Windows Administrator Installation

Introduction

The setup-machine.ps1 PowerShell script is run whenever you or your users run the DkML installer.

"setup-machine.ps1" will ask for elevated Administrator permissions to install the Microsoft C compiler (Visual Studio Build Tools). However, if the script detects that the correct versions and components of Visual Studio are already present on the machine, the installation is skipped and no Administrator permissions are needed.

That leads to two different ways you as an Administrator can avoid giving your users Administrator permissions. Choose either "Method One" or "Method Two" in the sections below.

However, make sure you have a plan for disk space. The disk requirements are: * "setup-machine.ps1" will consume 2GB of disk space installing Visual Studio * Each user can take up to 25GB of disk space in their User Profile ("$env:LOCALAPPDATA\\Programs\\DiskuvOCaml" and "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\\opam") just for the initial DkML distribution. That includes the OCaml compiler, Unix compatibility tools, and a set of OCaml packages to let each user be productive immediately after installation.

Method One - Pre-run setup-machine.ps1

You can download and run setup-machine.ps1 on behalf of your users, and then your users will not be asked for elevated Administrator permissions.

Specifically, after downloading "setup-machine.ps1", you should run:

PS> .\setup-machine.ps1 -AllowRunAsAdmin

You can also use the "-SilentInstall" switch if you need to automate the installation.

Method Two - Existing Visual Studio

Visual Studio specifications

If you have all four (4) of the following:

1. Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 or later for any of the following products:

   • Visual Studio Community
   • Visual Studio Professional
   • Visual Studio Enterprise
   • Visual Studio Build Tools (the compilers without the IDE)

2. If and only if you are using vcpkg (the C package manager) either because you are using DKSDK or because you used the "setup-machine.ps1 -VcpkgCompatibility" option, you will need the English language pack.

   Most open-source users of DkML will not need the English language pack.

3. Both of the following:

   • MSVC v142 - VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (v14.26) ("Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.14.26.x86.x64") which is used by OCaml to compile C code
   • MSVC v142 - VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest) ("Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64") which is used by vcpkg to compile C code

   vcpkg does not have the ability pick a precise version (ex. 14.26) of Visual Studio. If you are in the rare situation where you must have exact matching versions of the compiler, you can install Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6 which can be downloaded at Visual Studio 2019 Releases. Use the VS2019 16.6 installer to install "MSVC v142 - VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest)". Then you won't need to install "MSVC v142 - VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (v14.26)".

4. Windows 10 SDK 18362 ("Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.18362") which is also known as the 19H1 SDK or May 2019 Update SDK.

then the DkML distribution will not automatically try to install its own Visual Studio Build Tools.

Chocolatey install of Visual Studio

If you use Chocolatey to manage Windows software on your machines or in your CI builds, then one of the following code blocks will satisfy all the requirements:

# Any 16.6.x.x will work. This code block is recommended
# if you do not already install Visual Studio on your machines
choco install visualstudio2019buildtools --version=16.6.5.0 `
  --package-parameters "--addProductLang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.18362"

# This will also work, and is recommended if you already
# install the latest Visual Studio 2019
choco install visualstudio2019buildtools
choco install visualstudio2019-workload-vctools `
  --package-parameters "--addProductLang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.14.26.x86.x64"

# This will also work, and is recommended if you already
# install the latest Visual Studio 2017
choco install visualstudio2017buildtools
choco install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools `
  --package-parameters "--addProductLang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.14.26.x86.x64"

# This will also work with any 16.6.x.x version, although it
# will install more packages than are strictly required.
# This code block is not recommended, although GitLab CI, as of
# September 2021, already includes the first line in its shared
# GitLab Windows Runners.
# But the shared GitLab CI may update the version at any time.
choco install visualstudio2019buildtools --version=16.6.5.0
choco install visualstudio2019-workload-vctools

Manual installation of Visual Studio

The following installers allow you to add several optional components including the correct Windows 10 SDK:

• Visual Studio Community, Professional and Enterprise
• Visual Studio Build Tools

It is common to have multiple versions of Windows 10 SDK installed. Don't be afraid to install the older Windows 10 SDK 18362.

Validating Visual Studio components

After you have installed all the required components of Visual Studio, you can run setup-machine.ps1 with the switch "-SkipAutoInstallVsBuildTools" to verify you have a correct Visual Studio installation:

Set-ExecutionPolicy `
    -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted `
    -Scope Process `
    -Force

setup-machine.ps1 -SkipAutoInstallVsBuildTools

The "setup-machine.ps1" script will error out if you are missing any required components.