of the Component table. The installer uses the installation state of the component specified in this column to determine whether the shortcut is created or deleted. This component must have a valid key path for the shortcut to be installed. If the Target column contains the name of a feature, the file launched by the shortcut is the key file of the component listed in this column.

Target (column)
The shortcut target.
For an advertised shortcut, this column must be an external key into the first column of the Feature table. The installer evaluates the entry in the Target field as an Identifier and the entry must be a valid foreign key into the Feature Table. The file launched by the shortcut in this case is the key file of the component listed in the Component_ column. When the shortcut is activated, the installer verifies that all the components in the feature are installed before launching this file.

Hope that helps.

Do you know of a common application that utilizes advertised shortcut(s)?
Any office package would do I guess.

I think I'm partway there. When I launch the shortcuts now and the registry entry is missing repair will be triggered but the program does not get launched.

Have a look in the event viewer to get information of which component that is "broken".
I think you will need to enable a verbose logging here to find out why it fails to launch the application when the repair is triggered.

Hi Joe,
another way would be to post the MSI on a download service, ftp or so. But only the single MSI without substorages and Cabs.
This would make it useless for somebody else, but would allow us to have a look at the feature/component/shortcut relations.
To achieve this, load the MSI in ORCA and save it under a different name (make sure, 'Tools - Options - Database - Copy embedded...' is unchecked).
Regards, Nick

I have uploaded the msi and mst in a zip file here: http://www.geocities.com/joedownloader/Temp/RCPCORE.zip

Here are the two Warning events I receive in the Event viewer:

Detection of product '{C8B0680B-CDAE-4809-9F91-387B6DE00F7C}', feature 'RegSuppress' failed during request for component '

Detection of product '{C8B0680B-CDAE-4809-9F91-387B6DE00F7C}', feature 'RegSuppress', component '{5A8E9E48-F3BE-46FE-B4EC-B1EF0CB652A2}' failed. The resource 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Sonic\Registration\Roxio Central Core 3.0\ShowRegistration' does not exist.


I don't understand the above. Of course it doesn't exist. If it existed there would be no reason to trigger repair right?

Thank you for your help. If I can get his figured out it will be useful in many other applications where I need to add additional reg entries to HKCU.

Hi Joe,
you need to put the feature which holds the according component into the target column in the shortcut table.
That means the target column for all of your 3 new shortcuts should read 'SoleFeature'.

And another thing: With what the heck did you generate this transform? It contains more than 99% garbage!
If this will ever work, it will be just plain luck. Please load this MSI into ORCA and load the transform, then you see what i mean.

Please do the following: Make a copy of the MSI.
Load both MSI's into ORCA. Apply your transform to the copied MSI.
In the open original MSI, select new transform.
After that, copy the few necessary lines from the 'old' transform to the new one. To copy, press Ctrl+Shift+C or use the context menu.
This will give you nice clean MST.

Regards, Nick

The transform was provided by the vendor, I just made modifications for adding this registry entry to be rid of the registration dialog on first launch. I think the whole program is garbage but that is what Dell is providing with new PCs for burning software. Unfortunately the msi will not install properly without this transform. I think it was Roxio's way of trying to make you run setup.exe.

ORIGINAL: nheim

And another thing: With what the heck did you generate this transform? It contains more than 99% garbage!
If this will ever work, it will be just plain luck. Please load this MSI into ORCA and load the transform, then you see what i mean.




I really appreciate the help.

Thanks, it works great!

Hi Joe,
please excuse my accusation, relating the MST. Didn't want to offend you at all.
Good to see it worked out for you. As you already stated yourself, this can be considered as good example for this kind of task.
One last note: This package has a hole lot of Custom Actions. Some of them seem to create/manipulate Shortcuts.
That could interfere with your intention, to use those shortcuts as self healing entry points.
Maybe, you have to disable some or all of this CA's which are related to shortcuts.
On multimedia apps like quicktime, there is one more thing to watch for: This apps nowadays have a helper exe to set/unset them as
"Default Programs" trough the OS dialog. This removes and adds shortcuts for those apps. But of course, this are not advertised ones and so the 'self healing' process can't be triggered.
This is one of the main reason, why i use 'Active Setup' to install the profile settings for apps like Quicktime and Realplayer.

Regards, Nick

Hello,

Can somebody clear this out, please in a line by line explanation?

Thanks in advance.

What would you like to have cleared out?

Hello,

I have put the info in an Exel file
http://rapidshare.com/files/162874756/RCP_CORE_35.zip.html

because I was not able to place the layout properly in the reply form [;)]

Thanks, for your fast reaction m8

Hi super..
everything you need, is in the previous posts. However, here is the receipt again:

Change Feature "SoleFeature" to:
SoleFeature RegSuppress 16
Add Feature:
RegSuppress 1 3 16

Add new Component:
RegSuppComp {FB1D5CEF-CFAD-49A2-98AE-C8612957A7E6} TARGETDIR 4 RegUser1

Add new FeatureComponent:
RegSuppress RegSuppComp

Add new Registry:
RegUser1 1 SOFTWARE\Sonic\Registration\Roxio Central Core 3.0 ShowRegistration #0 RegSuppComp

Change the Shortcuts to read "SoleFeature" in the target column.
This makes them advertised.

Regards, Nick

Hello Nick,

On the feature table, like I understand, I need to add 'RegSurppress' (second column) as an 'Feature_Parent' of 'SoleFeature' (first column) and the value '16' to the column 'Attributes' (seventh column).
SoleFeature RegSuppress 16


Then add 'RegSurppress' as a new 'Feature', then where do I have to put the values '1,3,16'?
Add Feature:
RegSuppress 1 3 16


What does this exactly mean?
Change the Shortcuts to read "SoleFeature" in the target column.
This makes them advertised.


Thanks

[blockquote].
[/blockquote]

Hi Super_freak have you finaly find a solution in order to create the good mst file to prevent registration form to appear ?
Thanks !

I have the same problem and I would like to know that I have to edit in the mst. Using the ORCA software.

I await your response.

ORIGINAL: VBScab

Why do you not want to edit MSTs? It's the simplest and most accessible way to get MSIs to behave the way you want. In this case, you probably need to set a property and write a registry entry to simulate the behaviour of the registration dialog and then simply remove the registration dialog from the sequence. That, of course, assumes that the registration dialog is part of the MSI: it may be part of a function called by a DLL or EXE, run by a Custom Action.


I have the same problem and I would like to know that I have to edit in the mst. Using the ORCA software.

I await your response.