Command line switches and deployment details

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Written by Julien | Updated

This article describes in detail how the installer works as well as the impact of UpSlide on the system.

Summary

Command-line options

By default, UpSlide is installed for all users when you execute the executed with administrator permissions.

EXE Installation (recommended)

Install

The below command line will silently install UpSlide even if the user has Office applications running.

"pathToExeFile.exe" -q2 "CheckProcesses=0"

Uninstall

"pathToExeFile.exe" -q2 TsuRunMode=2 

Custom install

By default, UpSlide will be installed in English and in C:\ProgramData\UpSlide. You can use the below switches to change this:

  • Install UpSlide in french using the switch "LANG=fr-FR"
"pathToExeFile.exe" -q2 "CheckProcesses=0" "LANG=fr-FR"
  • Install UpSlide and UpSlideService in a specific folder (C:\Program Files, for example) using 
"pathToExeFile.exe" -q2 "CheckProcesses=0" "AllUserInstallFolder=customPath\UpSlide" "UpSlideServiceFolder=customPath\UpSlideService"

MSI Installation

If you need to use the .msi, you will need to use the EXEOPTIONS parameter in your command line.

Install

The below command line will silently install UpSlide even if the user has Office applications running.

msiexec /i "pathToMsiFile.msi" /qn EXEOPTIONS="-q2 ""CheckProcesses=0"""

Uninstall

msiexec /i "pathToMsiFile.msi" /qn EXEOPTIONS="TsuRunMode=2"

Custom install

By default, UpSlide will be installed in English and in C:\ProgramData\UpSlide. You can use the below switches to change this:

  • Install UpSlide in french using the switch "LANG=fr-FR"
msiexec /i "pathToMsiFile.msi" /qn EXEOPTIONS="-q2 ""CheckProcesses=0"" ""LANG=fr-FR"""
  • Install UpSlide and UpSlideService in a specific folder (C:\Program Files, for example) using 
msiexec /i "pathToMsiFile.msi" /qn EXEOPTIONS="-q2 ""CheckProcesses=0"" ""AllUserInstallFolder=C:\Program Files\UpSlide"" ""UpSlideServiceFolder=C:\Program Files\UpSlideService"""

Installed content

Installation Folder (Single User Install)

Application files are installed in the Application Data folder (e.g. %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\UpSlide in Windows 7).

11 Mo of files are deployed in this folder. They consist mainly of dlls, but also of 3 .vsto files (one for each Office application) which will serve as entry points into UpSlide.

Installation Folder (All User Install)

The installed files are identical, but the installation folder is now located in the Common Application Data folder (e.g. c:\ProgramData\UpSlide for Windows 7).

Customization folder

Apart from deploying application files, the installer also creates a subfolder named Config to store the UpSlide customization, i.e.:

  • content libraries
  • template files (Powerpoint or Word)
  • table of contents options
  • other specific content

Registry keys

Single user Install

Like any VSTO add-in, UpSlide needs a registry key to link Excel, PowerPoint, or Word to the application dll.

These keys are created in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive:

  • Software/Microsoft/Office/Excel/Addins/Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel
  • Software/Microsoft/Office/PowerPoint/Addins/Finance3point1.UpSlide.PowerPoint
  • Software/Microsoft/Office/Word/Addins/Finance3point1.UpSlide.Word

Each of these keys have 4 initial values (see figure below), all required for VSTO to function properly:

  • Friendly name (String): name displayed in the list of Add-ins of the Office application.
  • Description (String): also displayed in the list of Add-ins.
  • LoadBehavior (DWord): specifies if the Add-in is loaded during application start-up. Should always be set to 3.
  • Manifest (String): This value links the Office Application to the installed dlls. It points to the .vsto file in the installation folder (the "|vstolocal" string is appended to the path).

All user Install

For an all user install, the same keys are inserted but this time in the local Machine hive (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE).

Please beware of two specific requirements:

  • If installation is carried out on a x64 machine with a x32 version of Office, the keys are inserted in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node.
  • An additional key value is needed in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Office\12.0\Common\General: EnableLocalMachineVSTO (Dword) set to 1.

Configuration keys

Installation parameters are also stored in the registry, in the Excel Add-in key (see figure above):

  • User interface language is stored in a string value named LANG (as of now, value can either be "fr-FR" or "en-US").
  • The user license is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/Excel/Addins/Finance3point1.UpSlide.Excel as a Dword value.
Important
UpSlide is licensed on a per user and per machine basis. Therefore, even if an all-user install was chosen, the license is still stored in the current user registry hive.

Certificate

To avoid Office trust prompt when UpSlide is first used (see here), the installer installs UpSlide certificate in the Trusted Publisher store.

Modified Folders at run time

Temporary files 

UpSlide handles its own Temp folder inside the installation folder.

User settings and log files

These are stored in the application data folder (e.g. %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\UpSlide in Windows 7). For a single user install, this is the same as the installation folder.

User profile content

Content specific to each user (notably the tombstone database) is stored by default in %appdata%\UpSlide\Content.

Config Folder

A user can modify the contents of the config folder (although not by choice), for example when UpSlide regenerates settings files for compatibility reasons.

For these reasons, the UpSlide installer gives read and write authorization to everyone on the Config folder.