Choose installation path for Cisco Spark for Windows

[vincent.briquet]

Hi folks,

When I install Spark for Windows using SparkSetup.msi, it goes by default to \%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\Cisco Spark\.

Unfortunately our internal IT policy is that all applications should be installed in %ProgramFiles%\<company>\<application>\

Is there a way to force installation in that directory ?

I tried msiexec /i SparkSetup.msi INSTALLDIR="%ProgramFiles%\Cisco\Cisco Spark\"

and msiexec /i SparkSetup.msi TARGETDIR="%ProgramFiles%\Cisco\Cisco Spark\"

but without success...

Thanks in advance for your help  !

[jminasia · Accepted solution]

Hi Vincent,

Thank you for reporting your scenario or issue. The Cisco Spark for Windows is designed to install on the per-user context w/o admin rights vs per-machine.

Installation Context (Windows)

Regards,

Jean.

[vincent.briquet]

OK thanks for the link, that fully answers the question.

Regards,

Vincent.

[nmoore1978]

Please fix this.  This is not how applications should be installed.  Profiles should *NOT* contain applications, but only user-specific settings. 

This type of installation really complicates virtual desktop environments where linked clones and persistent drives are used. 

[jeremy.lippert]

We are also not able to use the Cisco Spark client in our non-persistent VDI environment using linked clones because it installs under the profile. This prevents us from being able to deploy it to our users the same way we can with a normal All Users installed program.

Is there an All Users installer in the works for the Cisco Spark thick client?

[jgiambo]

Could you give this command a try "msiexec /i c:\work\CiscoSpark_x86.msi TARGETDIR="C:\Program Files" ALLUSERS=1"

Let me know what the results are. 

Thank you!

[jeremy.lippert]

That did work thank you. We will start testing this in our non-persistent VDI environment. We run VMware Horizon View with AppVolumes

Is this configuration of Cisco Spark installed with the ALLUSERS=1 switch supported by Cisco?

Was that switch only recently accepted for the installer? I can't find any release notes or documentation stating this was supported or possible.

[jugarcia]

This scenario doesn't appear to be a supported by Cisco. I have deployed this to my test group and upon Spark auto-update, it installed itself into the user profile, leaving the older Program Files x86 version behind. Also, the Version under "Programs and Features" did not update. This makes it difficult to manage SCCM deployments/application detection methods. As Nicholas and Jeremy mentioned, this is troublesome for non-persistent VDI environments. Please fix asap or at least let us disable auto-update so we can update ourselves into the correct location.

[zztopping]

I agree! When installing into Program Files when we got an update it created two versions on same machine. Existing Start Menu links seem to not be working.

[jeremy.lippert]

According to the website below, it is supported. As we have all figured out, it was a half-a** attempt at it as they didn't write in code to handle updates when installed with the ALLUSERS=1 flag. And they completely broke it with the April 16th update. Working with Cisco now to test and get a fix.

https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/article/en-us/nw5p67g

[ccubeman]

Did Cisco indicate to you they're fixing this?  I have a case open as well.  We cannot reliably install via SCCM.

[jeremy.lippert]

They fixed it as of their latest version 3.0 when they did the rebrand. We have been using it since May 21st, when they released it. You now have to launch it via CiscoCollabHost.exe though.

[ccubeman]

Roger that, thanks for the info.  We're trying an SCCM install shortly.