Deploying throughout your Company

The SETUP.EXE program used to install SafeHouse can be customized using a simple INI file which you create to set defaults and guide the installation. Use of this file is generally unnecessary for single-user installations; however, for large-scale enterprise deployment, you will find this feature extremely useful.

By default, SETUP looks for a file named SETUP.INI in the same directory from which it is executed. Alternatively, you may specify the name of your custom INI file on the command line. If you do not specify a complete pathname on the command line, then SETUP will look for the file in the directory from which it was executed.

The general structure of the SETUP.INI file is shown below:

[Messages]
ShowDialogs= <0 or 1, default is 1>
StartMessage= <text to display in message box, default is none>
FinishMessage= <text to display in message box, default is none>

[Files]
Modules= <list of letters, default is ABC>
Directory= <target dir for install, default is c:\safedisk>

[Desktop]
Group = <desktop group, default is SafeHouse Utilities>
Icons = <A or 0, default is A to create icons>
DesktopIcons = <list of letters or 0, default is ABC>

[Volume]
CreateVolume= <0 or 1, default is 1>
CreateParameters= <options for sdwcreat.exe command line>

[Branded]
SD= <full path for branded sd.exe program file to copy>
SDWLIB= <full path for branded sdwlib.dll file>

Each of the sections and items of the SETUP.INI file are optional. Missing items assume their respective default values. This file is read before setup displays any wizard pages which makes it easy for you to control the default settings of controls throughout the installation.

The first section in the setup file is [Messages]. The ShowDialogs item determines how the setup program will interact with users. The default is 1, meaning that the program will display its normal set of wizard pages and dialog boxes during the installation process. If this item is set to 0, then the usual display of wizards and dialogs is suppressed and setup uses default or preset criteria to perform the install.

The StartMessage and EndMessage items allow initial and ending message boxes to be displayed. These items are not controlled by the ShowDialogs setting. By default, these items are both blank since setup normally uses wizard pages. It is possible, however, to use StartMessage and EndMessage in combination with setup’s wizards.

The [Desktop] section determines how setup creates icons and shortcuts. The Group item establishes the name of the program manager or explorer shell group that is created to hold the SafeHouse icons. By default, this is "SafeHouse Utilities." Under Windows 95 and NT, this group name is the heading that will appear for SafeHouse in your Start menu in the Programs section.

The Icons item determines if setup will create program manager or Start menu icons. The default setting of A (upper case) enables the creation of icons. If you don’t want setup to add icons to your Start menu, set this item to 0.

The DesktopIcons item is for Windows 95 and NT only. This item determines if setup will place a few key icons directly onto your Windows desktop. The default setting is ABC (upper case) which creates icons for mapping, unmapping and changing passwords. These letters may be used in any combination. Setting this value to 0 prevents desktop icons from being created. Lower case letters prevent users from changing the values within the wizard pages. For example, Abc means that the map desktop icon will be created by default while the other two will not. Additionally, since b and c are lower case, those items will not be able to be adjusted within the setup wizard.

The [Files] section determines which SafeHouse components are installed as well as the target directory. The default setting for the Modules item is ABC which installs the documentation, general program files and administrative program files. For corporate settings, you might prefer to set this item to ABc which would prevent users from installing any of SafeHouse’s administrator tools.

The Directory item establishes the target local directory for the install. The default setting is c:\safedisk. If you replace this value, your new setting will be the default choice displayed in the wizard. If you have disabled the setup wizard, then the directory named here will be used or created without any further user prompting.

The [Volume] section is used to set preferences for creating your first SafeHouse encrypted volume. If CreateVolume is set to 0, then an initial volume is not created, leaving it up to the user to invoke the create volume wizard at a later time. If CreateVolume is set to 1, then setup will automatically launch the SDWCREAT.EXE Create SafeHouse Volume wizard after it finishes copying all files into the target directory. The command line parameters used to run this utility are set in the CreateParameters item. The default setting is: /create=c:\safedisk.dsk /size=10MB /description="Confidential Files" /expandable=64 /drivermsg=no.

The [Branded] section is used to specify the complete pathnames of files branded with your company’s public key which are to replace the unbranded versions otherwise installed by setup. The administrator’s tool for branding currently updates two files, SD.EXE and SDWLIB.DLL, which must be referenced in items named SD and SDWLIB, respectively. For example, SD=a:\sd.exe would retrieve the branded SD.EXE program from the root directory of a setup floppy diskette.

The use of branded files is completely optional. Their advantage to you is that if users lose their volume passwords, you’ll be able to recover the volume and choose a new password in a few simple steps as long as the volume was created using a branded version of the Create SafeHouse Volume wizard. Branding uses well-established public/private key encryption concepts, so there is no security risk in making volumes recoverable using an administrator’s key as long as the administrator is trustworthy.

The SafeHouse setup program is designed using WISE INSTALL 5.0 from Great Lakes Business Solutions (http://www.glbs.com). If you require more control over the setup process than is provided for here, please contact us by sending email to safehouse@pcdynamics.com and we will provide you with a copy of the WISE INSTALL script so that you may make the desired modifications yourself. PC Dynamics reserves the right to provide the setup scripts to site license customer only.