ALLUSERS

The ALLUSERS system variable is the key to installations that allow installing the application to the current user or all users on the target system. The value of ALLUSERS determines the following:

The root key that is used by registry functions that are called after RegDBSetDefaultRoot(HKEY_USER_SELECTABLE) is called

The root key under which the application uninstallation key is created

The location of registry entries that are specified in a registry set's HKEY_USER_SELECTABLE root key

The value of the DISK1TARGET system variable (which specifies the path to the folder in which copies of certain installation files are placed to enable maintenance installations and uninstallation)

The default value of the TARGETDIR system variable that is set by the default OnFirstUIBefore code

Whether a shortcut that is defined in InstallShield with its Type property set to Automatic appears in the list of personal shortcuts or common shortcuts when the shortcut is created

The default option selection in the SdCustomerInformation and SdCustomerInformationEx dialogs

The first time the installation is run, ALLUSERS is automatically initialized to FALSE if the target operating system is Windows NT 4, 2000, XP, or later and the user is not an administrator or power user, or to a non-zero value otherwise. If ALLUSERS is initialized to FALSE, assigning it a value in the script has no effect; otherwise, setting ALLUSERS to a non-zero value calls ProgDefGroupType(COMMON), and setting ALLUSERS to FALSE calls ProgDefGroupType(PERSONAL). (The reverse is not true; that is, calling ProgDefGroupType has no effect on the value of ALLUSERS.)

If the installation is run from Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, ALLUSERS is automatically initialized to the same value it had when the installation first ran. (More technically, it is initialized to the value of the AllUsers keyname that the installation created in <DISK1TARGET>\Setup.ini when it first ran.) If the installation is run again from the source media, ALLUSERS is automatically initialized as follows: if the application was previously installed to the same individual user, ALLUSERS is initialized to FALSE; otherwise, it is initialized to a non-zero value. (More technically, if the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<INSTANCE_GUID> exists, ALLUSERS is initialized to FALSE.)

For an example of an installation project that allows installing the application to the current user or all users on the target system, see the sample project in the ALLUSERS Sample Project folder. This folder is in the SamplesPro folder of your InstallShield Program Files folder. The default location is C:\Program Files\Macrovision\IS2008\SamplesPro.