On 24/01/2010 5:25 AM, Fredrik Eriksson wrote:
> Many installers are properly setup to request privilege escalation if  
> needed. In some cases, Windows itself will deduce that it is needed and  
> automatically prompt for it.

The installer is built with installshield, is aware of Vista, and will
request elevation. However it is also marked as being capable of being
installed by a non-privileged user. Combining both of these causes issues
on vista. Due to the way that Windows Installer works (at least with our
current setup - never mind what other software can or might do) it needs to
be started with admin privileges first if it is to work "correctly".

One of the reasons is that Windows lies if the installer asks if it already
has admin privileges (I use this word deliberately since this is exactly
what happens: it is a deliberate action taken by Microsoft to tell the
installer false information). One of these issues is that during the user
interface portion of the install I can't tell if you're privileged or not.

Given that windows allows you to write to program files (but silently
re-directs the writes), technically escalation is not required and thus
vista doesn't necessarily invoke it. Frankly I've forgotten the fine
details but I can say I've spent way too long on trying to get it to behave
the way I want and basically decided it's not worth wasting any more time
on it. This is fundamentally a Microsoft issue and there's little I can do
about it.

-- Chris

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