Visual Basic Apps on CD-Roms

Hello,

I am working on an application in Visual Basic that will be distributed on CD. We have decided that we would like to get the program to run off the CD w/o any kind of install program. We are using an MS Access file to hold all the data. Since we can't write back to the CD, I copy the Access file to the windows temp directory using Win32 API calls. It doesn't seem to like ActiveX. So I burned a CD with my compiled program, all the data, and VB run times that the program will need. I got it running on WinNT SP3 on several desktop and laptop computers. I took it home to test it on Win95 and Win98 and I got an Error 76 Path Not Found. In my code, I use the Win32 API to find the windows temporary directory and copy my db file over to the temp directory. I think this is where I am having the problems.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem?

Hard to say without seeing your code.
Oh, don't forget that on machines that doesn't have the runtime dll's and OLE dll's you might get into trouble...
But the error... did you check the path for a \ at the end?

I copied the runtime DLLs to the CD and that seems to work just fine on NT machines here. Wether they have VB on them or not. I am not using OLE I don't think. Unless Win32 API calls to ShellExecute, CopyFile, DeleteFile or GetTempPath use them.

I just looked at all the paths and everything looks like it is working fine. I am not sure why it suddenly chokes going from NT to 95 or 98.

I would check to see what is being returned as the Temporary Path, if you're using the GetTempPath API then if neither TMP or TEMP Enviroment Variables are set it'll return the Current Directory, otehrwise, the Enviroment Vairable(s) could point to an Invalid Path. You could always change you code to Create your own Temporary Folder and use that instead.

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Aaron Young
Analyst Programmer
[email protected]
[email protected]



[This message has been edited by Aaron Young (edited 01-05-2000).]

The problem I am having is really bizarre. On WinNT SP3, it works fine off the CD and the HDD. On Win95/98, it won't work off the CD, but will work across a network and off the HDD. From doing some debug.prints it seems to find the directories no problem except for when it is on a CD running Win95/98. Creating my own temporary directory sounds like a good idea. Do you have any suggestions on how to do that as far as dir names, etc?

well it can be anything (duh) but if you look at programs who use their own temp dirs, it's usually some weird names like #$%@! since those are usually not the names ppl give to a folder.... although if you're program is running long and ppl browse their harddisk while running your program, they might look weird... something like !ProgramName_Tempfolder looks less weird then (and smart ppl understand it's a temp folder...)

I believe that you need a newer version of OLEAUT32.DLL on the client machines, and you have to run the VB6 Runtime installation to get it.

I think I found my problem. I used some different Win95 boxes and got a error message: "The MSVBVM60.DLL file is linked to missing export OLEAUT32.DLL:417"

I was looking through the references and the MSVBVM60.DLL is in my local directory where I am developing. I copied OLEAUT32.DLL to the CD along with the MSVBVM60.DLL. How could I get MSVBVM60.DLL to link to the copy of OLEAUT32.DLL? I think that might fix it, I think.

I am trying to distribute a VB appliction in CD, can i know how to locate those .dll files in cd?
thank u very much.

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Originally posted by Powerlifter:
Hello,

I am working on an application in Visual Basic that will be distributed on CD. We have decided that we would like to get the program to run off the CD w/o any kind of install program. We are using an MS Access file to hold all the data. Since we can't write back to the CD, I copy the Access file to the windows temp directory using Win32 API calls. It doesn't seem to like ActiveX. So I burned a CD with my compiled program, all the data, and VB run times that the program will need. I got it running on WinNT SP3 on several desktop and laptop computers. I took it home to test it on Win95 and Win98 and I got an Error 76 Path Not Found. In my code, I use the Win32 API to find the windows temporary directory and copy my db file over to the temp directory. I think this is where I am having the problems.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem?

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