[wpkg-users] Installer for windows 64 bits

[K.E.Jones at bton.ac.uk]

Hi Folks,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wpkg-users-bounces at lists.wpkg.org [mailto:wpkg-users-
> bounces at lists.wpkg.org] On Behalf Of Rainer Meier
> Sent: 22 July 2008 19:06
> To: Tomasz Chmielewski
> Cc: wpkg-users at lists.wpkg.org
> Subject: Re: [wpkg-users] Installer for windows 64 bits
> 
> Hi Tomasz,
> 
> Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:
> > Hi Rainer,
> >
> > Did you have time to check if 64 bit version of WPKG Client works on
> 64
> > bit Windows systems?
> 
> Oh yes. I tested "WPKG Client 1.3.5_64.msi" on Vista Business x64. It
> works as expected. Now I do not need to run "wrapper.js" any more.
> 
> 
> Moreover it speeds up execution of WPKG as clients do not have to
fetch
> wrapper.js and especially 64-bit\cmd.exe from the server. And even
> better wraper.js does not have to loop in order to fetch STDOUT/STDERR
> from wpkg.js.
> 
> Great job.
> 
> 
> There are some comments I would like to add here in order not to
forget
> about them (minor things):
> 
> After installation I had two entries called "WPKG" within my Control
> Panel => Software list. So WPKG client 1.3 is not removing/overwriting
> the entry of WPKG Client 1.2 (which I had installed before).
> 

 I haven't fiddled with writing .MSI files since I started playing with
WPKG :-)

 ...but if you send me a log of the install (/l*v <file>) I'll have a
look
to see if I can see anything obvious.

>
> WPKG client 1.3.5 installs to "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\wpkg" which is the
> location for 32-bit software. The installer seems to be 32-bit which
is
> a bit strange to me as an MSI package is not a binary. Instead it is
> installed by msiexec. So somehow it is using 32-bit version of msiexec
> (?). Probably there is a flag within the package to specify that the
> software included is 64-bit.
> I did not check but probably only WPKGSrv.exe is 64-bit and
> wpkginst.exe
> and WPKGMessage.exe is still 32-bit. So these binaries are correctly
> located within "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\wpkg".
> 

 Is this any help,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cd7a85k9.aspx?

 It suggests that you still have to explicitly target the files into the
(x64) folders rather than just target "Program Files" and count on
Windows
Installer to handle it.

 It's a terrible design but I guess MS are being 'consistently' terrible
:-)


> When I click the Save button within wpkginst.exe it exits. On Vista
> with
> UAC enabled it might be helpful if it just saves the settings but does
> not exit. Why? Because I need to run wpkginst.exe with admin rights
> (right click, run as administrator, then type user and password). If I
> just change some settings, save it and then re-run the service this
> means that each time I have to re-open wpkginst.exe which is quite
> uncomfortable with UAC enabled. I know it's not really your issue but
> could be easily fixed:
> - Save just turns gray when clicked
> - Add an exit button (or let users click the close button on top
right)
> 
>
> The message boxes within "Logon settings" configuration are correctly
> grayed out. A message about the inability to use logon delay on Vista
> is
> displayed. However I am still able to set a logon delay in minutes. I
> think it should be grayed out as well.
> 
> wpkginst.exe needs to be manually run as administrator. Since it can
> only be run with administrator privileges it should trigger UAC
> automatically. As far as I know this requires attaching a manifest to
> the binary. Don't ask me how to do it since I never did it myself yet.
> 

 Try here, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163486.aspx. 

It's an interesting read. Again MS don't make it easy.

If you added a manifest to wpkginst.exe to make it require Admin privs
then you probably wouldn't need the exit button or greying out of save
buttons either :-)
 
> 
> All in all just minor things. It works perfectly for me. I am already
> using it on my 64-bit vista machines.
> 
> 
> br,
> Rainer

Have fun folks!

 Keith

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