Change Company name in Add Remove Programs

[Lou_Elston]

In Add Remove Programs, the company name is taken from summary information, Company Name property. What if I want the installdir to be Company1, but the ARP entry to be 'Company1 widgets and digits'...how to do this (basic MSI)?

[RobertDickau]

If you're asking about the Publisher value displayed in the Support Info panel, I believe it comes from the Manufacturer property in the Property table.

[Lou_Elston]

I want the company name displayed in the support information of Add Remove Programs, to be different then the Installdir where the product is installed.

[RobertDickau]

Yes, you should be able to specify a different INSTALLDIR value (independent of the value of Manufacturer) in the Product Properties view.

[Lou_Elston]

Previously the install company name was 'Companyname widgets and digits', the install dir was 'Program files\companyname\product' (not program files\companyname widgets and digits\product). There was also a folder in 'commonappdata\companyname widgets and digits\product'. It created that folder by appending the company name to commonappdata (I was not involved with the previous version of this product). I come along and want the commonappdata folder and the installdir to be the same name. Easy to do, just change the companyname name in summary information to 'compamyname'. The problem is that they want the Add Remove Programs name to be 'Companyname widgets and digits'.

[RobertDickau]

Does changing the Publisher value in the Add or Remove Programs view (which sets the Manufacturer property) not work?

[Lou_Elston]

doing that also changes the company name

[RobertDickau]

How, specifically, is that common-data destination being set? Offhand it's not clear how setting Manufacturer or that SIS setting should change a Directory-table entry...

[Lou_Elston]

There was a ‘Set directory’ custom action that created a Directory value of “[CommonAppDataFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]” that was used in a custom action to try to find a file. By eliminating the Manufacturer property and instead hard coding the company name as in... "[CommonAppDataFolder]XYZCorp\[ProductName]", we are now able to have the common folder name and the program files folder name of just 'CompanyName', (hard coded in the Destination property of the component), and the Add Remove Programs to be the full company name of "CompanyName widgets and digits"

[drewdy]

Doesn't the ARP entry come from the ProductName property? If you look in the Releases view, under product configuration there's a Product Name field. You can also find this in the ISProductConfigurationProperty table.

[RobertDickau]

The product name in ARP comes from ProductName, of course. The Company Name in the support details comes from Manufacturer, though, and other support details come from the other ARPETC properties.

The attached figure is something I made to help myself remember what goes where...

[amitha]

Hi,
I have a similar problem as urs.I have a product called A.But i want to display in ARP as "Aversion 1.1".I am using basic msi project.Is it possible to change this name???did u find solution to ur problem???

Thnaks
Amitha

Lou Elston wrote:
In Add Remove Programs, the company name is taken from summary information, Company Name property. What if I want the installdir to be Company1, but the ARP entry to be 'Company1 widgets and digits'...how to do this (basic MSI)?

[TheResearch]

Hi Amitha,

You can do so by changing the ProductName from registry under 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\GUID'.

The ARP entry will be taken from this registry.

You need a VB Script to enumerate the reg keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products and find the ProductName for each subkey(GUID) . If this matches ur product name, rename that ProductName to 'whatever' you want.

I have included the VB Script to do this task.

Function changeARPName()

   On Error Resume Next 
   const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
   strComputer = "."
   Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   Set  objRegistry=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" &_ 
   strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")

   strKeyPath = "Installer\Products"
   objRegistry.EnumKey HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, strKeyPath, arrSubKeys

   For Each subkey In arrSubKeys      
       strGUID = objShell.RegRead("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & strKeyPath & "\" & subkey & "\ProductName")
       If strGUID = "<ur app name>" Then
           objShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & strKeyPath & "\" & subkey & "\ProductName", "Aversion 1.1", "REG_SZ"
       End If

   Next

End function

Execute this Custom Action in Install Execute sequence after Installfinalize.

Let us know if you face any problem.

Hope this helps.

[RobertDickau]

Is it an option to change ProductName to the value you want, either as part of the build process or (less good) at run time? The registry solution depends on undocumented registry locations, and a VBScript action that touches the registry might get intercepted by some virus scanners...

[TheResearch]

RobertDickau wrote:
The registry solution depends on undocumented registry locations

Hello Robert,

Yes, you are right. I agree that this is an undocumented location\solution.

But, due to some requirement, i have implemented the same in one of my project some time back. I couldn't get an alternative at that time. Also, i was under time pressure so i couldnt analyse further.

But believe this works(atleast as a workaround). I am not sure that i got any info that this was anywhere blocked by virus scanners.

Thought of giving a solution for the problem somehow.