ALLUSERS

MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way

Windows Installer FAQ (the basics)

Properties

Specific Properties

ALLUSERS

ALLUSERS

The "ALLUSERS " property (possibly along with user privledges) determines whether the install will be per-user or per-machine. Not all users will be able to install software per-machine, particularly under Vista as higher permissions will be required.

Some of the things that Windows Installer varies based on the type of install:

The values of the the directories pointed to by the "system folder properties".
The hive pointed to by the "CURRENT_USER_OR_LOCAL_MACHINE" key of the "registry" command.
Location of COM registration done via msi tables (HKLM / HKCU).

A per-machine installation is the default if "company.mmh" is being used as it sets this property (look for "COMPANY_ALLUSERS_PROPERTY").

ALLUSERS Values

This property can have these states:

NULL value (not set)
Installs per-user for the current user.
1
Installs per-machine (all users), unless the installing user doesn't have administrative privileges (WINNT+) if which case the install aborts.
2
This checks the user’s privileges for administrative rights, if the user has them then it will be a per-machine (all users) install else per-user (for current user).
Windows Installer will convert the property from 2 to 1 or null. So after it has done this is should be safe to test for null or 1 to determine installation type. See the section "Can't query whether Per User or Per Machine!" for more details.
The following partial log shows an install of an msi with "ALLUSERS" of "1" hardcoded getting overriden to "2" (from the command line) before Windows Installer returning it to "1" as it knows I'm an administrator:
```
MSI (c) ...: Package to be registered: 'TryMe.msi'
MSI (c) ...: Note: 1: 2262 2: AdminProperties 3: -2147287038
MSI (c) ...: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying ALLUSERS property. Its current value is '1'. Its new value: '2'.
MSI (c) ...: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying ALLUSERS property. Its current value is '2'. Its new value: '1'.
MSI (c) ...: Machine policy value 'DisableMsi' is 0
```

Microsoft awarded me an MVP (Most Valuable Professional award) in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 for the Windows SDK (Windows Installer) area.

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections.
See this page online (look for updates)