Active Setup is included in the Windows Operating System and can be used to do something after the user logs in. Especially when you have to install some files, registry keys, user-certificates or other things into the user-profile is Active Setup a nice technology to use. It is originally a feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook.

 

With WISE Package Studio you can easily implement Active Setup by adding the following Registry-Keys (minimum) to your project:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\[UpgradeCode]

"ComponentID"="[ProductName]"

"StubPath"="[SystemFolder]\msiexec.exe /fu [ProductCode] /qb-!"

With only these keys is active setup ready to run. After the user-login, the technology is going to compare the entries between HKLM and HKCU. If there is a difference, Active Setup is going to run the commands in the "StubPath"-key. It runs only once. If you add a version-key, you can change the version-key and active setup will run again.

 

With the commands in the example, the computer repairs all your user-sections in your MSI-package. So it’s necessary how you created your MSI. You can also make a Custom Action to run under the user-contex.

 

 

 

 

1. What is the point of the ComponentID entry. I have used AS without this and it works fine. Why is it there?

   Comment by Jimm Panik — 14.5.2009 @ 15:34

2. Well, actually you can use AS without the ComponentID, but the nice thing about the ComponentID is that there – as in the example – you can leave a little information about the AS-entry. For example the ProductName of a MSI-package.;-)

   Comment by Fabio Cortesi — 14.5.2009 @ 18:40

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