daily guru
27th May 2008 07:45 UTC

MultiUser.nsh & INSTDIR
So I created an installer and uninstaller.

Due to the Vista virus^wOS it seems necessary to use MultiUser.nsh; however, when the user changes the install location, then that is not reflected in the default uninstall location.

What am I missing?

Commenting out

; Function un.onInit
; !insertmacro MULTIUSER_UNINIT
; FunctionEnd


makes the right install location be found, and then the uninstaller can read the install log to know what to uninstall... but for the cases where it is running in USER mode, and the installer ran in ADMIN mode, the SHCTX is wrong. But if I just

SetShellVarContext all

then if the ADMIN chooses a single user install, the SHCTX is wrong the other way.

Should I save $INSTDIR around the call to MULTIUSER_UNINIT? Why is MULTIUSER_UNINIT changing INSTDIR anyway? The uninstaller is installed corresponding to where the application is installed, so the INSTDIR is right, MULTIUSER_UNINIT shouldn't change it, as far as I can tell.

Pity there is no GetShellVarContext, but not clear how to pass that to the uninstaller anyway.

daily guru
27th May 2008 07:59 UTC

Well, I tried the save/restore of $INSTDIR around the MULTIUSER_UNINIT call, but it still left SHCTX wrong when an ADMIN installs the app for personal use.

Anders
27th May 2008 11:57 UTC

I could be a bug with the multiuser stuff

Red Wine
27th May 2008 20:15 UTC

I do this with multiuser:

!define APP_NAME "My App"
#
!define INSTDIR_REG_ROOT "SHELL_CONTEXT"
!define INSTDIR_REG_KEY  "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\${APP_NAME}"
!define UNINST_EXE       "$INSTDIR\uninstall.exe"
#
!define MULTIUSER_EXECUTIONLEVEL Admin
!define MULTIUSER_INSTALLMODE_DEFAULT_CURRENTUSER
!define MULTIUSER_INSTALLMODE_DEFAULT_REGISTRY_KEY "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}"
!define MULTIUSER_INSTALLMODE_DEFAULT_REGISTRY_VALUENAME "InstallDir"
!define MULTIUSER_INSTALLMODE_INSTDIR_REGISTRY_KEY "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}"
!define MULTIUSER_INSTALLMODE_INSTDIR_REGISTRY_VALUENAME "InstallDir"
!define MULTIUSER_MUI

!include MultiUser.nsh

!include MUI2.nsh

Name "${APP_NAME}"
OutFile "${APP_NAME} Setup.exe"
ShowInstDetails show
ShowUninstDetails show
InstallDir "$PROGRAMFILES\${APP_NAME}"

  !insertmacro MUI_PAGE_WELCOME
  !define MUI_PAGE_CUSTOMFUNCTION_PRE multiuser_pre_func
  !insertmacro MULTIUSER_PAGE_INSTALLMODE
  !insertmacro MUI_PAGE_DIRECTORY
  !insertmacro MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES

  !insertmacro MUI_UNPAGE_CONFIRM
  !insertmacro MUI_UNPAGE_INSTFILES

  !insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "English"


Section "" sec01

        SetOutPath '$INSTDIR'

        File "${NSISDIR}\nsis.exe"
        
        WriteUninstaller "${UNINST_EXE}"

        WriteRegStr ${INSTDIR_REG_ROOT} "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}" "InstallDir" "$INSTDIR"
        WriteRegStr ${INSTDIR_REG_ROOT} "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}" "DisplayName" "${APP_NAME}"
        WriteRegStr ${INSTDIR_REG_ROOT} "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}" "DisplayIcon" "$INSTDIR\${APP_NAME}.exe"
        WriteRegStr ${INSTDIR_REG_ROOT} "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}" "UninstallString" "${UNINST_EXE}"

SectionEnd


Function .onInit

        !insertmacro MULTIUSER_INIT

FunctionEnd


Function multiuser_pre_func

       ClearErrors
       ReadRegStr $R1 ${INSTDIR_REG_ROOT} "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}" "InstallDir"
       ${Unless} ${Errors}
           Abort
       ${EndUnless}

FunctionEnd

#################################

Section UnInstall

        Delete "$INSTDIR\nsis.exe"
        Delete "${UNINST_EXE}"
        RmDir "$INSTDIR"

        DeleteRegKey ${INSTDIR_REG_ROOT} "${INSTDIR_REG_KEY}"

SectionEnd


Function UN.onInit

         !insertmacro MULTIUSER_UNINIT

FunctionEnd

daily guru
27th May 2008 21:32 UTC

Hi anders, thanks for the response; how is a NSIS newbie to figure out if this is a bug or not?

