Using Computername?

[CChong]

Hi All,

I'm new to installshield but not to packaging. I've taken a snapshot of a clean image, installed the packaged and captured the changes.

Now after examining the irp the application I am repackaging puts an entry in the registry that is equal to the computername of the computer it was installed on.

How can I put in a variable such as %Computername% . I’ve tried %computernamer% in the registry key but it takes that value literally.

I then skipped that app and moved on to another but this one creates files using the computername. Arrghhh!

:mad:

Please Help

[RobertDickau]

MSI defines a property called ComputerName, and you can place the value [ComputerName] in a registry key, where MSI will expand the property at run time. (To expand the environment variable, you can use [%COMPUTERNAME].)

(If you have a copy of Administrator's Introduction to Application Repackaging and Software Deployment using Windows Installer --- www.installshield.com/ispress --- this MSI "Formatted" data type is described in Chapter 8...)

[CChong]

Thanks for that mate. I'll give it a try and let you know how we get on.

All the best

[prostetnic]

On a related question. Acrobat writer creates a dsspooler using the computername. but using the DNSDOMAIN and standard DOMAIN variables.

can we use any envinroment variables or just computername?

If not is it easy enough to create a null value or 3 in the MSI database and use a custom VB action to read the registry/env. vars. and write them into those values at runtime? i assume it would them also have to be placed between costinitialise and finalise? or can it simply go right into the beginning as nothing really denends on it as such?

[AlaksSevugan]

You can use any Environment variable with the syntax [%VariableName].

[prostetnic]

Hi guys,

I have now tried:
[%COMPUTERNAME]
[%COMPUTERNAME%]
[COMPUTERNAME]
%%COMPUTERNAME%%


none of these actually resolve? they just make a registry entry of the same value i.e:

[%COMPUTERNAME].[%USERDNSDOMAIN] should go into the registry as:

is300.group.domain.com but goes as:

[%COMPUTERNAME].[%USERDNSDOMAIN]

the same with all the other combinations I tried. any more info here?

[prostetnic]

hmm.

does this mean then that i have to create a type 51 custom action called for instance [pcname] and make a custom action early in the install process which then sets this value to the [%COMPUTERNAME] value and then actually use the:

[pcname].[pcdomain] thing instead of

[%COMPUTERNAME]. [USERDNSDOMAIN] ?

[RobertDickau]

If you look in the Registry table using the Direct Editor view of Developer, do you see [%COMPUTERNAME].[%USERDNSDOMAIN]?

[prostetnic]

ok I have it done now 🙂 Was a little confusing at first..but works everytime now.

In case anyone else is wondering I have attatched a TXT file (no word, hate macro alarms) with step by step instructions (well okay, not entirely step by step). but it will get you through.

Finally a distiller that works everywhere 🙂

[ranorris]

I had a very similar situation with a package, and with AdminStudio quirks. The machine name needed to read dynamically during the install. Yes, I finally figured out that you use "[%computername]" for that, but I had tried replacing the Property Clientname, in this case, with [%computername], but when Clientname was used to set a registry entry, of course it put in literally "[%computername]". So I either had to put "[%computername]" in for the registry entries (not a very good way of doing it) or use "[[Clientname]]" so that the value of Clientname was inserted, and then THAT was interpreted to be the actual machine name.

The AdminStudio quirk was this: I did all that and it still wasn't working. I was modifying the MST in Developer because of the additional capabilities it offers over Tuner. Everything I tried, the registry was always stamped with literally "[%computername]". Finally, I opened the same MST in Tuner, and looking at the same fields in there, it wasn't "[%comptuername]", but something more like "[[/]%computername[/]]". It did NOT show up that way in Developer and was driving me nuts. Just thought maybe someone else might find that useful or may have seen the same thing before.