Windows Installer when initiated for any kind of installation starts looking around the network to find the files. Now if you aren’t on a network at all its a waste of time. taking the reverse case if computers at office do not have any removable media allowed, looking on a network first is always a better option when deployment is centralized.
This nature of Windows Installer can be changed and set to choose between three options :
- Network
- Media
- and URL
of which Network is set to default. Also if you don’t want any of the sources to be searched at all, a computer can opt out of it.
To change the settings :
- Start the Group Policy Editor or type gpedit.msc in run prompt.
- Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Installer.
- Click on Setting which says Search Order and Enable it.
- Enabling open up a text box where you can provide the order of search and if you don’t provide any of one it will not be used.
