Software Deployment

The answer is to recondition the "CA_Nt5_PrimeInf" custom action in the "InstallExecuteSequnce" table, by adding "AND ( NOT REINSTALL )" to the condition. Remember to use a transform for this.

Have you tried assigning the package to the machine?

You can solve the "adminstration" problem by deleting the launch condition "AdminUser OR Installed"

I've been stuggeling with Active Sync now for quite some time. Every time when I solve a problem, I've created a new one.

If anyone has a solution for the following, please tell me:
I'm distributing Active Sync 4.1 with a GPO to users.
I now have the problem that several dll's haven't been installed. Some of them are in Merge Module and others are in the MSI itself.
The Feature all have following:
Level: Always install this feature
Attribute: Favor Parent
Adverstising: None
I've changed several settings, but no luck.

So at this point I can only distribute to machines. This no option.

Possible solutions anyone???

Unfortunately, deleting the launch condition only gets rid of the "admin" message - it doesn't allow the MSI to install correctly.

This MSI isn't very well designed and it doesn't seem to support being advertised (rather than installed). Assigning the package to users amounts to advertising it.

I'd assign it to machines if I were you.

Hi,
I'm assuming the problem is due to certain configurations that need to be setup with Admin rights, the error message I am recieving is "You must be a member of the Administrators group to configure Microsoft ActiveSync 4.1"

I'm thinking out loud here and wondering if I was to give the users full privilages over the areas that need to be configured (application variables) shouldn't that help in resolving the issue?

You're right about the administrator message.

But like I said, assigning to machines is not an option.
That would mean "authenticated users" or I would have to call 300 users for their computername.

Just had to find out that WiseUser's solution is still required but also works (!) for ActiveSync v4.5. Thanks for your posting. There was another message reporting the same problem with starting ActiveSync as non-admin user. (http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=90CC5C39-1940-4F07-A7EE-29322E7B5D5B@microsoft.com).

gizmolala,

The place to start is to do a "Run As" with FileMon and RegMon, and ActiveSync as a PowerUser. FileMon and RegMon should point you in the right direction on what files, folders, and registry keys a Power User needs additional rights.


Craig --<>.

Hey WISEUSER, Tnx. It rocks well. Great help.

Giz

Hi

I am trying to customize the Active Sync 4.1 MSI so i can publish it via group policy and use Add/Remove programs to do it!

by downloading it and creating an admin share version of it, It will only allow local admins install it but i want normal users to install it via group policy and active directory

Any ideas what i need to do to get the msi working for normal users?

I've seen the changes needed to get power users working, does it work for normal users?

Dear WiseUser,

I was rather busy with the Repackaging of this product but you have brought the solution for my problem.

Many thanks for the input.

Regards,

Maarten

Hi,

I tried the "CA_Nt5_PrimeInf" custom action change. The users still need to be local administrators to do the install. Do you know what can be wrong ?

Doffen

FWIW, I had little trouble installing Microsoft ActiveSync 4.1 (MSAS) via MSI and GPO. Here's what I did:

First, I downloaded the SETUP.EXE for MSAS from the Microsoft site. I ran SETUP with the /A switch to try and unpack it. It blew up trying to install files -- I'm pretty sure that was because I was logged in to an account without admin priv's. However, before I clicked close, I did the old trick of looking in my %TEMP% directory, and sure enough, there was the MSI file. So I coped that and quit SETUP.

Once I had the MSI, all I did was create a new GPO and add that MSI as an Assigned install. It worked fine on the first try. No MST/patching needing, no problems or errors in Outlook reported. I've only got a couple people asking for MSAS at this point, so my user base is pretty small, but it appears to work fine. None of the trouble others have reported. I dunno if the trouble was fixed in 4.1 or what. All the users have Outlook 2003; maybe the problem only occurs with older version of Outlook? None of the users have admin rights.

Anyway, there ya go. YMMV.

-- Ben

Hi,
I tried the "CA_Nt5_PrimeInf" custom action change and users are still required to be part of the Administrators group for the application to be installed.

Can anyone provide further information on how to work around this to deploy the application using GPO??

I would be very greatful for the help.


Cheers

Nobody ever suggested that you could install this software without admin rights (or elevated privileges).

The fix only applies to the self-repair that occurs when a user first runs the application.

You should be able to install the application to the machine using group policy (although I can't say I've tried). Are you targeting the machine or the user?

Thanks for your help WiseUser, I'm targeting the User for these installations.

I have packaged the previous versino of the ActiveSync (3.7) using Wise and created the .MSI file for the installation. This time around however I thought the .MSI provided by Microsoft would make things easier to package the app. I guess I was wrong [8|]

In our environment when an application is assigned to a user through GPO it has elevated privilages for installation, which is why I'm surprised that the message that you have to be a member of the Administrator group appears.

I really appreciate all the help you're giving me in this subject.

Are you assigning to the user (rather than publishing) then?

I think I'm starting to understand what the problem might be.

What is the exact error message that you're seeing?