Anyone have an MSI for Google Earth 5

[careless]

Does anyone have an MSI file for Google Earth 5? The one I created with WinInstall LE doesn't work, and I don't really know how to fix it. Alternatively, any help fixing it would also be appreciated (when running the .msi file on a client, it fails immediately with an error 2715 and no useful information).

[AngryTechnician]

I hate the fact that recent releases from Google now have to use the Google Updater. Why? Because it hides the fact that there is a ready-built .msi already in the installer.

 

When Google Updater runs it downloads a .exe into the C:\Program Files\Google\Update\Offline folder and then launches it to perform the install. In Google Earth's case, the .exe can be found at C:\Program Files\Google\Update\Offline\{74AF07D8-FB8F-4D51-8AC7-927721D56EBB}\GoogleEarth-Win-Plus-5.0.11337.1968.exe, though of course this will change the minute they issue the next update.

 

If you open this .exe in a package extractor such as 7-Zip, you will find all the setup files, including the .msi. Extract the lot and it should* be deployable.

 

*I'm still testing my deployment as I type this, but it's looking good so far.

Edited February 9, 2009 by AngryTechnician
Link to 7-Zip because it's awesome

[careless]

Thanks, I found the .msi file in the temprary folder after running the setup.exe fiel you linked to.

[AngryTechnician]

Not sure if you've tried GPO deployment on it yet, but I had to make a modification to the .msi to get it to deploy. When I first tried it, I kept getting the error message "Unable to extract deployment information from the package. Run validation on the package to ensure that the package is correct."

 

This appears to be because of erroneous data in the Languages field in the .msi Summary Information. I had to open the .msi in Orca, go to the View > Summary Information menu, and edit the Languages field so that it only contained 1033 (the language ID for US English). Only then would it successfully deploy.

[rad]

we have it installed in an MSI and I deployed ok today.

[pagelad]

Awesome, ill give this a go tommorow been hunting on appdeploy all day for something about it!

[AngryTechnician]

Guess I should write something for AppDeploy then... was actually going to put something on there for Adobe Premiere Elements 7 last week, but then I discovered it has an egregious AppData redirection bug just like Acrobat 9 and I have now forsaken it in disgust.

[careless]

Not sure if you've tried GPO deployment on it yet, but I had to make a modification to the .msi to get it to deploy. When I first tried it, I kept getting the error message "Unable to extract deployment information from the package. Run validation on the package to ensure that the package is correct."

 

This appears to be because of erroneous data in the Languages field in the .msi Summary Information. I had to open the .msi in Orca, go to the View > Summary Information menu, and edit the Languages field so that it only contained 1033 (the language ID for US English). Only then would it successfully deploy.

Just tried to add it as a package in GP, getting the same error. Waiting for Orca to download now, may need some more help later . Cheers for the advice in the meantime.

[Jon_boy1984]

When Google Updater runs it downloads a .exe into the C:\Program Files\Google\Update\Offline folder and then launches it to perform the install. In Google Earth's case, the .exe can be found at C:\Program Files\Google\Update\Offline\{74AF07D8-FB8F-4D51-8AC7-927721D56EBB}\GoogleEarth-Win-Plus-5.0.11337.1968.exe, though of course this will change the minute they issue the next update.

 

It looks like they've release a new version, I couldn't find the .exe in the above location, but I did find it being downloaded into my temp directory, already extracted. Unfortunatly as soon as the web installer was finished with it, it removed the folder, I got around this by denying delete rights to my temp folder for the currently logon user, whilst I copied the MSI etc out into another folder. Then got rid of the deny permissions.

 

I wish google would make it easy for use to obtain the MSIs.

[AngryTechnician]

My usual tactic for grabbing temp files from Setup programs these is to use Process Explorer to Suspend the setup.exe while it is running.

[careless]

If you can get a hold of the setup executable (GoogleEarth-Win-Plus-5.0.11337.1968.exe) you can use 7zip to extract the .msi and relevant files from it. You'd probably have to use Orca as above - I haven't tried this because I've got it working now - but this isn't particularly difficult.

 

A google search should turn up the executable. Hope this helps.

[Chuckster]

How would you use Orca to set the disk cache, disable the usage statistics and not install the google toolbar?

[Gerry]

Try this link:

http://dl.google.com/earth/client/current/GoogleEarthWin.exe

[AngryTechnician]

How would you use Orca to set the disk cache, disable the usage statistics and not install the google toolbar?

 

Usage statistics default to off when you deploy via Group Policy. It is turned on/off by modifying the USAGESTATS row in the Property table. The toolbar install also doesn't seem to run when deployed (at least it didn't on our machines).

 

Moving the cache directory is a more complicated matter. Are you trying to move it to a different directory within the user's profile or move it to a common directory for all users on a particular machine? I can provide an example MST for either scenario if you let me know where you want to move it to.

 

Try this link:

http://dl.google.com/earth/client/current/GoogleEarthWin.exe

 

That does bypass Google Updater, so a good find in that respect, but it's still not the full download sadly. It clocks in at only 501KB and then proceeds to download the remaining files, so some hunting through the temp directory is still in order.

[Chuckster]

Thanks for the response, AT. I was hoping to move the cache to a central server where users can share. I'm hoping this will reduce bandwidth use. Is this doable?

[AngryTechnician]

Moving the cache file to a network share would be very easy (easier in fact that moving it to a single per-machine cache as I normally do), but I'm not sure that multiple users would be able to access the same cache simultaneously. I strongly suspect that once the first user is running Google Earth the cache file will be locked and subsequent users would not be able to access it, but I suppose it's worth a try.

 

All you need to do is set up the network share you want to use with at least write permissions for all your users, then modify one row in the Registry table of the MSI. Search for the row with CachePath in the Name column, and make the following changes:

1. Change the Root column to 2
   
2. Change the Value column to the UNC path of the share where you want the cache file to be

Of course, you can set this value to put the cache file anywhere you want. If you want it to be a folder on the local machine, it will either have to already exist with the correct permissions, or you will need to create it using further modifications to the MSI (which is what I do on our machines).

[enjay]

What's better with the cache - local or networked? It doesn't see much use here, plus server disk space and network bandwidth are precious, but I don't want to have it on the local disk if it is going to grow and grow until the disk is full - are there any limits to its size?

 

Also, I installed GE5 onto a clean machine as a user who won't have used GE before, and it picked up a load of .kmz files which the Geography students have used before. Where did it get that information from, and how can I stop that from happening?

[AngryTechnician]

I've never tried a networked cache, and I don't know whether Chuckster ever tried it either. Hopefully he'll see this post and let us know.

 

As for the imported files, do you know which folder they were in when GE found them?

[enjay]

I have no idea where the imported files (waypoints from a GPS unit) would have been - what I do know is that they were imported by students using GE Plus on a different computer on the network. Most bizarre.

[ITSchoolBod]

Many thanks Angry Technician, for the Orca msi edit specific. I have been chasing this subject for about six weeks and this is the first time I've found any info on that bit having stumbled from one hurdle to the next. That was my last stumbling block. Was. Having got it deployed using GPO (Hooray) I find that when I log on as a non domain admin and fire up GE I get three "Could not create folder" errors with a path unprintables\Google\GoogleEarth. I am guessing it is trying to create folders somewhere to which the user is denied. Does anyone know what the whole path is and can it be changed in the msi, and where?

Regards

Frustrated IT School Bod.

Edited April 21, 2009 by ITSchoolBod

[AngryTechnician]

The only place it should be trying to create any files would the the user's Application Data folder. Go to %appdata% for the affected user and check they have permissions to create new folders, etc.