Installation types

Installation of your product can take place as either an All Users or a Current User installation:

All Users installations make the product available to all users who log onto the computer. On Windows NT-based systems, the installing user must belong to the Power Users or Administrators groups to perform an All Users installation.
Current User installations make the product available only to the installing user. All shared installation folders are redirected to their Current User equivalent. This type of installation can generally be performed by any user.

Item	All Users installation	Current User installation
All Users folders tree	No redirection	Redirected to Current User tree
Current User folder tree	No redirection	No redirection
Program Files folder tree	No redirection	Redirected to the user_name\Application Data folders tree
HKEY_ALL_USERS registry key	Mapped to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE	Mapped to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key	No redirection	No redirection
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key	No redirection	No redirection Note: If the installing user does not have sufficient access rights, the installation might fail.

The following table shows how the various Windows versions and installing user account types affect the installation type as specified by the Install level on the Installer Options project page.

Situation		Install level option
Windows version	Installing user	All Users	Query/Fall back	Current User
95, 98, Me	any account	All Users	All Users	Current User
NT4	Administrator	All Users	All Users	Current User
	Power User	fails	Current User*	Current User
	User	fails	Current User	Current User
2000, XP, 2003	Administrator	All Users	All Users	Current User
	Power User	All Users	All Users	Current User
	User	fails	Current User	Current User
Vista, 2008	Administrator	All Users	All Users	Current User
Vista, 2008	User	fails	Current User	Current User

* Windows NT4 requires Administrator privileges to install All Users shortcuts. The installer will therefore fall back to Current User if running with less than Administrator privileges. See Dealing with access rights for more information.

** On Windows Vista and later, the installer's embedded application manifest specifies requireAdministrator as its access level. Therefore, installers running under Windows Vista or later effectively always run with Administrator privileges. Also on these platforms, the Power User group has been deprecated and no longer contains any members or privileges and for all practical purposes has ceased to exist.