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Script to set NoImpersonate bit for custom actions in Visual Studio 2005 setup projects

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I previously posted a set of steps that can be used to toggle the NoImpersonate bit for custom actions in MSI-based setups created with Visual Studio 2005 setup projects.  This type of script is necessary because custom actions created in the VS setup project designers do not have this attribute, and there is no way to set this attribute via the UI.

Unfortunately, my file server has been unreliable lately, which has made it difficult to download the Jscript file used in this in these instructions.  As a result, I decided to post the source code for that script here so you can copy and paste it into a file for use in your build process.

Here are the instructions that can be used to modify an MSI built in VS 2005 to set the NoImpersonate attribute for all deferred custom actions:

  1. Copy and paste the code listed below and save it to the directory that contains the Visual Studio project you are working on with the name CustomAction_NoImpersonate.js (or download the sample script and extract the contents to the project directory)
  2. Open the project in Visual Studio 2005
  3. Press F4 to display the Properties window
  4. Click on the name of your setup/deployment project in the Solution Explorer
  5. Click on the PostBuildEvent item in the Properties window to cause a button labeled "..." to appear
  6. Click on the "..." button to display the Post-build Event Command Line dialog
  7. Add the following command line in the Post-build event command line text box:
    cscript.exe "$(ProjectDir)CustomAction_NoImpersonate.js" "$(BuiltOuputPath)"
  8. Build your project in Visual Studio 2005 - now all deferred custom actions will have the NoImpersonate bit set for them

Here is the source code for CustomAction_NoImpersonate.js.  You can cut and paste all of the text below into a file and save it to your computer to use with your setup projects:

// Usage: CustomAction_NoImpersonate.js <msi-file>
// Performs a post-build fixup of an MSI to change all
// deferred custom actions to include NoImpersonate

// Constant values from Windows Installer
var msiOpenDatabaseModeTransact = 1;

var msiViewModifyInsert = 1
var msiViewModifyUpdate = 2
var msiViewModifyAssign = 3
var msiViewModifyReplace = 4
var msiViewModifyDelete = 6

var msidbCustomActionTypeInScript = 0x00000400;
var msidbCustomActionTypeNoImpersonate = 0x00000800

if (WScript.Arguments.Length != 1)
{
  WScript.StdErr.WriteLine(WScript.ScriptName + " file");
  WScript.Quit(1);
}

var filespec = WScript.Arguments(0);
var installer = WScript.CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer");
var database = installer.OpenDatabase(filespec, msiOpenDatabaseModeTransact);

var sql
var view
var record

try
{
  sql = "SELECT `Action`, `Type`, `Source`, `Target` FROM `CustomAction`"
  view = database.OpenView(sql);
  view.Execute();
  record = view.Fetch();
  while (record)
  {

    if (record.IntegerData(2) & msidbCustomActionTypeInScript)
    {
      record.IntegerData(2) = record.IntegerData(2) | msidbCustomActionTypeNoImpersonate;
      view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
    }
    record = view.Fetch();
  }

  view.Close();
  database.Commit();
}
catch(e)
{
  WScript.StdErr.WriteLine(e);
  WScript.Quit(1);
}

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2007
    In case you haven't noticed, there are a couple of gaps within setup projects regarding how the generated

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2007
    PingBack from http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2007/06/01/moving-into-del-boca-vista-with-the-costanzas/

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2007
    This script is immensely helpful.  Thank you.  I sincerely hope this makes it into Orca as a custom action property. Vince

  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2007
    Hi, The custom action works with this script. But i encountered one more problem after this. I am not able to install my product in the full silent mode using msiexec. I am able to install the product in the silent mode using msiexec without this post build event. Why does this happen?

  • Anonymous
    July 03, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    Is there a comprehensive list of other things fixed for VDPROJ in VS2008?   The top three that I'd be interested in would be: Proper MSBuild support Fix the Merge Module Directory table bug introduced in VS2005 that was never fixed Opt-Out of the annoying dependency scanning feature

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    Hi Christopher - Unfortunately, I don't have a comprehensive list of fixes for the VDProj system in VS 2008.  Regarding your top 3:

  1.  MSBuild support is definitely on our radar, but will not be available in VS 2008.  This is something we are definitely looking at for future versions.
  2.  I haven't been able to find any information so far about the MSM directory table bug that you're referring to.  Do you have more specific details so I can investigate further?
  3.  There are no current plans to update the dependency scanning functionality.  For now, you will have to manually exclude dependencies found by the scanner that you do not want to end up in your resultant MSI.

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    Hi Christopher - I totally agree about #1 being a big pain.  Unfortunately the cost of doing full MSBuild integration didn't fit into the timeframe of VS 2008.  This is definitely on the team's radar for future editions of VS.  In the meantime, there are other solutions like WiX that do support full MSBuild and TFS Team Build integration. For #2, it looks like there was some misunderstanding about the exact repro case on our side back in the VS 2005 timeframe.  I've opened a new bug and hopefully there will be time to get this in for VS 2008. I'm not sure the scenario you mention for #3 has been thought of in much detail here.  I'd suggest reporting this as a bug on the Connect site at http://connect.microsoft.com/visualstudio/ and describe your scenario in more detail and also provide ideas about how you would envision it working to better suit this type of build environment.

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2013
    You can use the same script for setting the bit NoImpersonate for custom actions in Visual Studio 2010 setup projects?

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2013
    Hi Jose Sandoval - I haven't tried it, but I think it should also work in VS 2010.  If you're able to give it a try, I'd appreciate it if you could post a comment here about your experience so that others will know in the future.

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2015
    @Aaron Stebner I tried using this for VS2010 but doesn't work it seems.

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2015
    Please take that back. It is working perfectly in VS2010. Thanks a lot!