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nomeata
arbtt requires Administrator rights under Windows
Original report by Adrien Beau (Bitbucket: adrienbeau, GitHub: adrienbeau).
When I run arbtt-setup-0.9.1.exe I get a prompt asking me for an Administrator password, which I do not have, and will not have. This often happens in large organizations (where I currently work), and is getting more and more common.
It would be nice to have some kind of portable arbtt distribution, which can be simply unzipped and run in-place. (This is how I use several other tools.) I tried using 7-zip to peek at the contents of the installer, unfortunately it fails to open this particular executable file.
Does arbtt require Administrator rights only for installation (e.g. to set up the daemon), or does it also require them to be able to capture running program data (e.g. windows titles)? Ideally, I would just need to double-click the daemon executable to start logging. I don't mind doing that every time I start the computer.
Original comment by nomeata (Bitbucket: nomeata, GitHub: nomeata).
To be honest, my Windows knowledge goes beyond that… But I have attached a bare zipfile with the .exes. Does that work for you? If so, I can make zip-only releases as well.
Original comment by Adrien Beau (Bitbucket: adrienbeau, GitHub: adrienbeau).
It almost works! :-)
arbtt-stats.exe requires pcre3.dll to run, and it is not provided in the zip file. Downloading it from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/pcre.htm and putting pcre3.dll in the same directory as arbtt-stats.exe fixes the problem.
Apart from that, all programs appear to work fine (under Windows 7). I have spotted a few issues, but they are unlikely to be related to the packaging, so I plan to file a few separate bug reports.
Can you provide pcre3.dll in the zipfile? Or should users download it separately?
Original comment by nomeata (Bitbucket: nomeata, GitHub: nomeata).
I should provide this in the zipfile, together with stuff like README and the documentation.
Do you know if there is a way to make the installer work without administration rights? It is using Inno Setup with this configuration: https://bitbucket.org/nomeata/arbtt/src/ebcca1baed3c1442663ad8963b2bf85d3eaee2ec/setup.iss?at=master&fileviewer=file-view-default
Original comment by Adrien Beau (Bitbucket: adrienbeau, GitHub: adrienbeau).
I don't know Inno Setup, but looking at the documentation, it appears adding PrivilegesRequired=lowest to the [Setup] section should do the trick (cf. http://www.jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?topic=setup_privilegesrequired).
One exception though: the path modification script (modpath.iss) contains a hardcoded reference to the SYSTEM registry which certainly needs administrative rights. It looks like changing the registry calls to refer to the USER registry should work:
#!pascal
RegQueryStringValue(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, 'Environment', 'Path', oldpath);
RegWriteStringValue(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, 'Environment', 'Path', newpath);
Do you really want to do this though? I understand this would simplify the build process, and be one less file to distribute.
However, I believe most Windows users expect an installer program to put it under the system "Program Files" directory; this one would put it somewhere deep in the user home directory. Even though this possibility was added in not-so-recent Windows versions (starting with Vista or 7), few people use it, which means information and help is hard to come by (buried very deep under the much more common Administrative install).
It also does not cover the use case of running the program from a USB key and using it on several computers.
Original comment by nomeata (Bitbucket: nomeata, GitHub: nomeata).
Valid points… I guess I can just create zip files.
I am not using Windows myself, so in general I’d be happy if some user of arbtt on Windows is willing to volunteer as the Windows release manager. So since you seem to be knowledable: if you find arbtt useful, you should consider this role :-)
Original comment by Adrien Beau (Bitbucket: adrienbeau, GitHub: adrienbeau).
I'm only evaluating arbtt right now, so I cannot accept this offer.