MeshCentralRouter install without admin privilege?

[svenwanzenried]

On my windows machine, I can install to %AppData%/local without admin privilege, but not to C:\Program Files.
Would it be possible to install there, or give the user the option to install there while still having the ability to invoke the application directly from the link in MeshCentral?

[svenwanzenried]

Ok I figured out how this can be done manually on my Windows 11 machine:

1. Copy downloaded MeshCentralRouter.exe to %localAppData%\MeshCentralRouter\MeshCentralRouter.exe
2. open Registry editor (regedit.exe)
3. Add following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\mcrouter
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\mcrouter\shell
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\mcrouter\shell\open
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\mcrouter\shell\open\command

4. Edit (Default) entry of the command key to be "C:\Users\wan\AppData\Local\MeshCentralRouter\MeshCentralRouter.exe" "%1"
   (This must be an absolute path! Of course, edit according to your username)
5. Add String stry to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\mcrouter called URL Protocol
   (In my case this was necessary so MS Edge would open the router. YMMV with other browsers and this might not be necessray)

So I figure something similar is done during the privileged installation in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. But maybe it would be possible to select where the installation should be performed or switch over to localAppData by default?

[si458]

The meshcentralrouter doesn't install anything anywhere

What it does is register/add the special mcrouter:// url into the Windows registry to the location of wherever u ran the meshcentralrouter from

This is why it requires admin writes to install the meshcentralrouter because of the registry

[svenwanzenried]

Well it's labled "install" hence why i called it like this:

OK, but in my above answer i showed that is is in fact possible to write to registry without admin. Not to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT but instead to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\
Wouldn't it be possible to change that, or fallback to that in case no admin privilege is present?

[si458]

yes we can look into it, it will just require an app change 👍
maybe when you click Install it asks if you want it installed locally without admin access, or globally with admin access?
i have no idea why it adds the values to the global admin registry?
its been like that for years!
im still learning things about meshcentral every day even after looking after it for 5 years now!