How to achieve authoring a single package for per-user or per-machine installation

Question

I tried all the scenarios for creating a single MSI for per-user and per-machine. Below is my explanation: According to https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/windows_installer_team/2009/09/02/authoring-a-single-package-for-per-user-or-per-machine-installation-context-in-windows-7/

    <Property Id='ALLUSERS' Value='2' />
    <Property Id='MSIINSTALLPERUSER' Value='{}'  />

Results in a per-machine installation and the value of MSIINSTALLPERUSER is "1" results in per-user installation.

Now I am running a custom action which determines the user is whether admin or not and so changing the property value to be {} or 1.

My problem is the value of "ALLUSER" is changed to 1 Before logging during installation. The log created shows:

  "PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying ALLUSERS property. Its current value is '2'. Its new value: '1'." 

But When i run by directly giving MSIPERUSER Value as "1" The log shows:

  "PROPERTY CHANGE: Deleting ALLUSERS property. Its current value is '2'."

So please help me how can i develop a single installer for both admin user and normal user.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Basically you follow the rules here:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd408068(v=vs.85).aspx

The point here is that Windows decides how the install works based on the user's privileges, not you with a custom action. That's why the property values change. Follow those rules and it just works.