How to make a Per-User installation with NSIS

I've been doing some researching on how to make it possible for users to install applications without administrator credentials.

There is a lot of good samples on how to make an UAC compatible installer with NSIS. But almost all the samples are made for forcing the user to run the setup as administrator, for example in the NSIS documentation.

After a lot of googling I finally found this question on the forum and the answer was exactly what I was searching for.

Key part of the script is were the $instdir is constructed:

!define FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles {5CD7AEE2-2219-4A67-B85D-6C9CE15660CB}

!define KF_FLAG_CREATE 0x00008000

 

!include LogicLib.nsh

!include WinVer.nsh

!include MUI2.nsh

 

Var SMDir ;Start menu folder

 

Function .onInit

;Default $Instdir (UserProgramFiles is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs by default, so we use that as our default)

StrCpy $0 "$LocalAppData\Programs"

 

;Make sure we don't overwrite $Instdir if specified on the command line or from InstallDirRegKey

${If} $Instdir == ""

        ${If} ${IsNT}

                ;Win7 has a per-user programfiles known folder and this could be a non-default location?

                System::Call 'Shell32::SHGetKnownFolderPath(g "${FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles}",i ${KF_FLAG_CREATE},i0,*i.r2)i.r1'

                ${If} $1 == 0

                        System::Call '*$2(&w${NSIS_MAX_STRLEN} .r1)'

                        StrCpy $0 $1

                        System::Call 'Ole32::CoTaskMemFree(ir2)'

                ${EndIf}

        ${Else}

                ;Everyone is admin on Win9x, so falling back to $ProgramFiles is ok

                ${IfThen} $LocalAppData == "" ${|} StrCpy $0 $ProgramFiles ${|}

        ${EndIf}

        StrCpy $Instdir "$0\${APPNAME}"

${EndIf}

FunctionEnd

Silent installer using Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS)

When making installers it's important to make it possible to run the installer silently. This is a requirement if you want to include your installer in another installer. I've inherited some installers on my new job, these were made in Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS). We have a requirement to include several application installers into a package to make the installation easier for the end users, so I've looked into what needs to be done in NSIS to make the installers silent.

It turns out to be quite easy, see the chapter on silent installer/uninstaller in the documentation, all MessageBoxes in the script has the possibility to have a /SD parameter where you can set the default return value if the installer is running in silent mode /S. To reduce cluttering the start menu with uninstaller links it's possible to use the IfSilent statement to jump over the creation of uninstall links.