The Lansweeper installer no longer makes changes to DCOM permissions

[rseiler]

The changelog had this for a recent update:

Changed: #603842 The Lansweeper installer no longer makes changes to DCOM permissions on the Lansweeper server, to avoid conflicts with other software. Specifically, the following registry values are no longer deleted: DefaultLaunchPermission, MachineAccessRestriction, MachineLaunchRestriction

Can you elaborate on this? For which parts of DCOM (as seen with Dcomcnfg.exe) were those three things deleted? It won't happen with future installs, but without knowing where changes were made, how do we get back to the way things were, or is the current installer taking it upon itself to do that?

And what kinds of conflicts are you referring to, and with which software?

DCOM is way too tricky and important a thing with long-term repercussions to sort of let this slide.

[rseiler]

The KB article is clear, and I assume since that's something different than what's mentioned in the release notes, that those changes continue.

But back to the release notes:

"The Lansweeper installer no longer makes changes to DCOM permissions on the Lansweeper server, to avoid conflicts with other software."

OK, with it so far, but it would be helpful to know what software was in conflict, especially if this can't be undone for systems on which previous versions of Lansweeper were installed.

"Specifically, the following registry values are no longer deleted: DefaultLaunchPermission, MachineAccessRestriction, MachineLaunchRestriction."

This needs to be more specific, such as if you're referring to what's in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole, which I think you must be. These are policy changes which reflect in the Registry at that location. They're no longer deleted, but very few people are going to know offhand what HAD been there from before the time Lansweeper was installed who knows how long ago. This makes the answer to the previous question (which software was conflicting that prompted you to stop deleting the values) all the more important.

[Esben_D]

I've done some digging and some additional information.

rseiler wrote:
OK, with it so far, but it would be helpful to know what software was in conflict, especially if this can't be undone for systems on which previous versions of Lansweeper were installed.

At the start of the installer the DCOM settings are set to the windows default because in the past there were issues where malware altered the DCOM settings which made the Lansweeper installation fail. However, since then our development team found that deleting the specified keys is no longer needed.

rseiler wrote:
"Specifically, the following registry values are no longer deleted: DefaultLaunchPermission, MachineAccessRestriction, MachineLaunchRestriction."

This needs to be more specific, such as if you're referring to what's in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole, which I think you must be. These are policy changes which reflect in the Registry at that location. They're no longer deleted, but very few people are going to know offhand what HAD been there from before the time Lansweeper was installed who knows how long ago. This makes the answer to the previous question (which software was conflicting that prompted you to stop deleting the values) all the more important.

As you mentioned they three keys are indeed located in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole. As for the default value, indeed it would be hard to know what they are. The easiest way would be to copy them from a similar machine which has not had a Lansweeper installation on it.

I'll pass your comments along to our documentation team so they can take in into account when the article gets updated.

[Esben_D]

As far as I'm aware, the registry values mentioned used to get deleted, and are not longer deleted. Additionally, the changes in the article are made.

[rseiler]

OK, but do the three things mentioned in the release notes and quoted above look like they match up with what's in the KB article to you? They look like separate things to me.

[Esben_D]

All the changes made to DCOM by previous installations are mentioned here: https://www.lansweeper.com/kb/275/dcom-setting-changes-made-by-the-lansweeper-installer.html