Skip to main content
This article is for IT administrators who already have Draftable Legal deployed with the default installer (DraftableDesktopSetup.exe) and want to move to the machine-wide MSI (DraftableDesktopSystem.msi). The move is not an in-place upgrade. The two installers are separate products that install to different locations with different scopes, so you need to remove the per-user installation and deploy the MSI as a fresh install. The steps below cover what changes, what carries over, and what you need to do on each machine.
This article covers Draftable Legal only. The machine-wide MSI is the recommended installer for Citrix, Remote Desktop Services, and other shared-session or high-security environments.

​
How the two installers differ

Two of these differences cause the most problems after a migration, so they are worth calling out before you start.
Office add-ins behave differently under the MSI. With the default installer, Draftable installs the Word, Excel, and Outlook add-ins for the current user automatically when the application starts. The MSI does not do this. Under an MSI installation the application never self-installs add-ins, so any add-in you do not select at install time will simply be absent. If your users need the Office add-ins, you must request them explicitly every time you install or update the MSI.
Updates stop being automatic. Once a machine is on the MSI, Draftable will not update itself. You are responsible for deploying each new version. See Update procedure and configuration across deployment options.

​
What carries over, and what does not

Most user-level configuration is stored per user in the registry under HKCU\Software\Draftable, and is not touched by either installer. Redline profiles, comparison defaults, iManage settings, and Group Policy settings all continue to apply after the move. Licence activation is the exception you need to plan for.
Uninstalling Draftable does not release the licence activation. The activation slot stays consumed until the licence is deactivated from inside the application. If you uninstall the per-user installation without deactivating first, that machine’s slot remains in use, and you may run out of activations part-way through the rollout.Deactivate on each machine before you uninstall, or deploy the product key by Group Policy so that the MSI installation activates without user involvement. Both approaches are covered in the procedure below.
Expect users to activate again after the MSI is installed. Deploying the product key centrally is the reliable way to handle this at scale.

​
Before you start

1

Confirm which installer each machine is running

Open Settings in Draftable Legal. On 26.6 and later the version number is shown at the bottom-left of the Settings window.To check the installer type without opening the application, look in the registry:
  • A machine-wide MSI installation has InstallLocation under HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Draftable\Draftable Desktop.
  • A default per-user installation has an uninstall entry under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\DraftableDesktop, and the application files sit in %LocalAppData%\DraftableDesktop.
On a machine where several people have signed in, check every user profile. The default installer is per-user, so each user who has run it has their own copy to remove.
2

Decide which MSI features you need

The MSI installs only the features you ask for. Draw up your list before you deploy:
3

Have the product key ready

There is no MSI property for the product key. You deploy it by Group Policy or registry, or users enter it at first launch. See step 4 of the procedure.
4

Pilot on one machine first

Run the whole procedure end to end on a single machine, including the verification checks, before you roll it out more widely. Pay particular attention to the Office add-ins and the HTTP Listener Service, which are the two things most often missed.

​
Migration procedure

1

Deactivate the licence

On each machine, open Settings > Account > License and deactivate the licence. On versions before 26.6 this is under Settings > Licensing.This releases the activation slot so it can be reused when the machine activates against the new installation. Uninstalling on its own does not do this.If a machine is no longer reachable and cannot be deactivated, contact support@draftable.com and we can release the slot for you.
2

Uninstall the per-user installation

Close Draftable Legal completely, including from the system tray, then uninstall it from Settings > Apps > Installed apps (or Programs and Features).Repeat this for every user profile on the machine that has Draftable installed. Because the default installer is per-user, uninstalling for one user leaves other users’ copies in place.To script the removal, read the QuietUninstallString value from HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\DraftableDesktop in the target user’s profile and run that command. This gives you the exact silent uninstall command for the installed version.As good practice, check %LocalAppData%\DraftableDesktop afterwards and delete it if anything remains. Clearing it out leaves the machine in a clean state for the MSI and avoids leftover files from the previous installation being picked up later.
Removing the per-user installation is not optional housekeeping. Windows gives per-user registrations precedence over machine-wide ones, so a leftover per-user copy can keep handling draftable:// links, the right-click menu, and DMS integrations, which means comparisons launch the old copy rather than your MSI installation.
3

Install the machine-wide MSI

Download the MSI from https://dl.draftable.com/desktop/DraftableDesktopSystem.msi, or a specific version using:
Install it with administrator rights, including the HTTP Listener Service and any Office add-ins your users need. For a scripted install:
Create the log directory before you run the command, or logging will fail silently. For the interactive walkthrough and more examples, see Deployment options via MSI (System-wide) installer.
If you are integrating with iManage, install to the default location. Custom install paths make iManage integration issues more likely.
4

Deploy the product key

There is no MSI parameter for the product key. Deploy it by Group Policy, or set it directly in the registry:
Draftable checks for a key in this order: the key the user has already activated with, then HKCU\Software\Policies\Draftable\Compare, then HKLM\Software\Policies\Draftable\Compare. Setting the machine-level policy key means users are activated without being prompted.See Configuring settings with Group Policy for deploying this through Group Policy.
Deploying to Citrix or Remote Desktop? Licensing needs to be configured for your environment before users activate. Read Deployment advice for Citrix and RDP environments first.
5

Verify the installation

Work through the verification checks in the next two sections.

