Advice on Access Runtime

[StephenDRogers]

Greetings!

I'm deploying an MS Access database, which requires the MS Access Runtime only if the user doesn't have MS Access 2010 installed on the machine.

What I'm currently doing is including a link in the Readme to download the Runtime if the user doesn't have Access.

Should I instead automatically install the Runtime (after including the exe in the package)?

Is there a way to include dialog that asks the user if they have MS Access and then downloads/installs the Runtime if they answer "no"? And would that be better or worse?

Any thoughts and advice are appreciated.

Stephen

[Dan]

Hello Stephen and welcome to Advanced Installer forums,

You can add the MS Access Runtime as a prerequisite in the Prerequisite page. You can also select it from our predefined list of prerequisites.

The MS Access Runtime prerequisite will be installed based on the condition evaluation defined in the Install condition tab of the prerequisite.
So, there is no need to ask the user if they have the MS Access installed.

However, you can go in the Dialogs page and add the predefined PrerequisitesDlg using the Add dialog toolbar button to inform the user that some prerequisite are required and let him to decide to install or not. Also, if all prerequisites are installed there's no need to show the PrerequisitesDlg. In order to achieve that you can take a look on the How to skip "PrerequisitesDlg" when all prerequisites are installed? article for hints and guidance.

Please let us know if that helped, otherwise give us more details about your specific scenario.

Best regards,
Dan

[StephenDRogers]

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the tip. Worked like a charm.

Advanced Installer is a great program. The more I work with it, the more I find I can do.

Just in case others are looking to distribute the Access Runtime, after a lot of testing I used a different prereq test:

====

Registry value exists:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{745FB377-0A59-4CA9-B9A9-C359557A2C4E}
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{90140000-002A-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{90140000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{90140000-0011-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}

Install only if all conditions are false

=====

I'm fairly certain the above checks to see if Office 2010 Professional, Office 2010 Professional Pro, the standalone version of Access 2010, or the Access 2010 Runtime has been installed. (Uninstalling them doesn't remove the key, however.)

Stephen
http://www.StephenDRogers.com

[Teodor]

Hi

Just in case others are looking to distribute the Access Runtime, after a lot of testing I used a different prereq test:

====
Registry value exists:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{745FB377-0A59-4CA9-B9A9-C359557A2C4E}
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{90140000-002A-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{90140000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration\{90140000-0011-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}

Install only if all conditions are false
=====

I'm fairly certain the above checks to see if Office 2010 Professional, Office 2010 Professional Pro, the standalone version of Access 2010, or the Access 2010 Runtime has been installed.

I've reviewed the Access 2010 Runtime prerequisite and found this install condition to be sufficient:

Code: Select all

Registry value exists: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\InstallRoot\Path

Can you confirm this is enough for your use case too?

(Uninstalling them doesn't remove the key, however.)

This is one big reason to not rely of them, otherwise the Access Runtime prerequisite would not be installed on any system where Microsoft Office (or just Access) was removed.

Best regards