Folder permissions for „Users“ Group for non english systems

[InstallerFreak]

Hello,

I run into a problem on non english Windows systems. Setting folder/file permissions (in Advanced Installer> Files and Folders) for standard groups such as "Users" bombs on non english windows installs. The workaround are custom scripts. As everyone needs this supported, I request to add support for file permissions of "Standard windows groups". The solution might be to use the Windows SID instead of the name (string).

For example: The SID (SID S-1-5-32-545) of the german group "Benutzer" (english Users) is the same like the SID of the US group "USERS". Using this, the installation would be more universal.

This is a benefit for all users of advanced installers which use permissions. Other installers WIX/NSIS have support for SIDs. It should be easier than custom scripts as this is a fairly standard requirement for an installer.

Similar posts which describe problem:
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... 568#p46909
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/forums ... =2&t=12369

Please advise when such a feature is avail.

Regards,
Michael

[Cosmin]

Hi Michael,

The recommended solution is to use a custom action which retrieves the localized user or group name: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/157234

This localized name can be stored in an installer property which can then be used when setting permissions. We already have an improvement for this on our TODO list and it will be available in a future version.

Regards,
Cosmin

[InstallerFreak]

Thank you Cosmin.

I do understand your suggested solution. The point of my post was to request a feature which makes this simple. Advanced Installer is targeted to be a simplified installer product, hence I was surprised that such a standard operation as setting the file privileges requires a custom script. It would be great to have this included in the GUI. All you need to do is define some standard groups and than use the Microsoft SID instead of the name string of the group.

I am looking forward to have this included - if it is on the road map, please let us know what release that will be. In the mean while I will have to bite the sour apple and script the obvious.
Cheers, Michael

[Cosmin]

Hi Michael,

Unfortunately I cannot offer an ETA for now. But the improvement has a very high priority on our TODO list, so hopefully it will be available soon.

Regards,
Cosmin

[mheckmann]

I just ran into the same problem with AdvancedInstaller 9.9 - has there been progress in implementing this? I have no clue on the vbs side of things and am only stumbling along here. I found that for vbs scripts I also have to somehow get around the error "could not access vbscript runtime for custom actions" on some machines which confuses me even more.

cheers
Markus

[Bogdan]

Hi Markus,

We now automatically localize the most used user/group accounts, so you can use the property corespondent to the targeted user/group from the linked article.

Best regards,
Bogdan

[markuswe]

Hi,

I'm trying to use your feature "automatically localize the most used user/group accounts" for the domain group "Domain Controllers" but the Advanced Installer property [GRP_DOMAIN_CONTROLLERS] will not be resolved if the MSI is not executed on a domain controller but on a member server. In that case the property is empty.

Now the question is, how do i resolve the localized name of "Domain Controllers" when i have to set the value "[%UserDomain]\[GRP_DOMAIN_CONTROLLERS]" in the web.config file of my IIS Application i am trying to build the MSI for?

By the way i tested this with the latest version 11.4.

Kind regards,

Markus Weiss-Ehlers

[Daniel]

Hello Markus and welcome to Advanced Installer forums,

Thank you for your interest in Advanced Installer.

Please keep in mind this is the normal behavior. This happens because the "GRP_DOMAIN_COMPUTERS" and "GRP_DOMAIN_CONTROLLERS" group accounts exist only on Windows Server machines with Active Directory set up. On other operating systems the above user groups don't exist. Therefore I don't think is possible to achieve what you want.

If you have any question let us know.

All the best,
Daniel

[markuswe]

Hi,

i do know that those groups only exist in the domain.

But i guess you could agree that it is possible to detect if the computer the setup is running on is a member of a domain. In that case ask the domain to resolve the name of the groups.

You cannot assume that a setup runs on a domain controller to be able to resolve the names.

Sadly, i still have to use "custom code" to resolve the localized names.

Kind regards

Markus

[Daniel]

Hello Markus,

I've added this improvement on our TODO list and maybe it will be available in a future version of Advanced Installer. Thank you for your suggestion. However, since yours is the only request implementing it has a low priority for the moment.

Thank you for your understanding.

All the best,
Daniel