Installation Blues

[P_Aybara]

I'm having a hell of a time getting an application to install. Finally got it running on a fresh copy of Win98, and now moving to Win95, it's giving me a runtime error creating an ActiveX control. Won't tell me which one unfortunately. I didn't write the application and the guy who is is away so its up to me to figure out how to get this thing going. Can anyone tell me how I can find out what DLLs, OCXs, etc need to be installed for my program to run? Dependency walker unfortunately won't pick up on ActiveX controls. Thanks in advance.

[Lothar Haensler]

did you use the Package and Deployment Wizard in VB 6 to create your Setup program?
This program SHOULD find out what OCXs your program needs and add these to the setup.
Also, if all your DEP files are OK, it should include the required DLLs.
If is doesn't, check if all your OCXs have corresponding DEP files.
double-check third-party controls.

[Ruth Glushkin]

Installation Wizard not always could be 100% useful.
I got so many troubles with different OSs and different PCs,
but now, when I use Setup Factory of Indigo Rose Co.,
I just forgotten about it.
You can try it from http://www.indigorose.com
and, believe me, it really works.
The main advantage is that it automatically recognizes your
compiler of your application, and automatically adds all
the necessary dll's and ocx's, and automatically put
them into user's computer (Application dir), and not
Windows/System to make problems, and automatically
register it, if it is necessary.
The only limitations in trial version is nag screen
and, your setup package, but not the Setup Factory,
works only 30 days.

Best Regards!

[Lothar Haensler]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
On the other hand, that's not really a cheap product, is it?

[P_Aybara]

Thanks for your help. The problem is that I'm not a VC programmer and have rarely used VB so I'm not too sure how to do any of this. I don't see any .dep files in the project directory, should there be? And no, the install was made with InstallShield (again, by someone else) and I get the fun job of debugging it. Is there a nice way to just go into VB and say "List all dependencies" or something like that?

[Lothar Haensler]

>Is there a nice way to just go into VB and say "List all dependencies" or something like that?


Not sure, if it is a "nice" way, but you can open your VBP file in Notepad and find all OCXs that are referenced in your project. You can get similar information from inside the IDE via project/components menu.

Still, dependencies won't be made transparent.
The DEP Files should reside where your OCXs reside, usually the system directory.

[P_Aybara]

Got the installation program going, thanks for your help! I used that "Setup Factory" program to find the required OCXs and DLLs, then used that list to see what I was missing and included it into the InstallShield install. Nice way around the trial, hehe. Actually it seems like an exellent program, good chance we'll use it for the next install anyways!

[Lothar Haensler]

Cool trick! ;-)