Software Deployment

Hi Wayne,
i got some confusion here.
What are you doing exactly by "an existing per user installation (msi) which I'm upgrading to per machine install"?
Just a hint: Active Setup runs in users context, therefore, a 'REINSTALL="ALL"' mostlikely won't run because of permission issues!
Regards, Nick

shouldn't your stubpath just be MSIEXEC /fu {GUID} ....

that should result in the profile resident portion of the MSI pushing out.

Thanks Nick and fosteky,

Nick,
I have an existing installation that was installed in the per user context from the DFS. Even though the REINSTALL runs in the user context, I thought that it would run what's in the upgrade table under this context using the Active Setup; which should remove the user installed msi package.

Fosteky
I originally had the switch on the StubPath /fusom which didn't work for me. The /qb! is only there for debugging and will be silent when moved to prod.


Also, I'm using SMS deployment, this means that it installs in the system context which fails to recognise per user installs unless you assign the per user installation tick to the install program. Which installs in the per user context; which gets us no where.


A bit of a quandary. I don't like per user msi's a lot (that's said in my "you've got to be joking" context[:@])

I appreciate the replies,

Thanks
Wayne

Hi Wayne,
time has come, that scratching the surface will bring you not further anymore. :-)
Turn on Logging, and look what exactly happens.
The logfiles for a GPO install go to %systemroot%\temp.
One way to go, would be a 'dummy' MSI just to uninstall the existing thing, via the upgrade code.
Afterwards, you can install the app normally.
Regards, Nick

There were a post on Altiris support forum (forums.altiris.com) regarding your issue. Sorry can seem to find it right now but maybe you'll have the time to search a little harden then me;)

Are you using the Upgrade table for this upgrade? As if so a per user installation will not be found in a per machine upgrade so you will author a custom action to set the upgradecode. If you do find the post at altiris that will touch this.

Thanks Nick and AngelD,

Spent too long on this already, times a wasting and there's too much fun in store, so had to make a judgement call.

We'll do a separate per user uninstall of the application using SMS. run it as a mandatory ad if it exists. Kinda what you suggested Nick.

I've thrown in some code that will go through all the user profiles and remove any Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts so that the self repair is not triggered. This is done through a CA in the upgraded app.

I'll chase down that article thanks AngelD.


Have a good one,
Wayne

Hi Wayne,
good to read, that you found a solution.
There is also a very good two-part article about this subject on Codeproject:
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/msi_upgrade_uninstall.asp
It even has a DLL to set the UpgradeCode when you want to switch the installation context.
Regards, Nick

Thanks nheim!

That was exactly the "two-part article" the Altiris Support Forum thread referred to and which I was trying to find.

Thanks Nick and AngelD,

That's a great article. I had a problem with the sites picture displays though; with Part 2: Define the Custom Action and Sequence the Custom Action execution. But the information is great.


Regards
Wayne