[wpkg-users] Having difficulty with PSPad silent install on WPKG

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Bill,

Bill Prentice wrote:
> Uninstall is unfortunately not the issue - the issue is that running the
> install via WPKG does not put the desktop and quick launch icons out the
> way running the same command via the workstation does. I.E. :
> 
> 
> pspad454inst_en.exe /SILENT /loadinf="\\server\Packages\Custom\PSPad
> 4.5.4.2365\pspad454.inf"
> 
> -or-
> 
> pspad454inst_en.exe /SILENT /TASKS=multiuser,icons,contextmenu
> 
> 
> works fine via the command line on a PC (software installs, add/remove
> programs entry created, desktop icon, quick launch icon, program group).
> 
> But running that same command via WPKG gets everything BUT the desktop
> and quick launch icons. It's almost as if when it tries to place the
> files in All Users (like it does when installed manually) and can't

I think the PSPad installer is partially broken regarding installation using the
SYSTEM user account. Personally I do not care at all about desktop icons - even
better, then I don't have to remove them by script after installation.
However you might use "shortcut.exe" or another tool to create the missing icons
wherever you want.

It's possible too that the PSPad installer installs the icons to the installing
user start menu instead of the global "all users" start menu. In case of "quick
launch" icons I think there is even no "all users" counterpart to push these
icons to all users on the system. So the icons will always only appear in the
profile which was used to launch the installer. Since this is the SYSTEM profile
in case of WPKG nobody will ever see these icons.

Regarding the desktop icon you might be able to move it to the all users profile
by using a script with the contents

@echo off
move "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\PSPad**" "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop"

or on Vista/7

move "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\PSPad**" "%PUBLIC%\Desktop"


This should move the profile put on desktop of the SYSTEM user to the "all users
profile".

However I personally recommend not to bug users by placing icons on the "all
users" desktop since they cannot remove them and you enforce them to see all
these ugly icons the probably never use.

Regarding the quick launch icon - I don't think you can directly push quick
launch icons to the profile of another user. The quick launch bar is a
"personal" toolbar and therefore should not be enforced by administrators.


PSPad showed another "glitch" in my tests. Log in using a new user account on
the machine. You will see the PSPad context menu entries on files but if you
click on it you get an error that PSPad could not be launched. To fix this the
user has to open PSPad once from the start menu and open Settings => Program
Settings... Then exit PSPad and the context menu works.

I think this is due to some HKCU registry entries required by PSPad. It creates
them when you launch PSPad but it fails to do so if you use the context menu.

Definitely a bug...


br,
Rainer