Re: Installer folders & best practices

Hello,

I think then information needs more detail, there has been many cases in the
past where it's difficult to determine what to do. But here is my current
case:

I have a list of developer assemblies which use a plugin design. There are
default plugins which all end-users use by default, and each end-user could
override the default plugins to use a custom set. These plugin settings are
considered system-wide for each end-user. All end-user applications that use
these assemblies will need to discover the settings and use the correct
plugin set.

To complicate things more, the specific users plugin settings needs to be
discoverable with-in a VS environment and also runtime.

Also seems I need my own "Control Panel" application where the user could
modify settings assuming they are an admin. Can I create a "Control Panel"
application?

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Schneider


""Hongye Sun [MSFT]"" <hongyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:xgxcoXvbJHA.5460@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Schneider,

Thanks for your post.

I was unable to find such a guidance on usage of installer common folders.
The best one is what you have mentioned in MSDN library: Special Folders
and Custom Folders
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s2esdf4x.aspx).
It lists all the special folders and what they represent.

However, there are some guidances to specific deployment senario. For
example:
User Data and Settings Management in Windows Server 2003
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781516.aspx)
Persisting Application Settings in the .NET Framework
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973902.aspx)

In order to better help you, can you tell us what your deployment senario
is in real?

I mentioned that your example questions are possibly what your confusion
is, so I answer it here:

#1: where do you put files shared by multiple users?
If the files are setting files, they are likely to be application
settings.
They are recommended to be placed into Application Folder.

#2: What if each user (through the app) needs to modify a file inside the
folder?
That depends on what the usage of the file is. If the file is specific to
each user and is setting file, it is recommended to place to User's
Application Data Folder. If it is shared by multiple user, as described
before, it is recommended to be in Application Folder.

#3: The version of windows and user rights seem to affect this logic also.
The answer is yes. You must make sure that user has rights to write to the
common folder.
Deployment In Windws Vista is a little different: Windows Installer
Deployment on Windows Vista
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb384154.aspx)
Vista also supports roaming user data. Here is the guide: Managing Roaming
User Data Deployment Guide
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766489.aspx)

Hope it helps.

Please let us know if there is anything unclear.

Regards,
Hongye Sun (hongyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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