Visual Studio code offers User and System Installer but I have not found any description about the differences between these two options.
Could someone please shed a light on this for me?
User setup for Windows
Announced last release, the user setup package for Windows is now available on stable. Installing the user setup does not require Administrator privileges as the location will be under your user Local AppData (LOCALAPPDATA) folder. User setup also provides a smoother background update experience.
Download User Setup
If you are a current user of the system-wide Windows setup, you will be prompted to install user setup, which we recommend using from now on. Don't worry, all your settings and extensions will be kept during the transition. During installation, you will also be prompted to uninstall the system-wide setup.
Reference: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_26#_user-setup-for-windows
I installed the user version side-by-side with the system version with no problems. The basic differences between the two is that the system version installs on the file system like every other app. The user install is basically a click-once (or web installer) version that installs in the User folder of the machine.
The settings made to VS Code in the system version save for Everybody on the computer and the user version the settings are only for the user. I find that the behavior of the user version is a bit annoying for me because I have reasons to want to open multiple copies of VS Code at the same time and the user version only allows one instance. Otherwise, there's not really anything different between the two as far as I can tell.
Many companies (like mine) dont allow Admin privileges, I think that's the main point so you can still install VSC with the user installer
After user version of Visual Studio Code is downloaded, make cmd in the download folder and run a command below, replacing the correct version in the VS ode installation file name:
runas /trustlevel:0x20000 ./VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.74.3.exe
start the command below in order to check which trust levels are supported:
runas /showtrustlevels
Related
So I've read that when installing Visual Studio Code, the User Installer is recommended because it installs to the Users folder and does not require administrator privileges, but apparently it also allows for better background updating of the program.
However, when I try to install the User Installer, I get the following message:
This User Installer is not meant to be run as an Administrator. If you would like to install VS Code for all users in this system, download the System Installer instead.
I tried installing it once before by accepting this, but the title bar of VS Code will show "Administrator," so I'm wondering what was the point of the User Installer if it still warns me of administrator privileges and still installs with them? If it installs to the Users folder, why would it even show this warning message? Is there a way to avoid this?
If not, will this cause any issues, like slowdowns or such? Do I still get the benefit of the smoother updating that the User Installer supposedly gives?
Stealing from this answer, I see that visualstudio.com says:
If you are a current user of the system-wide Windows setup, you will be prompted to install user setup, which we recommend using from now on.
That suggests to me that the error message we've both seen will soon be obsolete.
That is, when the installer sees you logged in as admin (which conventionally means you wouldn't be coding), it assumes you wanted this now-intended-to-be-deprecated use case where you're installing once on the system for ALL users, which the user setup won't do.
You've probably seen installers ask this: "Do you want to install for all users or just your user?" If all users, it asks you to give the installer admin permissions and installs in Program Files. If just you, it installs in a user path (like VS Code for users does: C:\Users\thySmyUserName\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code).
Instead of a unified system/user install, VS Code seems to have broken it into two.
Make sense? If you're installing to code when logged in as admin, like on a remote box or something, that might still be a bit of an admin smell, but the user setup sh/w/ould otherwise be fine.
If you wanted to install for every user on the box, which you could do with your fancy admin permissions, you'd need to get a different installer. That's all.
I updated to the version here where it installs it per user instead of all.
How do I install for all users instead? Do I need to install for each user now?
Look for the system installer instead of the user setup installer. The system installer will give you the option to:
1. Install for all users
2. Choose a directory.
Download here (oficial page): https://code.visualstudio.com/download
Can't find it? The system installer is below the big blue button to download. You'll see 3 options. The middle option will say system installer.
Applications that are global are stored in /Applications directory as opposed user specific installation that are installed under Applications under the user home directory. So moving the installed folder to /Applications directory might work.
On a Windows workstation after a recent update of VSCode I'm prompted (recommended) to install a "User Setup Distribution of VSCode for Windows"
The link for more info leads to:
Download User Setup
If you are a current user of the system-wide Windows setup, you will be prompted to switch to the user setup, which we recommend using from now on. Don't worry, all your settings and extensions will be kept during the transition.
I don't see anything that explains what changes this distribution makes or how it's different from a distribution for other platforms, like X11/linux.
