Software Deployment

The solution may depend on how the MSI is run. If it's executed by a deployment system (e.g. Group Policy, SMS/SCCM, Altirs, Radia) then it will be mostly executed in System context, i.e. by the local System user. This user has no concept of networks, much less any network access so a test for a network drive would fail.

Hi, thanks for the quick response.
Group policy is used to deploy the MSI's. When there are reg settings in HKEY Current User I have seen the MSI installing/configuring these settings when the users first runs the application, is there a way to get a script to run in this manner? i.e When the application is first run?
Sorry if this seems vague, Im describing this the best I can! :)

If it's GP, wouldn't it be simpler to put the users into a group and add code to their login script that tests for the drive/folder's existence, creating same if not present?

Unfortunately not. There are many software titles like this that I have to package, all pointing to their own unique save path. The software is used on many segregated networks....therefore many different logon scripts.
Thanks

In reponse to a post that has been removed - All users have Change permissions on the network share (NTFS permissions are set to Full control)

In that case, build a generic script (probably network-hosted - the Netlogon share seems like a good place! - to which you can pass the folder structure and have it created. Use Active Setup to call it.

And before you ask, there's plenty of advice here on AppDeploy about Active Setup.

Thats excellent. Don't worry, I wasn't going to ask, now I know its Active Setup I need to use, I can do some digging :)
Many thanks for your help.

some of the answer would depend on how gp deploys software. Is it like SMS under a system acct witih the user logged off, and is it possible to do stuff under user context? Also your answer to vb wasn't real clear...if you're using gp to deploy apps, why would it also not be practical to do drive mappings and folder creation...or am I missing something? If your network is too "segregated" to make lgiscripts practical, I'd also foreseee problems with GP.

in any case yes, probably active setup would be a decent way to do this within a package. I was going to say createfolder but that is problematic installing under sms or gp...although you COULD create an Y:\SoftwareTitle\Saves shared drive for the installing user provided gp runs under a network user and not local admin, then when the user uses the softare it should if the folder is not created, create it on the user's drive. either way is a little bit kludgy. IME, usually it's a network app with a network shortcut, which requires some files installed locally. can't say that I've actually encountered a situation where the package had to create a network directory, that's really getting into nonsupported territory. (also, in my test package -what can i say, i'm bored - I had to change ROOTDRIVE to s:\ to make this work).

I've seen crazy ideas about using SUBST. and other non-supported methods, makes my head hurt.
let us know how it goes for you.

Is it like SMS under a system acct witih the user logged off, and is it possible to do stuff under user context? Owen, FYI, yes. GP can deploy on a machine or user basis.

Hi VBScab,
Just wanted to say thanks for your help. I used Active Setup to call a batch file which I included within the MSI. The batch file contains the command:
MD "Y:\SoftwareTitle\Saves"

Its simple, but highly effective and exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks again.