KVR Audio

Keith99 · Post by **Keith99** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:39 am

Hi, I am working on an installer for my app (using the InstallShield LE that comes with Visual Studio) and trying to find a way to get the user's VST path. The only registry entry info. I could find came from here: http://www.asseca.com/setVSTpath/index.html with the following:

The following registry-key is set (win-x32):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VST\VSTPluginsPath
The following registry-keys are set (win-x64):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VST\VSTPluginsPath
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VST\VSTPluginsPath

Looking on my own machine I only have the last of those entries which seems odd. I also wondered if there was an environment variable set but cant fine one. So how do installers find out the user's VST path? I will need to do separate ones for 32 and 64 bit VST 2.4 installations.

thanks in advance

Keith99 · Post by **Keith99** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:44 am

Just found this similar thread: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=319194

Still does not explain why I don't have a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VST on my machine

Keith99 · Post by **Keith99** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:54 am

Actually thinking I might abandon using Installshield LE it is too limited. Anyone recommend a different installer?

duncanparsons · Post by **duncanparsons** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:06 pm

Some hosts use their own variants, I'm on the wrong machine atm, but I'll post through a list of the ones we check.

We use Inno Setup, which is adaptable, great, and free..

Keith99 · Post by **Keith99** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 1:14 pm

Thanks a lot, that would be useful. I am just downloading Inno, looks good

Dentoid · Post by **Dentoid** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 2:24 pm

We use NSIS currently, and I think that works pretty good. Have used Inno Setup before as well, and that was also neat. Between those two I think it's mostly a matter of taste.

About why you have some key or another set, I think that depends on what DAWs you have run. In a freshly installed windows, none of them will be set, and it's kind of up to the DAW to set it if it feels like it. I know in setups I've had, I got the 32-bit one set but not the 64-bit, so... I'd say try to use defaults where no keys exist.

By the way, with NSIS it's possible to read 32-bit and 64-bit values explicitly without having two installers, but you may have other reasons as well for keeping them different. Just saying.

(EDIT: Might note that the currently publicly available installers for our plugs ONE and Faturator don't actually use the registry, so they're a bad example. Our new installers which aren't released yet do, though.

)

hibrasil · Post by **hibrasil** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:18 pm

my innosetup script is here:

https://github.com/olilarkin/wdl-ol/blo ... Effect.iss

mystran · Post by **mystran** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:32 pm

Those mentioned in the original post are the most reliable ones if you REALLY REALLY need to have an installer. Never use them directly though: default a selection there, then show it to the user to user to sanity check and/or change if it's wrong.

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 12:39 am

NSIS is good and simple to learn.

And that registry entry is only for Steinberg hosts (and I think only the older, VST 2.x hosts). Many other hosts don't use it, so you can't count on it being there. Doesn't hurt to check it and use it as a default if it's there, but always give the user a chance to change the location in the installer.

And yes, some users are allergic to installers. They think they're a security risk or something silly. (They don't seem to realize the plug-in code runs under the same security context as the installer. And a plug-in could just as easily be malicious as an installer.) So providing a zipped copy of the plug-in helps.

And any registry settings or other things should be done by the plug-in itself when it's instantiated, not by the installer. So other than copying the plug-in to a folder, the installer really doesn't do anything.

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:25 pm

Is there any particular reason that VSTs are installed into the protected Program Files (extremely annoying on Windows

?

If not, is there any particular reason not to simply install them into a Library (like the Documents, Music or Videos Libraries)?

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:29 pm

runagate wrote:Is there any particular reason that VSTs are installed into the protected Program Files (extremely annoying on Windows ?

If not, is there any particular reason not to simply install them into a Library (like the Documents, Music or Videos Libraries)?

So other users of the machine can access them?

It's a legacy thing. The original VST folder was /Program Files/Steinberg/vstplugins/

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:59 pm

AdmiralQuality wrote:
So other users of the machine can access them?

It's a legacy thing. The original VST folder was /Program Files/Steinberg/vstplugins/

1) Excellent point, but probably not worth it in this case. Thanks for reminding me, somehow that'd escaped me after all this time and many, many reinstalls.

2) Oh, I well know that. One of many annoying locked-in poor early decisions in our particular ecosystem.

mystran · Post by **mystran** » Sun May 19, 2013 8:22 am

runagate wrote:Is there any particular reason that VSTs are installed into the protected Program Files (extremely annoying on Windows ?

If not, is there any particular reason not to simply install them into a Library (like the Documents, Music or Videos Libraries)?

I just install them all to "C:\users\teemu\Vst Plugins" which I patched manually to the registry so a surprising number of installers actually gets it right automatically.

george · Post by **george** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:01 pm

hibrasil wrote:my innosetup script is here:

https://github.com/olilarkin/wdl-ol/blo ... Effect.iss

I'm working on updated Inno Setup installers and found your script very useful

The URL was giving a 404 but here it is a working one:

https://github.com/olilarkin/wdl-ol/blo ... Effect.iss

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:06 pm

An important thing to note is the difference between system (localmachine) vs. user:

Example NSIS .nsi:

Code: Select all

SetCompressor /SOLID lzma
Name "Xhip v8 64-bit"
OutFile "xhip_8_64bit.exe"
InstallDir "/vstplugins"

RequestExecutionLevel admin
DirText "Please choose the directory where vst plugins should be copied. A subdirectory /xhip will be created there." "" "" ""
Page directory
Page instfiles

Function .onInit
	ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKCU Software\VST VSTPluginsPath
	StrCmp $INSTDIR "" 0 OK
	ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKLM Software\VST VSTPluginsPath
	StrCmp $INSTDIR "" 0 OK
	StrCpy $INSTDIR "/vstplugins"
	OK:
FunctionEnd

Section ""
  SetOutPath $INSTDIR\xhip
  File xhip_8_64bit.dll
SectionEnd

It would be best to override the path if set by the user, otherwise default to the system-wide path, otherwise rely on the user to specify the path. This is the result provided in the script above.

VST path from registry