Bundle installer vs msi installer user Documents folder

[neilc222]

Question

(Using Wix v5) We have an msi installer which installs some files to the PersonalFolder (i.e. C:\Users<username>\Documents) of the installing user. The installer requires elevation with an admin account to install (UAC prompt), but the files end up in the standard user's Documents folder. This is expected and the desired behaviour.

When changing to use a bundle installer .exe that wraps this msi (to include other dependencies) and elevates to an admin user on install (UAC prompt), it seems as though the msi doesn't have knowledge of the standard user running the installer and instead installs the PersonalFolder files to the admin user's Documents folder. Is there a way to maintain the behaviour for the msi to install to the standard user's Documents folder when using a bundle installer?

Bundle.wxs: (The main MsiPackage Id="Installer" is using the WixUI_InstallDir.wxi template)

<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs"
     xmlns:bal="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs/bal">

  <!-- Common defines -->
  <?include "..\Installer\Properties.wxi"?>

  <Bundle Name="!(bind.packageName.Installer)"
          Manufacturer="!(bind.packageManufacturer.Installer)"
          Version="!(bind.packageVersion.Installer)"
          UpgradeCode="$(var.UPGRADE_CODE_BUNDLE)"
          IconSourceFile="..\Installer\app_icon.ico">

    <BootstrapperApplication>
      <bal:WixStandardBootstrapperApplication LicenseFile="..\Installer\licences.rtf"
                                              Theme="rtfLargeLicense"
                                              ShowVersion="no"
                                              LogoFile="..\Installer\app_icon.ico"
                                              LogoSideFile="..\Installer\app_icon.ico" />
    </BootstrapperApplication>

    <!-- Chain of packages to install -->
    <Chain>

      <BundlePackage Id="VC_REDIST"
                     SourceFile="$(var.VC_REDIST_X86_PATH)"
                     Permanent="yes"
                     Visible="yes"
                     Cache="remove"
                     InstallArguments="/install /passive /norestart"
                     RepairArguments="/repair /passive /norestart"
                     UninstallArguments="/uninstall /passive /norestart" />

      <MsiPackage Id="AdditionalRuntime" SourceFile="$(var.ADDITIONAL_RUNTIME_DIR)Setup.msi" />
      
      <MsiPackage Id="Installer" SourceFile="$(var.Installer.TargetPath)" />
    
    </Chain>

  </Bundle>
</Wix>

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[wmanning]

IIRC when installing a mix of per user and per machine packages the burn (aka bundle, exe) will default to per machine for everything. To confirm this you could try installing just your per user package using burn and see if that works.

[neilc222]

Have just tried this and with the main MsiPackage Id="Installer" only, I see the same behaviour, i.e. the files end up in the admin user's Documents folder. I note that the msi is not specifying a Scope in its <Package> element so is a per-machine install, it's just it seems like a per-machine msi install is still able to install files to the standard unelevated user's Documents.

With that in mind, I have tested adding an ExePackage to the bundle with PerMachine="no" using it to run a bat file, and can see that it is executed as the standard user (by echoing whoami to a log file). I think I can build on this to copy some files to the standard user's Documents folder. Another alternative might be an extra MsiPackage project with Package Scope="per-user" that only does the user Documents files (not tested). For either option, I'm unsure the best way to retrieve the main program files installation folder associated with the main msi, but I guess the info is somewhere in the registry. Will report back where I get to.

[neilc222]

The resolution above works, e.g. add an ExePackage with PerMachine="no" Vital="no"

      ...
      <MsiPackage Id="Installer" SourceFile="$(var.Installer.TargetPath)" />
    
      <ExePackage Id="PostInstall" 
                  PerMachine="no"
                  Vital="no"
                  DetectCondition="0"
                  SourceFile="PostInstall.bat" 
                  InstallArguments="/install '$(var.MANUFACTURER)\$(var.APP_NAME)' '[PersonalFolder]MyApplication'"
                  RepairArguments="/install '$(var.MANUFACTURER)\$(var.APP_NAME)' '[PersonalFolder]MyApplication'"
                  UninstallArguments="/uninstall '$(var.MANUFACTURER)\$(var.APP_NAME)' '[PersonalFolder]MyApplication'" />

    </Chain>

The arg $(var.MANUFACTURER)\$(var.APP_NAME) is used to specify the registry path where to find an InstallPath value that I've written to in the main installer, based on https://docs.firegiant.com/wix3/howtos/files_and_registry/write_a_registry_entry/. The script can then search this registry location to install files into [PersonalFolder]MyApplication from the InstallPath (program files), and runs as the standard unelevated user.

Note that double quotes in InstallArguments break the ExePackage step in the bundle so I've got single quotes here that get sorted out in the bat script. https://stackoverflow.com/a/56013882

[neilc222]

I'm getting some warnings, but not sure how important they are:

warning WIX1140: Bundle dependencies will not be registered on per-machine package 'Installer' for a per-user bundle. Either make sure that all packages are installed per-machine, or author any per-machine dependencies as permanent packages.

[wmanning]

Have just tried this and with the main MsiPackage Id="Installer" only, I see the same behaviour, i.e. the files end up in the admin user's Documents folder. I note that the msi is not specifying a Scope in its element so is a per-machine install, it's just it seems like a per-machine msi install is still able to install files to the standard unelevated user's Documents.

Yes sorry, I gave you wrong info, wasn't thinking. The MSI will still install per-user but burn does not work with both per-user and per-machine packages.

[wmanning]

Reread your original post. Was thinking you had a per-user MSI package but you have a per-machine MSI that also writes to a per-user location (which is allowed). It seems in both cases burn asks for elevation since the installer, and other packages, are all per-machine. Then the MSI thinks it's running as the admin user.

But no idea if there is a solution.

This person has a similar issue (burns elevates and their per-user MSI installs to admin account): https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27177706/wix-bootstrapper-per-user.

[neilc222]

Have settled on my comment above as the resolution. Decided to live with the warnings for now, and probably re-engineer installing the files for the user as a 'first-run' application task rather than via the installer as a longer-term solution, TBD!