​
Install the HTTP Listener Service

The HTTP Listener Service is a required part of every machine-wide MSI deployment. It is the component that most commonly gets missed, and the failures it causes look unrelated to the installer. The service does three things:
  • Lets comparisons be launched from the iManage web interface, including on multi-user systems such as Citrix and RDS.
  • Lets Draftable open when it is not already running.
  • Acts as the backend for the Draftable Outlook add-in, including Redline in Email.
With the default per-user installer there is no service. Instead the application runs its own listener while it is open, which only works for one user at a time and only while Draftable is running. On a shared machine the second user to sign in gets a warning that port 4764 is already in use by another user’s session, and their Office add-in integration will not work correctly. Installing the service is what fixes this, and it is why the service matters more after you move to the MSI than it did before.

​
Including the service

Always name HttpListener explicitly. Do not rely on the installer default. ADDLOCAL installs only the features you list, so any command that omits HttpListener will not install the service. Include it in every install command and every update command, and confirm it is selected when installing interactively. Deployments that leave this to chance are the most common cause of iManage and Outlook add-in problems we see after a migration.
  • Scripted install: include HttpListener in ADDLOCAL, as in the command in step 3 above.
  • Interactive install: choose Advanced, expand Draftable Desktop > Integrations, and set Http service to Entire feature will be installed on the local hard drive. Deployment options via MSI (System-wide) installer shows this screen step by step.

​
Verifying the service

The service is registered as Draftable.HttpListener, displayed as Draftable HTTP Listener. It runs as the LOCAL SERVICE account and starts automatically.
You can also check that it is responding:
Service logs are written to C:\ProgramData\Draftable\HttpListener\logs.
The listener uses port 4764 by default. If that port is already used on your network, it can be changed under HKLM\Software\Policies\Draftable\HttpListener using the CommunicationPort value. Change it consistently across all machines, as the Office add-ins expect to reach the listener on the configured port.
Installing the service deploys it, but iManage integration needs further configuration beyond this. For the full iManage setup, see the iManage HTTP Listener Service installation guide.

​
Verifying the migration

Check each of the following on a migrated machine:
1

The old installation is gone

%LocalAppData%\DraftableDesktop no longer contains an application, and Draftable does not appear under Installed apps for any user other than as the machine-wide entry.
2

Draftable launches from the new location

The application runs from C:\Program Files (x86)\Draftable\Draftable Desktop (or your custom INSTALLDIR).
3

The version is correct

Open Settings and confirm the version number matches the MSI you deployed.
4

The Office add-ins are present

Open Word, Excel, and Outlook as required and confirm the Draftable ribbon appears in each.
5

The HTTP Listener Service is running

Get-Service Draftable.HttpListener reports Running.
6

The licence is active

Open Settings > Account > License and confirm the licence shows as active with the expected licence type.
7

A comparison runs end to end

Run a comparison, and if you use a DMS, launch one from the DMS as well.

​
Troubleshooting

The add-in features were not selected. Unlike the default installer, an MSI installation never installs add-ins on its own, so they will not appear later.Re-run the MSI with the add-in features included in ADDLOCAL (WordAddin, ExcelAddin, OutlookAddin).If the add-ins were installed but still do not load, the LoadBehavior registry value may not be set correctly. See Office Add-ins Not Loading After MSI Installation.
After an MSI install, Draftable normally removes a leftover per-user add-in registration automatically at startup. It deliberately leaves it in place in one case: when the per-user add-in is a newer version than the one in the MSI.This happens when the per-user installation had auto-updated to a version later than the MSI you deployed. The per-user add-in then takes precedence and can behave unpredictably, because the per-user application it belongs to has been removed.Deploy an MSI that is the same version or newer than the version the machine had reached before migration. You can check what that was in Settings before uninstalling, or in the version-specific folder names under %LocalAppData%\DraftableDesktop.
The full message tells the user the port is already in use by another user’s Draftable session, and that Office add-in integration may not work correctly. It means a per-user listener has claimed the port.It has two causes. Either the HTTP Listener Service was not installed, in which case install it as described above. Or a leftover per-user installation is still running on the machine, in which case remove it for every affected user profile.
A per-user installation is still registered on the machine. Per-user registrations take precedence over machine-wide ones for draftable:// links, the right-click menu, and DMS integrations.Confirm no user profile on the machine still has a per-user installation, then restart the machine.
This is expected. The MSI installation is a fresh install, and activation does not transfer from the per-user installation.Deploy the product key by Group Policy or registry as described in step 4 so activation happens without prompting. If activation fails with a message about the number of activations, the old slots were not released, because the licences were not deactivated before uninstalling. Contact support@draftable.com and we can reset them.
Re-run the install with verbose logging and check the log:
Create the log directory first. If the failure is not clear from the log, send it to support@draftable.com.Before retrying, confirm the previous per-user installation was fully removed and delete %LocalAppData%\DraftableDesktop if it still exists, then run the installer again.Note that the MSI does not support downgrading. To move to an earlier version, uninstall the current version first.

​
After the move

Draftable no longer updates itself on these machines. Plan how you will deploy new versions, using SCCM, Intune, or Group Policy, and remember to include the same ADDLOCAL feature list in your update commands. Feature selections are not carried across automatically, so a feature omitted from an update command will be removed.

Deployment options via MSI (System-wide) installer

Update procedure across deployment options

Enterprise deployment options

Deployment advice for Citrix and RDP environments

Silent install and launch options

Deploying Draftable using Intune

If you need help planning a migration, contact support@draftable.com.