Electron electron-winstaller Set Installation Path for Msi

Question

I'm using Electron and Angular2 to create a desktop application for Windows, and can successfully generate the .exe and .msi files for installation. I use electron-packager to package my electron app packaged electron app

After packaging the app I use electron-winstaller to generate an msi from the package

When I run the .msi file though, It automatically installs my project to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\ApplicationName . The only thing when double clicking on the msi is this short dialog: dialog

What I would like though, is for the installer to prompt me to where it should install the application. I want to be able to set the installation path when installing.

I should also mention that I tried using electron-builder, and could also generate the msi file. But here I could also not set the installation path. I found this Electron create MSI installer using electron-builder issue where someone else had the same problem with electron-builder, but there was no answer to his question.

Here is my configuration for electron-winstaller. The winstaller.js file is located at the root of my project:

var electronInstaller = require('electron-winstaller');
var resultPromise = electronInstaller.createWindowsInstaller(
  {
    appDirectory: '../installer/sda-win32-x64',
    outputDirectory: '../installer',
    authors: 'SORA Desktop Application',
    exe: 'sda.exe',
    setupExe: 'SDASetup.exe',
    setupMsi: 'SDASetup.msi',
    iconUrl: 'file:///d/dev/sda/client/src/app/assets/images/icon.ico',
    setupIcon: 'src/app/assets/images/icon.ico'
  });

resultPromise.then(() => console.log('It worked!'), e => console.log(`No dice: ${e.message}`));

Here is my package.json configuration. This is also located at the root of my project

{
  "name": "sda",
  "description": "SDA 3.0",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "main": "gulpfile.js",
  "keywords": [
    "Angular",
    "Angular2",
    "Electron",
    "Typescript"
  ],
  "author": "Vic",
  "license": "MIT",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "gulp build",
    "start": "npm run build && electron ./dist/index.js",
    "package": "npm run build && gulp electron:package",
    "postinstall": "concurrently \"bower install\" \"typings install\"",
    "appstart": "electron ./dist/index.js",
    "test": "gulp test",
    "deploy": "rm -rf ../installer && gulp setInDevelopmentFlagToFalse && cp src/app/environment/environment.prod.ts src/app/environment/environment.ts && npm run build && cd dist && electron-packager . --platform=win32 --arch=x64 --overwrite=true --out=../../installer --icon=assets/images/icon.ico && cd ../ && gulp setInDevelopmentFlagToTrue && cp src/app/environment/environment.dev.ts src/app/environment/environment.ts && node winstaller.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/common": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/compiler": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/core": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/forms": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/http": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "2.0.0",
    "@angular/router": "3.0.0",
    "@angular/upgrade": "2.0.0",
    "@ng-bootstrap/ng-bootstrap": "1.0.0-alpha.8",
    "@types/hammerjs": "2.0.33",
    "@types/sjcl": "1.0.27",
    "angular2-jwt": "0.1.23",
    "angular2-moment": "1.0.0-beta.5",
    "angular2localization": "1.0.2",
    "bootstrap": "4.0.0-alpha.4",
    "core-js": "2.4.1",
    "file-saver": "1.3.3",
    "font-awesome": "4.6.3",
    "jquery": "3.1.1",
    "moment": "2.15.2",
    "normalize.css": "5.0.0",
    "reflect-metadata": "0.1.3",
    "rxjs": "5.0.0-beta.12",
    "sjcl": "1.0.6",
    "systemjs": "0.19.27",
    "tether": "1.3.7",
    "zone.js": "0.6.23"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "bower": "1.7.9",
    "concurrently": "2.2.0",
    "del": "2.2.0",
    "electron": "1.3.5",
    "electron-connect": "0.6.0",
    "electron-packager": "8.1.0",
    "electron-prebuilt": "1.3.8",
    "electron-winstaller": "2.3.4",
    "eslint": "3.6.0",
    "eslint-config-google": "0.6.0",
    "eslint-plugin-html": "1.5.3",
    "gulp": "3.9.1",
    "gulp-atom-electron": "1.9.0",
    "gulp-concat": "2.6.0",
    "gulp-replace": "^0.5.4",
    "gulp-sass": "2.3.1",
    "gulp-shell": "0.5.2",
    "gulp-symdest": "1.0.0",
    "gulp-typescript": "3.0.2",
    "hammerjs": "2.0.8",
    "jasmine-core": "2.5.2",
    "karma": "1.3.0",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "2.0.0",
    "karma-cli": "1.0.1",
    "karma-htmlfile-reporter": "0.3.4",
    "karma-jasmine": "1.0.2",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "0.2.2",
    "karma-sourcemap-loader": "0.3.7",
    "karma-typescript-preprocessor": "0.3.0",
    "run-sequence": "1.1.5",
    "typescript": "2.0.2",
    "typings": "1.3.2"
  }
}

Do I maybe need a certificate ? Is it not a default setting for the windows installer to ask where to install?

Answer 1

electron-winstaller uses squirrel to generate the setup files. According to their documentation, the install path is "effectively immutable" and hard set to \%LocalAppData%\AppName :

Install Location

The Setup.exe, and later the UpdateManager in MyApp must have the ability to write files to and execute files from the application install location. To ensure permission for all types of users, the user's application data directory is selected as the install location (i.e., %LocalAppData%\MyApp).

The installation root really only needs to consist of two types of folders:

Packages - folder used to download and assemble the update package files. App Folders - the "installed" application files for a given version of MyApp. \%LocalAppData%\MyApp \packages MyApp-1.0.0.nupkg MyApp-1.0.1-delta.nupkg MyApp-1.0.1.nupkg \app-1.0.0 MyApp.exe \app-1.0.1 MyApp.exe The packages directory is effectively immutable, it simply consists of the packages we've downloaded. Using the user's local application data directory means that we the needed write-access to the install directory on a per-user basis.

Tip: See Machine-wide Installs for more information on ensuring your application pushed to all users in an enterprise environment.

The method for installing machine wide is to use the MSI which only triggers installation on the next user login:

Machine-wide Installs

Squirrel's Releasify command generates an MSI file suitable for installation via Group Policy. This MSI isn't a general-purpose installer, this means that once you run the MSI, users from now on will get the app installed, on next Login.

So, most normal users should continue to run the Setup.exe's generated by Releasify, but if you want to have an IT Admin Friendly version, you can hand off the MSI

Most users of Squirrel won't have to do anything new to enable this behavior, though certain NuGet package IDs / names might cause problems with MSI.