Difference between revisions of "Picasa"

Revision as of 10:15, 17 June 2011

Google Picasa is a photo album and editing tool. Download it from http://picasa.google.com/. When new versions are released they're available from picasa.google.com (where the filename is picasa<version>-setup.exe) before they are from the likes of picasa.google.co.uk (where the filename is picasaweb-current-setup.exe).

Readme: picasa-readme.blogspot.com/

Picasa is not that easy to silently install. Mainly because it forks processes after installation which have to be terminated. Therefore you need the Microsoft Taskkill command installed for it to work.

Picasa 3

Picasa 3 by default installs to %PROGRAMFILES%\Google\Picasa3.

Silently installing Picasa 3 when Picasa 2 is installed will automatically remove Picasa 2.

Picasa Media Detector doesn't come with Picasa 3.

Note that Picasa uninstall will open a web browser to ask for feedback.

Use the following to perform a silent installation of Picasa 3.x:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<packages>

<package id='Picasa' name='Picasa' revision='2' priority='3' reboot='false' >
  <check type='uninstall' condition='exists' path='Picasa 3' />
  <install cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\Picasa\picasa3-setup.exe" /S /L' >
    <exit code='1' />
    <exit code='128' />
  </install>
  <upgrade cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\Picasa\picasa3-setup.exe" /S /L' >
    <exit code='1' />
    <exit code='128' />
  </upgrade>
  <remove cmd="%PROGRAMFILES%\Google\Picasa3\Uninstall.exe /S"/>
</package>

</packages>

Auto Update

I assume the auto update feature came in in version 3.

My experience of Picasa's auto update feature is that it defaults to 'update automatically'. For administrators or Power Users, when they first run Picasa it auto updates without prompting, even before you've managed to run it for the first time. For Limited user accounts, this setting causes it to prompt the user, asking if they want to update.

The automatic update feature can be turned off using Tools → Options → General → Automatic Updates → Don't check for updates or you can add the following lines after the setup-tag:

 
  <install cmd='cmd /c %windir%\regedit.exe /s %YourPicasaPath%\PicasaAutoUpdateOff.reg'/>
  <upgrade cmd='cmd /c %windir%\regedit.exe /s %YourPicasaPath%\PicasaAutoUpdateOff.reg'/>

where PicasaAutoUpdateOff.reg is the following Registry File:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Picasa\Picasa2\Preferences]
"AutoUpgradeCheck"=dword:00000000
"AutoUpgradeAsk"=dword:00000000

Because its stored in HKCU you may need to do this for every user.

Alternatives:

1. Changing the Startup Mode of "Google Updater Service"

   sc config gusvc start= disabled

2. Uninstall "Google Updater Service" view details here: [1]

   pushd "%ProgramFiles%\Google\Common\Google Updater" & GoogleUpdaterService /UnregServer & popd

Picasa 2

Picasa 2 installs to %PROGRAMFILES%\Picasa2. Changing this with installer options causes Picasa to install into repetitive %PROGRAMFILES%\Picasa2\Picasa2\Picasa2\... directories.

Use the following to perform a silent installation of Picasa 2.x:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<packages>

<package id='Picasa' name='Picasa' revision='2' priority='3' reboot='false' >
  <check type='uninstall' condition='exists' path='Picasa 2' />
  <install cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\Picasa\picasa2-setup.exe" /S' >
  <install cmd='cmd /C taskkill /F /IM Picasa2.exe' >
    <exit code='1' />
    <exit code='128' />
  </install>
  <install cmd='cmd /C taskkill /F /IM PicasaMediaDetector.exe' >
    <exit code='1' />
    <exit code='128' />
  </install>
  <upgrade cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\Picasa\picasa2-setup.exe" /S' />
  <upgrade cmd='cmd /C taskkill /F /IM Picasa2.exe' >
    <exit code='1' />
    <exit code='128' />
  </upgrade>
  <upgrade cmd='cmd /C taskkill /F /IM PicasaMediaDetector.exe' >
    <exit code='1' />
    <exit code='128' />
  </upgrade>
  <remove cmd="%PROGRAMFILES%\picasa2\Uninstall.exe /S"/>
</package>

</packages>

The uninstall option may need testing.

Picasa Media Detector

Picasa Media Detector is part of Picasa 2. You can disable Picasa Media Detector with the following:

Picasa 2.7 Build 37.29(?) and later

These versions had the media detector load for each specific user from their HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

  <upgrade cmd='cmd /C reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "Picasa Media Detector" /f' />
  <install cmd='cmd /C reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "Picasa Media Detector" /f' />

Picasa 2.7 Build 37.23(?) and Earlier

These versions had the media detector load for all users from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

  <upgrade cmd='cmd /C reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "Picasa Media Detector" /f' />
  <install cmd='cmd /C reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "Picasa Media Detector" /f' />