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Siva116's avatar
Siva116
Brass Contributor
Jul 09, 2021

ODBC Drivers + No Shortcut Apps

Hi All, I am new to MSIX, Could you please provide some information for the below points. 1. Is it possible to create MSIX package with the installer having ODBC Drivers with out any Shortcuts/Entr...
MSIX
No Shortcuts
ODBC Drivers
Siva116's avatar
Siva116
Brass Contributor
Jul 12, 2021

Thank you very much Tim Mangan for the information
Here are the requirement requirements:
Target OS : Win 10 21H1
1. I working on a standalone applicaiton IBM_Netezza which has ODBC drivers and with no shortcuts. while I install the application on target machine, I am able to see the ODBC drivers in the "ODBC Data Source Administrator" console (odbcad32.exe). but when the install the MSIX package in target machine, I am not able to see those ODBC drivers and I tried to open virtual container's cmd.exe with Invoke-CommandInDesktopPackage, but its not successful... got an error " Cannot create a file when that file already exists".

Could you please suggest best approach to handle this instead of Modification Package, as its is a standalone package for me.

2. coming to AppData, I tried to create MSIX VLC player package, at the time first launch run.. I unchecked auto update check option and this option stored in .ini file at user's AppData folder. once after completion of the MSIX package... I installed MSIX package on clean VM and launched to verify whether the Auto Updates were suppressed or not... but its not suppressed? In such scenario, how we will handle the files or setting stored in Appdata location and also with the same scenario, what if the setting stored in HKCU? when I open the package in Edit mode.. I am able to see the ini file in Appdata folder under VFS section, but once we install the app.. its not able to read the data there??
Could you please suggest the best approach to handle these scenarios.
Thanks in Advance.

Peer-Atle's avatar
Peer-Atle
Brass Contributor
Jun 11, 2024

Siva116 Working with MSIX Packaging Tool. Use PSF Fixup.

Copy vlcrc from %APPDATA%\.... to ..\Videolan\VLC folder
Delete %APPDATA% from msix package

Config.json

{
    "applications": [
        {
            "id": "VLC",
            "executable": "VFS\\ProgramFilesX64\\VideoLAN\\vlc\\vlc.exe",
"scriptExecutionMode": "-ExecutionPolicy Bypass",
"startScript":
{
"scriptPath": "Copy.ps1",
"waitForScriptToFinish": true,
"showWindow": false,
"runOnce": true
}
        },
        {
            "id": "VLCSKINNED",
            "executable": "VFS\\ProgramFilesX64\\VideoLAN\\vlc\\vlc.exe",
"arguments": "-Iskins"
        }
    ]
}

copy.ps1
# Create %APPDATA%\vlc
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path "$env:APPDATA\vlc" | Out-Null
Copy-Item -Path "$env:ProgramFiles\VideoLAN\vlc\vlcrc" -Destination "$env:APPDATA\vlc\" -Force -Recurse -PassThru | Out-Null

Package files

Virtual registry

 

If you need execution alias
AppxManifest.xml

 

  • TIMOTHY_MANGAN's avatar
    TIMOTHY_MANGAN
    MVP
    Jun 11, 2024

    Peer-Atle Regarding your post (for others).

     

    It is very common that an application will use a file in either AppData/Local or Roaming to store configuration information, and that in repackaging apps into MSIX we want to "pre-configure" the app to do things like defeat legacy updaters for example.  

     

    The standard technique is to install and perform the preconfiguration while in monitoring mode of the packaging tool, often wrapping the vendor installer in a powershell script to perform a silent/passive installation and perform the preconfiguration by copying a pre-made version of the file to it's destination.

     

    Running PsfTooling (or TMEditX) against this as part of the packaging process, would then detect the need for the PSDF and take care of the rest.  This is good for an app like VLC, and probably whatever app the original question was about for ODBC.

     

     

    • Peer-Atle's avatar
      Peer-Atle
      Brass Contributor
      Jun 11, 2024

      TIMOTHY_MANGAN I totaly agree. The configuration file vlcrc is pre configured within the vlc GUI and saved in users %APPDATA%\vlc folder when packaging. This file is then placed in another folder e.g [{ProgramFilesX64}]\VideoLAN\VLC\vlcrc and the %APPDATA% folder in the MSIX package is deleted.
      The PSF and copy.ps1 copy this file to users native %APPDATA%\vlc folder at first start.

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