Configure a WiX installer to use different user credentials depending of the environment

Question

I have researched all the web looking for clues about how to achieve this but no luck. I have a WiX installer project in Visual Studio 2013 which install a Windows Service (It doesn't contains UI, just console) and since it's installing a service, a user must be specified and that user's rights will be in effect. The problem is that this user is hard-coded on my .WXS file, and it works on my DEV and QA stacks but the user doesn't exists on prod so the installer doesn't work.

I would like to determine whether WXS files can have environment-specific logins defined in the fashion of config files or if anything like this exists.

I wouldn't like to have 3 Setup projects for each environment.

Here's the current WXS code edited for simplicity:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Product Id="Some ID" 
           Name="TestService" 
           Language="1033" 
           Version="1.0.0" 
           Manufacturer="TestManufacturer" 
           UpgradeCode="Some Upgrade Code">

    <Package Compressed="yes"/>

    <Media Id="1" Cabinet="test.cab" EmbedCab="yes"/>

    <Property Id="LOGIN">HARD-CODED USER</Property>
    <Property Id="PASSWORD">HARD-CODED PASSWORD</Property>

    <Directory Name="SourceDir" Id="TARGETDIR">
      <Directory Name="ProgramFilesFolder" Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
        <Directory Name="TestDir" Id="_1">
          <Directory Name="Service.ServiceSub" Id="_2">
            <Component Id="_1" Guid="Some Guid">
              <File Source="$(var.Service.ServiceSub.TargetPath)" />

          <ServiceInstall 
            Id="TestServicee" 
            Name="TestService" 
            DisplayName="Test" 
            Type="ownProcess" 
            Start="auto" 
            ErrorControl="normal" 
            Description="This is a test" 
            Account="[LOGIN]" 
            Password="[PASSWORD]" />
          <ServiceControl Id="StopTestService" Name="TestService" Stop="both" Wait="yes" Remove="uninstall" />
        </Component>
      </Directory>
    </Directory>
  </Directory>
</Directory>

<Feature Id="_1" Level="1">
  <ComponentRef Id="_1"/>
</Feature>

</Product>

Please tell me if something is not clear, I can expand the info. Thanks for your help.

Is it at all an option to run as LocalSystem or NetworkService? (regular service accounts) or the newer concept of managed service accounts? [See the appropriate section in this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/50375540/129130). And [an alternative](https://stackoverflow.com/a/50778838/129130). Using a custom action and embedded values for user and property in different flavors you could use a different account for each setup version by setting one edition property? (EDITION=UAT / PROD / DEV). User accounts can also be created by the MSI itself. — Stein Åsmul, Feb 06 '19 at 14:22

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 06 '19 at 10:29

0

Have you tried to construct some UI screens in your installer flow to accept User/Password input so that you can then assign these values to a Property and use it in your example?

answered Feb 06 '19 at 10:29

Geoff

81
6

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 07 '19 at 20:44

0

Thanks for your comments, I just created 3 .Bat files and installed the services with the msiexec passing the credentials as arguments like this:

msiexec /i SampleServiceSetup.msi LOGIN="sampleUsername" PASSWORD="SamplePassword*"

When I need other credentials, just ask for them in the cmd :)

answered Feb 07 '19 at 20:44

Axel97

13
3

Should work. Recommend you eliminate username and password as requirements, but that takes some planning and time. – Stein Åsmul Feb 08 '19 at 00:02

Configure a WiX installer to use different user credentials depending of the environment

2 Answers2