The application for which i am creating the installer is quite complex (kernel drivers, services, security fatures, COM etc.). There's no way we could sit down, start to think differently and redesign the whole app. Our installer has to run with credentials of current user (must be an admin). The user who attempts to uninstall the app must "only" have the admin privileges. A bootstrapper app with embedded manifest file which requires admin privileges is the only way we could achieve this. I was asking the WiX community for other possibilities, but it seems, that it's the one and only solution to our issue.
Thanks for response, Jan Brooke Philpott wrote: > I ran into this same issue. If you need any Immediate action to run with > admin rights when UAC is enabled you have to launch the setup as an > administrator. Also if you set Impersonate to 'yes' for a deferred > action unless you start the install with elevated rights the > impersonated deferred action won't have full admin rights under UAC. I > found the best way to get around this is with a bootstrapper application > as long as the bootstrapper has a manifest to require elevation. > > The other option is to just not require admin rights at all during the > UI phase. It generally requires thinking completely differently and can > be more challenging to architect but it does pay dividends. You have to > remember that if you ever want to script your install for silent mode > using just the MSI you won't be able to run it with admin rights unless > you pass the command line through the bootstrapper. Also if you ever go > to add/remove programs and click modify, the MSI is executed, not the > bootstrapper, and that MSI will not run with the admin rights you > initially launched it with. > > I like to think of a bootstrapper as a way to check prerequisites and > install them and that's it. If you are using it to launch with admin > rights you've added a whole additional bunch of requirements and > assumptions to your install. > > In your fragment below I noticed you have execute deferred with no > impersonation. That should run under the system credentials, not the > launching user, so even if you launch elevated it should use the system > account. > > Do you have an example for why you require elevated privileges? I ask > because I recently rearchitected our installer to remove that > requirement. > > -Brooke > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jan Bilek [mailto:bil...@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 2:52 AM > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] UAC - how to execute installer with elevated > privileges > > Hello again, > I'm using simular custom actions in my installer: > > <CustomAction Id="InstallFile" FileKey='file' Return='check' > Execute='deferred' Impersonate="no"/> > > I need to execute them under current (logged in) user, who has admin > privileges. Everything works fine except for systems with UAC turned on > (Vista,Win7). The CAs get executed under SYSTEM user. > So i'd like to ask you how to make it work. I can run msiexec.exe file > from command prompt (with admin rights), but it's just a temporary > solution. > > So, should i... > 1) use a bootstrapper-like app? > 2) embed a manifest file to the .msi installer file? (is that even > possible???) > 3) use any other more comfortable way? (set a msi attribute/property?) > > Thanks for any help, > Jan > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ------ > OpenSolaris 2009.06 is a cutting edge operating system for enterprises > looking to deploy the next generation of Solaris that includes the > latest > innovations from Sun and the OpenSource community. Download a copy and > enjoy capabilities such as Networking, Storage and Virtualization. > Go to: http://p.sf.net/sfu/opensolaris-get > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > OpenSolaris 2009.06 is a cutting edge operating system for enterprises > looking to deploy the next generation of Solaris that includes the latest > innovations from Sun and the OpenSource community. Download a copy and > enjoy capabilities such as Networking, Storage and Virtualization. > Go to: http://p.sf.net/sfu/opensolaris-get > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OpenSolaris 2009.06 is a cutting edge operating system for enterprises looking to deploy the next generation of Solaris that includes the latest innovations from Sun and the OpenSource community. Download a copy and enjoy capabilities such as Networking, Storage and Virtualization. Go to: http://p.sf.net/sfu/opensolaris-get _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
