4 replies to this topic

[Doug Paida]

Has anyone run into a problem running the Windows Installer installation executable (instmsiw.exe) on Windows NT if you are not logged in as administrator?  I am getting an error in my setup bootstrapper when it tries to install the Installer while logged in as a regular user.   The error I get is 1925 - "You do not have sufficient privileges to complete this installation for all users of this machine.  Log on as administrator and then retry this installation."

Is it true that we would need to tell our Windows NT customers they need to log in as administrators to run our install?

[SteveP]

The issue is just with installing the windows installer, itself.  Once the installer is ... um ... installed, then the individual users can use the installer to install packages they have permissions to run.  However, you do need to be an admin to get the installer onboard.  Once  you do that, you can set the installer up so that it can allow elevated permissions to allow per-machine installs, even for non-admin types.

[Doug Paida]

So, if I understand correctly, the bottom line is that regular users at our customer sites cannot simply run our setup.exe file to install Windows Installer plus our application.   They would need someone with administrative privileges to log in first and install the installer on their machine.    Is this the accepted practice for using Windows Installer with NT?   After I posted the original message, I did find a Microsoft document on installing Office 2000 which seems to indicate the same thing.

[SteveP]

To the best of my knowledge, that is the case.  I think the problem is that the installer assumes per-machine install when installed, and in NT that would normally be accomplished by an Admin.  Also, the Installer can be set up to install packages with elevated permissions on NT and 2000 machines, but that takes the ability to modify registry settings ... again something that is generally an Admin function.