The UAC prompt shows a temporary random Program Name for msi, can the correct name be displayed?

Question

I'm building an MSI installer for windows and sign the installer using signtool. When I run the .msi to test it, the UAC (User Account Control) prompt shows up to ask me if I want to allow the installation to proceed. That's fine, but the prompt shows a number of fields, and for the Program Name field it displays something like "403b3.msi". This is not the name of the msi I'm running.

How can I get the correct Program Name to be displayed?

Answer 1

Use the /d command line argument with the required program name when executing signtool to sign the msi.

It appears that the windows installer creates a temporary copy of the msi file and assigns it a generated name before running it. If you don't use /d with signtool, you get to see the temporary filename which isn't very useful for your users.

• Dave: When adding /d, you need a description also. IE: /d "My Application!"

Answer 2

this is an applied version of @Scott-langham's comment.

this was directly from the PostBuildEvent of a visual studio installer project - VDPROJ file

set signtool="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\signtool.exe"
set timestampurl=http://timestamp.digicert.com
set certpath="$(ProjectDir)CodeSigningCert.pfx"
:: Setup in your user environment variables
:: using something with low sort order to force off screen ZZCODECERTPASSWORD
if []==[%ZZCODECERTPASSWORD%] (
echo must set code signing certificate in ZZCODECERTPASSWORD environment variable. stopping build.
exit /b 2
)
:: need the filename with extension that is being generated
FOR /f %%i IN ("$(BuiltOuputPath)") DO (
SET outputfilename=%%~nxi
)
%signtool% sign /t %timestampurl% /f %certpath% /p %CODECERTPW% /d %outputfilename% "$(BuiltOuputPath)"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
echo failed to sign MSI
exit /b 3
)
%signtool% sign /t %timestampurl% /f %certpath% /p %CODECERTPW% "$(ProjectDir)$(Configuration)\Setup.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
echo failed to sign boostrap setup EXE
exit /b 4
)

• Gary Willette: Sorry for the poorly-formatted comment. Can't figure out how to get line-breaks to work... I used this with success, except there is a change required if your path has one or more spaces in it. Use this at the top to get into a local variable: set outputdir=$(BuiltOuputPath). Then use the new variable like this: FOR %%i IN ("%outputdir%") DO ( SET outputfilename=%%~nxi ) and later in the script: %signtool% sign /a /t %timestampurl% /d "%outputfilename%" "%outputdir%" IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( echo failed to sign MSI exit /b 3 )
• JJS: @GaryWillette I am glad this helped you. >if your path has one or more spaces< path to what, exactly?
• Gary Willette: $(BuiltOutputPath)