Hi Red Wine, thanks for the response; Nice to have an example to play with. I note that your code uses

!define MULTIUSER_EXECUTIONLEVEL Admin

and I wonder -- does that prevent non-admin users from running the installer (producing an error?)?

Red Wine
27th May 2008 21:44 UTC

Obviously it produces error, after all this is the meaning of multiuser.nsh :)

daily guru
27th May 2008 23:06 UTC

Sure, but wouldn't using Highest allow non-Admin's to also install for their own use? Or does that prevent something else from working?

Red Wine
28th May 2008 00:03 UTC

I'm not quite sure which is the exact usage of 'highest', I guess it make sense under vista environment. When I tried it in XP 'power user' account, it produced the error 'requires admin privileges'.

Anders
28th May 2008 08:55 UTC

highest never makes any sense, on vista, it forces an admin to elevate, even if he does not want to

daily guru
28th May 2008 10:45 UTC

Thanks for the reply, Anders. So Highest forces elevation, Power is the same as Admin, and Admin forces regular users to login as Admin? So Standard is the only default setting that makes sense? If not, then I guess Vista is senseless? :)

daily guru
28th May 2008 10:49 UTC

But, Standard produces an NSIS error:

!error: A mixed-mode installation requires MULTIUSER_EXECUTIONLEVEL to be set to Admin, Power or Highest.

So I guess Vista is senseless. Or NSIS is ... how do I get my installer to work for regular users, but be restricted to "currentuser" installs, but allow Admins to choose between "all" or "currentuser" ?

Joost Verburg
28th May 2008 15:04 UTC

If you set the execution level to Highest, admins will be allowed to choose between "Current user" or "All users", while standard users will be able to perform the installation for their own user account.

Joost Verburg
28th May 2008 15:21 UTC

Re: MultiUser.nsh & INSTDIR

Originally posted by daily guru
Should I save $INSTDIR around the call to MULTIUSER_UNINIT? Why is MULTIUSER_UNINIT changing INSTDIR anyway? The uninstaller is installed corresponding to where the application is installed, so the INSTDIR is right, MULTIUSER_UNINIT shouldn't change it, as far as I can tell.

daily guru
28th May 2008 20:42 UTC

Hi Joost, Thanks for your reply. Where's the best place to report bugs that are clearly bugs?

Here are a couple more:

MUI2 Finish page: code enables Next button when the option to enable the Cancel button is specified.

MUI2 Welcome page: code ensures that MUI_${}WELCOMEFINISHPAGE_BITMAPS is not already set before setting MUI_${}WELCOMEFINISHPAGE_BITMAP -- note one has a trailing S the other doesn't.

The INSTALL page progress bar, when not autoclosed, doesn't ever reach 100% for some of my installs. It is not clear that there is any control over this, at the user level. Seems like even installs of fewer than all components should reach 100% complete...

Joost Verburg
29th May 2008 22:15 UTC

Originally posted by daily guru
MUI2 Finish page: code enables Next button when the option to enable the Cancel button is specified.

Originally posted by daily guru
MUI2 Welcome page: code ensures that MUI_${}WELCOMEFINISHPAGE_BITMAPS is not already set before setting MUI_${}WELCOMEFINISHPAGE_BITMAP -- note one has a trailing S the other doesn't.

daily guru
30th May 2008 00:00 UTC

Thanks again. Being a new user, and seeing that extra S on BITMAPS, it just looked like a bug, compared to other similar code, but I don't have a full knowledge or understanding of all the code internals...

Any idea about the progress bar? I was making my own Finish page, and apparently the "autoclose" feature gets turned on by the finish page, so when I deleted the MUI2 one in favor of mine, I started seeing this.

Joost Verburg
30th May 2008 11:16 UTC

NSIS doesn't always know how long certain actions will take or what decisions are made during installation. This is why the progress bar may not be that accurate.

daily guru
30th May 2008 17:05 UTC

Sure; without advance performance analysis, I can see that it would be hard to keep the progress bar completely accurate... but then, most progress bars aren't all that accurate.

The point is, though, that when it is _done_, it should be 100%, not 40%... even if it means a 60% jump just as the final state is reached.

vcoder
11th July 2008 01:56 UTC

Originally posted by Joost Verburg
If you set the execution level to Highest, admins will be allowed to choose between "Current user" or "All users", while standard users will be able to perform the installation for their own user account.