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windowsinstallationnsisgpo

Installer that adds entry to GPO Startup scripts

I'm in the process of writing an installer using NSIS that will add an entry to the computer's GPO to run a command on system boot.

# From http://nsis.sourceforge.net/LGP_Startup/Shutdown_Script
!include LGPScript.nsh

Section
  SetOutPath -

  # Install all files from myprog directory into C:\Program Files\myprog
  File myprog\*

  # Copy mysystweak.bat to System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup
  SetOutPath $SYSDIR\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup
  File myprog\mysystweak.bat
  SetOutPath -

  # Add GPO entry to execute mysystweak.bat on startup
  ${LGPScript::Create} 'Startup' 'mysystweak.bat' '' $R1
  DetailPrint "Create startup LGP return code:$R1"

  # Write uninstaller
  Writeuninstaller "${uninstall_name}"
SectionEnd

Everything goes well except nothing shows up in …\Startup. The installer thinks everything worked:

Output folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup
Extract: mysystweak.bat... 100%
Output folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\myprog

I originally tried using CopyFiles to copy the batch file from $INSTDIR into …\Startup, but got the same result.

What's going wrong here?

related: https://serverfault.com/q/266338/2101

Solution

  • If this is a x64 system you need to disable FS redirection, without it $SYSDIR will not point to the true system32 directory:

    !include x64.nsh

Section
...
SetOutPath $SYSDIR\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup
${DisableX64FSRedirection}
File myprog\mysystweak.bat
${EnableX64FSRedirection}
...
SectionEnd

    You can verify that this is the problem by watching the installer with Process Monitor