IntelliMirror: How to Install Active X Controls Without Admin Privs
If you create a MSI package for your Active X control, you can install it on an Active Directory server and domain users can install the control without having administrator privileges. The control will download and install just like it came from the external web, but really IE is hitting your internal AD server for the package.
You can use the Visual Installer app that comes with Visual Studio to create a MSI. Then, add your software package to the domain from the Active Directory domain controller. To do this, follow the steps here.
Actually getting your control to install correctly is the hard part.
Check:
- You can browse to the location of the software package from another computer in the domain.
- The computer where you're attempting to install the package can resolve the fully qualified host name of the Active Directory server (it should be using that AD server for DNS, but as long as it can resolve the hostname you're ok).
- The destination computer has the IntelliMirror registry setting.
- The user who is installing the control does not have admin privileges. If they do, the control should download/install normally.
- A regular domain user can see it in "Add/Remove Programs."
If you can see the package in "Add/Remove Programs" (you may have to click "Remote" or "More Programs" or something to see the packages available on your AD server), you're making progress.