Specifying c:\ProgramData folder in Setup project?

windows-installer setup-project
David Veeneman picture David Veeneman · Sep 16, 2010 · Viewed 22.9k times · Source

I am using a Windows Installer deployment project in VS 2010 to create an installer for a small demo project. The demo needs to install a SQL Compact database file (MyData.sdf). The demo can't install the database to the application folder on the user's machine--I get an "access denied" error if I do that. So, the logical place to install the database would seem to be a subfolder under the user's c:\ProgramData folder.

How do I specify the c:\ProgramData folder in the deployment project's File System Editor? I right-click the File System on Target Machine node and hover over Add Special Folder to see the fly-out list of special folders, but I don't see a special folder that looks like it corresponds to the c:\ProgramData folder.

Does one of the entries on the list correspond to the folder? Do I have to set it up as a custom folder? If I do, how would I set up the custom folder? Thanks for your help.

Answer

spender picture spender · Sep 16, 2010

I don't think it's available in the fly-out. You can create Custom Folder and set its DefaultLocation property to [CommonAppDataFolder].

Related questions

Visual Studio Installer > How To Launch App at End of Installer

This is probably a stupid question and my Googling just is not functioning today. I have an application I added a Visual Studio Installer > Setup Wizard project to. I am wondering how to add a button or check box …

Read More
Run exe after msi installation?

Using Visual Studio 2008 to create an msi to deploy my program with a setup project. I need to know how to make the msi run the exe it just installed. A custom action? If so please explain where/how. Thanks.

Read More
How to set "Run as administrator" flag on shortcut created by MSI installer

I have a Setup and Deployment project in Visual Studio 2010. I would like the installer to create two shortcuts to the executable of another project in my solution. One normal shortcut that simply runs the application using current credentials and …

Read More