sys.installationDir in response.varfile

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Robert
Posts: 8
Joined: 11 Nov 2020, 15:09

sys.installationDir in response.varfile

Post by Robert »

Hello,

in the section for unattended installation in your user guide you mention to copy the response.varfile and change it accordingly to use it as installation profile.
There's a property sys.installationDir in this file which contains a user specific path (for example C\:\\Users\\robert\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\OpenWebStart )
How can this value be changed so that there's a fix path to this installation directory?

If I delete this property the installation directory is sometimes in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\OpenWebStart, but for some user it was in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\OpenWebStart

If I change it to the value /Applications/OpenWebStart as in your example in the user guide the path will be in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\Applications\OpenWebStart which seems a little bit odd, as it's in a temp directory.

Is there a way to include a variable inside this property for example something like
sys.installationDir=%USERHOME%/AppData/Local/Programs/OpenWebstart?

Janak Mulani
Posts: 725
Joined: 24 Mar 2020, 13:37

Re: sys.installationDir in response.varfile

Post by Janak Mulani »

If I delete this property the installation directory is sometimes in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\OpenWebStart, but for some user it was in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\OpenWebStart
Probably this depends on whether the installer was run with admin rights and whether it was Current or All users.
If I change it to the value /Applications/OpenWebStart as in your example in the user guide the path will be in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\Applications\OpenWebStart which seems a little bit odd, as it's in a temp directory.
The example in the guide is taken from an installation from Mac.

On Windows for 64 bit installer, by default for the Current User it is <User Profile>\AppData\Local\Programs\OpenWebStart when the user has admin rights and when not it is <User Profile>\AppData\Local\OpenWebStart and for All Users it is C:\Program Files\OpenWebStart.

Robert
Posts: 8
Joined: 11 Nov 2020, 15:09

Re: sys.installationDir in response.varfile

Post by Robert »

Hello Janak,

thank you for your quick answer :)

I'm talking here about installation for the current user without the need for admin rights.

It seems to me, if I put any value for property sys.installationDir, this is always relative to the <User Profile>\AppData\Local\Temp folder.

As written before, if I remove this property I had a case where the installation was not below folder Programs for a current user.

When I change the property this way
sys.installationDir=../Programs/OpenWebStart
it works. But I'm not quite sure if this is always working?

Robert
Posts: 8
Joined: 11 Nov 2020, 15:09

Re: sys.installationDir in response.varfile

Post by Robert »

I guess I found what was wrong.
The folder for sys.installationDir is relative to the folder from where I run the unattended installation.
Is there a way to include a system variable like %USERPROFILE% in the path, to be able to reference an absolut path?

Janak Mulani
Posts: 725
Joined: 24 Mar 2020, 13:37

Re: sys.installationDir in response.varfile

Post by Janak Mulani »

If you specify absolute path e.g. c:\test for sys.installationDir then OWS will be installed there.

If you specify relative path e.g. test for sys.installationDir then OWS will be installed in the specified directory relative to the directory where the unattended installer command is executed.

If you remove sys.installationDir, then for Current User userMode$Integer=0, OWS will be installed in <User Home>\AppData\Local\Programs

If you remove sys.installationDir, then for All Users userMode$Integer=1 OWS will be installed in C:\Program Files\OpenWebStart

Specifying %USERPROFILE% as part of value of sys.installationDir does not seem to work. However, you can specify %USERPROFILE% on the commandline as follows. Specifying -dir overrides sys.installationDir in varfile.

Code: Select all

OpenWebStart_windows-x64_1_5_1.exe -q -varfile response.varfile -dir %USERPROFILE%\<the dir where you want to install ows>

Robert
Posts: 8
Joined: 11 Nov 2020, 15:09

Re: sys.installationDir in response.varfile

Post by Robert »

Hello Janak,

overwriting the directory with command line parameter worked :)
Thanks for your help

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