CODEWITHSUNDEEP
installshieldwindows-installer
Andre Garcia
Andre Garcia

Reputation: 914

Change permissions to MSI installer - Administrator to regular User

I have in hands a third party msi installer that requires to be executed by an administrator. Im trying to change that so it could be installed by a regular user.

I managed to open it with installshield and changed some obvious settings like:

"Require Administrative privileges"

But in your perspective is that even possible? I´m having a hard time changing settings and configurations and until now i´m not having any success.

Im working with InstallShield 2013 Professional and if it is possible, in wich settings do you think i should be focusing?

For instance, running as regular user im now having a 1925 error.

"You do not have sufficient privileges to complete this installation for all users of the machine"

And i feel if i correct the error, others will appear.

Thank you guys!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 5848

Answers (2)

Andre Garcia
Andre Garcia

Reputation: 914

Well, Yes i need administrative privileges to write to locations that are shared by multiple users. In the filesystem, this means folders like \WINDOWS or \Program Files. In the registry, this means all of the hives which aren't per-user. That´s ok, i don´t need any of this.

Therefore, i thought it could be possible to change the filesystem to something like [userprofile] and rewrite the program to only use the HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

But i suspect it could be more to it than only this.

Upvotes: 1

PhilDW
PhilDW

Reputation: 20790

It's highly unlikely you can do this because it depends on too many things in the MSI package that can change the system. Any files going to restricted locations (program files, common files etc) or changes to HKLM registry keys will require elevation. MSI installs don't violate security - they don't allow a limited user to change areas of the system that are restricted.

If the environment has group policy/Active Directory you can arrange for the MSI to be deployed from a central location via Group Policy, that's the way people get around this. Otherwise on UAC systems the MSI may offer an elevation prompt that allows admin credentials to be entered.

Otherwise the vendor needs to create an install that can be used by limited users.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions