App not installing "globally" on 2k Terminal Server

[dflanagan]

Hey,
I am trying to install an app (Coda Financials) On to a 2000 Terminal server.

Problem:
after you install this app, you have to go into control panel and set up some connectivity parameters so it can find the server. SO, I used "add/remove programs to add the program, and I DID NOT click "finish" until I configured the control panel program to connect(after completing the install)..... well, when I log in as a different user, the control panel stuff is gone. So here is what I tried:

I uninstalled the app, and then rebooted. Went to the cmd prompt, and typed change user /install

Then installed the app, configured the control panel app, then went to the cmd prompt and typed:
change user /execute

SAME THING! When logged in as a different user, the control panel stuff is gone!

THEN:
I checked the registry under:
hkey_current_user/software/microsoft/windowsNT/currentversion/terminal server/install/CODA
there is a key there called "defaults" which lists ALL of my settings for the app (when logged in as the user it was installed during)

I know it is SUPPOSED to copy all of these settings to the similar hkey_local_machine/../..//../CODA key, and when a user logs in and the app checks for the settings in the "current user" hive, and it is not there, it will copy it... WELL IT DIDN'T DO IT!!!! the listing under hk_local_machine is GENERIC, and does not show the "defaults" key as having the server name, etc that I specified!!

I am no n00bie at this!! As a matter of fact, I have a Windows NT 4.0 Terminal server with MF 1.8 RUNNING this very same app right now, and ITS registry DOES have the information set up correctly to have any new user copy the keys to their "current user" hive and be on the way...

Something different about Win 2000 Terminal server where it does not do this?

I installed the server today, and then went to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and got ALL of the available updates BEFORE installing the app.

Hope this made sense!!

Thanks!

Dave

 

[tk36]

Hi
If you know exactly what the registry settings should be when a user run this published application, you can write a batch file to set those keys and values. I use reg.exe, freeware you can get from

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBA/tip0100/rh0170.htm

, it comes with good documentation. The batch file ends with your normal command to run the application. The command line to run this published app. will be this batch file.
In case you have not done this before , I found that the batch files work well if you start with :
@echo off
change client /default
# This above line is to make sure that the drives are all recognised
# Take the following line as an example, in my case, in a particular published app, the help files are html, when users run this app and click help for the first time in the session, the IE starts up and detects that it's the first time user is running IE (as they are connected as anon0x), the IE connection wizard would start, and we did not want that, so I change the registry to tell IE that this the business had been done, hence the line below:

if not exist "\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard" cmd /c reg -AddKey "\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard"
cmd /c reg -set REG_BINARY "\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard\completed"="01 00 00 00"

Every time a user connect to this published application, this batch file (with the above line) will get executed and the reg key will be set.

I hope this helps

 

[dflanagan]

Thanks!

I ended up Manually setting the keys in the hklm\software\microsoft\windowsnt\currentversion\terminal server\software\install key.

I exported the "working key" from hkey current user, then opened that up in notepad, did a replace on hkey_current_user....(full path) and replaced it with the hkey_local_machine...(full path) Then I imported it which THEN put the keys where they needed to be and solved my problem....I just hope this was a fluke! Because according to MS documentation, that was SUPPOSED to happen AUTOMATICALLY!

Thanks again for the response!

 

[BryonB]

Does this product use Windows Installer to install? If so, you should be able to force the installer to do an ALLUSERS install. The syntax to do this will vary, depending on the packaging of the installation files. If there is an .MSI file, you can call MSIExec.EXE directly with:

MSIExec.exe /I &quot;<.msi file name>&quot; ALLUSERS=1

Windows Installer packages built with InstallShield or Wise have optional parameters that can be passed to their Setup.exe to pass parameters to MSIExec as well.