I'll hunt some more, but what is the best practice for installing individual user INI files on Vista?
When our program is installed for All Users, it configures for individual users by copying INI files from CommonAppData to the users individual AppData folder.
Our chief programmer seems to think that when we install for individual users only, the INI file should go ONLY into the individual's AppData folder but NOT into the CommonAppData folder.
But it seems to me that the only real difference between an individual and an all users installation is location and visibility of shortcuts. If other users cannot see the shortcuts, they aren't going to be invoking the program from shortcuts. On the other hand, there are OTHER ways that they could invoke the program (command line, Admin access to the clicking in the Program Files directory), in which case, they will need those copies of the INI files in their own AppData folders.
So . . . my solution is ALWAYS to install CommonAppData folder INI files while ALSO making a copy of the INI to the individual user's AppData folder. The installer can give the individual user a copy of the INI files by including them in the DuplicateFiles table. It can also configure the individual user's INI path values.
Part of the problem seems to be that the program's configuration of INIs is only partially implemented. While it COPIES the INIs, it does not actually SET the user's default individual paths. Hence perhaps the chief programmer is worried that we will be configuring CommonAppData INIs with the individual user's path data (?) and that all users will be getting the INSTALLING users paths. But it seems to me that that should be left to the program itself. The installer should configure INI paths only for the INI being used by the particular user who is installing the INI. Hence only in that User's AppData copy of the INI file (which the program looks for first).
When working with MSI, while an administrator can perform a per-user install, it's a rare and not-so-recommended case. Generally the per-user install option is meant to support installs by non-administrators. Such an install won't have permission to write to the Program Files folder, or perhaps to any common location, so an INI file would have to be similarly local. Does that offer a useful perspective?
