Specifying Whether a Product Should Be Advertised If Its Prerequisites Are Run with Elevated Privileges

If an installation and its setup prerequisites require elevated privileges, Windows Vista displays a User Account Control (UAC) prompt for the setup prerequisites, and another one for the .msi file. If this common scenario applies to your installation, you may want to specify that your installation should advertise and then run your .msi file to help end users avoid the second UAC prompt. If this scenario does not apply to you, Macrovision recommends that you avoid advertising the .msi file because it would not avoid a second UAC prompt.

The Require Administrative Privileges setting in the Summary Information Stream area of the General Information view is where you specify whether the .msi file requires administrative privileges. The Behavior tab in the Setup Prerequisite Editor is where you specify whether a prerequisite requires administrative privileges. For more information about other InstallShield settings that may affect whether Windows Vista displays UAC prompts, see Minimizing the Number of User Account Control Prompts During Installation.

In the View List under Media, click Releases.

In the Releases explorer, click the release that you would like to configure.

Click the Setup.exe tab.

For the Advertise If Prerequisites Are Elevated setting, select the appropriate option.

Advertise: Silent—Indicates that if setup prerequisites in the installation are successfully installed with elevated privileges, the .msi file should be advertised and run silently (without a user interface). Then the main part of the installation does not require an additional UAC prompt for consent or credentials.

Advertise: Full UI—Indicates that if setup prerequisites in the installation are successfully installed with elevated privileges, the .msi file should be advertised and run with a full user interface. Then the main part of the installation does not require an additional UAC prompt.

No—Indicates that the .msi file should not be advertised. When end users run the installation, one or more UAC prompts may be displayed to install the setup prerequisites. If the .msi file also requires elevation, an additional UAC prompt may be displayed before the main part of the installation occurs.

The package must support advertisement in order for either of the advertise options to work. Advertisement is not instantaneous, and it adds extra delays to the installation. In addition, unexpected behavior may occur if the end user clicks Cancel after advertisement but before the main part of the installation has finished. For example, advertised shortcuts for your product may appear on the desktop before the main installation begins, and a confused user canceling the main installation may leave your package advertised but not fully installed. Therefore, in some cases, it may be better to leave this setting as No to allow the second UAC prompt and avoid product advertisement.

A common goal is for an installation to display only one UAC prompt. The advertise options for the Advertise If Prerequisites Are Elevated setting facilitate this but do not guarantee it in all situations. For example, any time that an installation causes a restart, the installation process returns to limited privileges after the restart. The subsequent privilege elevation may display an additional UAC prompt, whether the elevation is required for a prerequisite or for the .msi file. When the restart comes between the last prerequisite and the .msi file, the .msi file is not advertised. Following are some examples of different outcomes that may occur when you select one of the advertise options for this setting:

The prerequisites require elevation and install successfully on the target machine. The product is advertised and installed. The product installation does not display a UAC prompt.

One of the prerequisites in the installation may require a restart. After the restart for the prerequisite occurs, either no additional prerequisites are installed or none of the other prerequisites that are installed require elevation. Since the last prerequisite that is installed in this scenario is not a simple success of an elevated prerequisite, advertisement of the .msi file does not occur.

None of the prerequisites in the installation need to be installed because they are already present on the target machine; therefore, advertisement of the .msi file does not occur.

None of the prerequisites in the installation require elevation; therefore, advertisement of the .msi file does not occur.

Elevated prerequisites are successfully installed. However, for this situation, the package is a minor upgrade for a product that is already installed. That is, the product code in the package matches the product code of the product that is already present on the target machine. Advertisement of the .msi file does not occur. UAC prompts may or may not be displayed; it depends on whether a suitable digital certificate is included in the earlier installation and in the patch.