Wix non-admin installer tutorial?

Question

We're evaluating if the Wix installer will be suitable for us in a project. The end user need to be able to install our software without admin rights. The installer needs to work with at least XP/Vista/Windows 7 without admin rights or UAC.

I have a hard time finding good documentation and tutorials how this can be done. I have found a couple of old ones but they don't compile with candle/light with the latest Wix version. Does anyone have good examples or tutorials that might help?

Thanks in advance!

Plinth

Answer 1

To allow a user to install you will need to set InstallScope='perUser' and InstallPrivileges='limited' on the package element.

Unfortunately this will not stop you from adding features that this mode cannot support such as putting files into the ProgramFiles directory. If you try to do this the installer will just fail when it gets to that point.

Highfalutin

I think it would also help the OP to know that it is Windows that will not allow you to write to ProgramFiles or do a per-Machine install without elevated privileges, so that restriction is independent of the setup technology used to create the installer. – Iz