Active Setup
Active setup is a process that runs automatically when a
user logs in. Active Setup runs for every user belong to that
domain\server\machine.
Registry key location :
"HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed
Components\%APPLICATIONNAME%" &
"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed
Components\%APPLICATIONNAME%"
If your application requires installation of files or
registry keys on a per-user basis, but your application has no advertised entry
points or other triggers to initiate the installation process, then Active
Setup is the solution.
To implement Active Setup, you need to package all your user
installation requirements into an single installation or executable and point
active setup to that executable and point this executable to StubPath entry in active path registry
location.
If the HKCU Active Setup registry entry exist or the version
number of HKCU is equal to HKLM, then the specified application is executed for
the current user.
Ex
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active
Setup\Installed Components\[ProductCode]]
"StubPath"="%Programdata%\Test\SelfExecute.exe"
"Version"="1,0"
Value for StubPath
could be :
1. "%Programdata%\Test\SelfExecute.exe"
2. "msiexec /fpu [ProductCode] /qn"
3. "%Programdata%\Test\SelfExecute.vbs"
When each new user logs on, the operating system compares
Active Setup keys between HKLM and HKCU, and runs the StubPath Instruction if
the HKCU entry is missing or the version in HKCU is less than HKLM.
So if you ever need to update the ActiveSetup executable,
just install a new version, and increment the Version registry key (VALUE2
above) in HKLM.Next time the user logs on, the active setup will run again for
that user.
VBS to use versioning
of the active setup :
Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next
Dim objShell,intVersion,strStubPath
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strStubPath = "msiexec /fou {Package-code} /qn"
objShell.RegWrite "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active
Setup\Installed Components\{Package-code}_Install\StubPath", strStubPath ,
"REG_SZ"
intVersion =
objShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed
Components\{Package-code}_Install\Version")
intVersion = intVersion + 1
objShell.RegWrite "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active
Setup\Installed Components\{Package-code}_Install\Version", intVersion ,
"REG_SZ"
Set objShell = Nothing
This will increment the HKLM active Setup version by one and
when user logsin next time Active setup will run again as HKCU Active Setup
entry will have lesser version than HKLM.
I hope this post describe complete Active Setup
fundamentals,
Please post your related query’s in comments so that we can add
up more knowledge on it.
Thank you for reading.
