Installing Windows Live Writer without administrator permission

    After moving to new office, i was not having Admin rights to my new PC. So, cannot install my custom software to my machine and felt really bad without experimenting with new software. But the important software that i missed is Windows Live Writer.

   As there is a version called Windows Live Writer Portable which can be used from USB, I wanted to try that out. But i never got time to install Windows Live Writer in my home PC and take backup of the executables and then extract Windows Live Writer Portable zip. If you have all the time for it, follow Plan A. Plan A is little bit legal and as the USB is with you, you can use it anywhere just by inserting the USB and also your settings will also be with you.

Plan A:

1. Install Windows Live Writer in a PC where you have admin rights
2. Copy the contents of C:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer into USB drive
3. Then download WindowsLiveWriterPortable.zip from http://www.techlifeweb.com/2007/02/windows-live-writer-portable.html
4. Follow the rules as per the above link. WindowsLiveWriterPortable.exe also extracts Local settings you have done for Windows Live Writer (configuration of blogs).

 

After getting lethargic with doing Plan A, i took a different route since i don’t need a USB go-anywhere solution. Here is plan B which is not so legal.

 

Plan B:

1. Download Windows Live Writer Offline Installer (Full copy) here: http://www.4shared.com/zip/pY2tyJTR/Windows_Live_Writer_2009_Offli.html (Virus free)
2. As you don’t have admin rights, you cannot install “Writer.msi” which comes as part of the zip file. We are gonna extract the MSI now!!
3. First extract the zip file and put it in a directory.
4. Goto Command Prompt and change to the directory where the above zip file is extracted. Decide a directory and create it with empty contents where you want to extract the MSI. (in my case C:\Tools\Writer). Then give, the below command

msiexec /a Writer.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\Tools\Writer

5. Now, go to C:\Tools\Writer. And You get your WindowsLiveWriter.exe. Just double-click and start using it. Don’t ask for automatic updates to it!! :) Not sure whether it will work as this is registry free version.