Code is a great editor, so I use it on various platforms depending where I am. Where is the explanation of what is included in this updated "Distribution"?
https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_26#_user-setup-for-windows
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VSCode User Setup is a new installer, with a new install strategy, which installs the whole executable for VSCode and its dependencies in directories which don't require system-level / administrator permissions to modify. This allows a few things:
Users who don't have admin privileges to their workstation can still install and use VS Code
VS Code can perform its updates with fewer prompts (basically without the system-level privilege escalation prompts)
One tip: If you already had VSCode installed as a system-wide installation and you switch to the new installer as prompted/recommended, the User Setup installer will suggest that you uninstall the system-wide install first. I was a little nervous that I might lose my extensions doing this, but I went ahead and tried it and am happy to report that my extensions, recent projects, and other data regarding my VSCode use remained intact between uninstalling the "old" version and then proceeding with install of the new User Setup version.
(I'm a first time responder after many years.)
Note there is another useful discussion on this subject at: (What is the migration procedure for moving from Windows system-wide Visual Studio Code to user setup?). I too got worried when I got unexpected messages from the install informing me that the version was already installed and asking me if I wanted to continue? I clicked NO, why continue if it is already installed. However, in the process I became aware of the distinction between 'distribution' and 'version'. It turns out that the install works pretty much flawlessly no matter how you go about it. You can delete the system-wide distribution or not. If you do delete, you can delete before the new install, (which I did). You can also delete after the new install. (I didn't read too closely but there might be an extra step if you want to use both distributions.) In hindsight, since all approaches work nearly flawlessly, a minimal amount of instruction is all that was required. But in foresight, a little extra information on what to expect would have expedited the process for several people, including me. P.S. I found the answers in this thread useful. Thanks.
From the page you link to:
This setup does not require Administrator privileges to install. It also provides a smoother background update experience.
I want compile some GUI into a Windows standalone application (*.exe). The main idea is run my applications in different computers WITHOUT the necessity of privileges to run it.
While doing these steps, I noticed that when I want to run vcredist_x86.exe on a different computer administrator privileges are required. I asked in the official forum and they confirmed that is not possible.
There was also other interesting alternative with an older version here:
How can I install the Matlab Component Runtime without Administrator rights when using MATLAB Compiler 4.6 (R2007a)
Despite the fact that now there is no supported way, until which Matlab version was it possible run standalone apps without privileges?
My version is 2010b but I can use the most recent version which support the possibility to run MCR without privileges. I have Matlab compiler but not Matlab code generator (to automatic translate into another language).
Matlab user executables require Microsoft DLLs to run. No Matlab version is going to be able to run user executables without the required Microsoft DLLs. One cannot install DLLs to Windows owned directories without admin privileges. This is a configuration issue not a Matlab runtime issue. Solution is to install the required DLLs to the local folder that has the user application in it. Ignore all the stuff in the docs about "network redributables" and "registering" DLLs.
I don't know if it is possible to run vcredist_x86.exe without privileges. It may be a matter of setting the install path to your local directory instead of "Program_Files...". Either way it doesn't matter as vcredist_x86.exe should not be necessary.
I don't know if what you trying to do is possible or if Matlab has blocked it somehow but I think you have gotten confused on how to get there and have compounded your problems by trying to install to non-user directories.
When you install your product locally, all the needed files are stored in the machine.
When you set the features to Advertise, files will be installed locally when the user launches the application.
What happens then when yo set the features to "run-from-source"? I Googled it and was only able to find this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367538%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Thanks!
This is a rarely used feature of Windows Installer and I don't normally reccomend using it. It was invented back in a day when hard drives were small and the thought was you 'advertised' ( pretend install aka install source ) a feature and that when the user clicks the shortcut it would go to the source and finish the installation of the feature ( aka install local )
It just adds a lot of complexity to your servicing model. It's not worth it IMO.
When placing all installation files next to the MSI (similar to advertised installation), you can install features from source. This means that all files in these features will be used from the MSI location (they are not copied in the target folders during install).
Running from source can be used when the installer remains permanently on the target machine. So the application can use the installer directly instead of using installed files.