How to use .cab install to IE of FireBreath ActiveX so it works for both admin and standard user

Question

I've built a plugin using Firebreath that we install in IE using a .cab. (I know that taxilian recommends using .msi, I would have to prove that the in-browser installs cannot be made to work before I could sell that concept, not that I'm not looking forward to trying someday.)

Usually the control installs fine no matter what, but apparently under some circumstances (not yet pinned down...) a Standard User on Win7 will be prompted for admin credentials and provide them, and yet the control doesn't seem to be installed in the browser. The problem was reported on IE9, but I don't know that it's specific to IE9 vs IE10.

Questions, questions:

• Even during a .cab install, Firebreath's DllRegisterServer will be called?
• If admin credentials are prompted for and provided during the install, then the control is installed as if that admin were the current user? So I need to configure Firebreath for an all-users install via FB_ATLREG_MACHINEWIDE?
• If I put an [InstallScope] in the .inf, how does that interact with FB_ATLREG_MACHINEWIDE? What if the user chooses a per-user install but FB_ATLREG_MACHINEWIDE is defined?

help me obi-taxilian, you're my only hope ;-)

Answer 1

To make it install machine-wide just uncomment the following line from your PluginConfig.cmake file:

# If you want to register per-machine on Windows, uncomment this line
set (FB_ATLREG_MACHINEWIDE 1)

This will make ATL register per-machine as well as telling it to use HKLM for the mozilla plugin install keys.