I am using VS2008 to build my setup program (.MSI). One thing I noticed is that the setup exe is running under user account, while the custom action starts my app.exe using Process.Start() and app.exe is running under System account. This create a problem for app.exe to run under system account. We require it to run under user account. I have been search the appoach for a while with no luck. The only way I found is to edit the MSI file directly using Orca after the project build. We can't take that approach since we build out project on daily basis.

No, only after it's built.
If you search this forum for wirunsql you'll see some comments about post-build steps you can run. These can update the MSI file after the build if you can find your custom action type in the CustomAction table and turn off the msidbCustomActionTypeNoImpersonate bit. That will incorporate an automatic update into your build.

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Phil Wilson

Hello Zongwen,

Apart from Phil's suggestion, you might also try with the Windows Installer XML (WiX), which is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. It also can be build with Visual Studio(in fact MSBuild).

http://wix.sourceforge.net/index.html

Please take a look at the Impersonate attribute on the following page:
http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix2/wix_xsd_customaction.htm

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg@microsoft.com

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

No, only after it's built.
If you search this forum for wirunsql you'll see some comments about post-build steps you can run. These can update the MSI file after the build if you can find your custom action type in the CustomAction table and turn off the msidbCustomActionTypeNoImpersonate bit. That will incorporate an automatic update into your build.

---

Phil Wilson

Hello Zongwen,

Apart from Phil's suggestion, you might also try with the Windows Installer XML (WiX), which is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. It also can be build with Visual Studio(in fact MSBuild).

http://wix.sourceforge.net/index.html

Please take a look at the Impersonate attribute on the following page:
http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix2/wix_xsd_customaction.htm

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg@microsoft.com

---

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

Hello Zongwen,

I am writing to check the status of the issue on your side. Would you mind letting me know the result of the suggestions? If you have any additional question, welcome to post here.

Have a great day!

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

Hi Rong-Chun,