[RESOLVED] Trouble with setup.lst

[paralyzedcitizen]

Right, this is a puzzler.

I've used the package and deployment wizard to package up my program and now I want to install it onto some machines. Unfortunately my IT department automatically blocks all .exe files with "setup" in their name. To combat this I usually change the name of setup files to soemthing else before running them, eg putes.exe. Unfortunately in this case the setup file then looks for putes.LST which it cant find because it doesn't exist. if i also change the name of the .lst file to putes.LST then the setup file pops up an error saying it cant find setup.lst.

How irratating.

Can I edit the setup program so that this deosnt happen, i.e. so that I can change the name of my setup file and have it find the list file, what ever it is called?

Apologises for length and thanks in advance!

[Nightwalker83]

Hm, I don't know! I tried opening both the .exe and the .lst file in notepad then replacing all the references to setup.lst. However, that didn't work! Looking PDWizard files in the Wizards directory I'm guessing that could be code for the P&D Wizard. I'm guessing that somewhere in there it tells you what the references are and what that refer to.

[paralyzedcitizen]

I've had a look at the code for the setup wizard but I can't make head nor tail of it. Does anyone know if this is the right direction to go in? or is there an easier way?

[dilettante]

If they are blocking legacy installers (i.e. EXEs with "setup" etc. in them and a few other hints Windows can sniff for) changing the names of these things may not be enough anyway. They may be blocking .MSI (Windows Installer) packages from installing as well.

The reasons range from just being BOFHs to company policies about computer use to legitimate concern about causing support issues. The latter is generally an issue of poorly written or packaged applications that delete components used by the system or company applications, replace them with faulty, insecure, or incompatible ones, or just plain muck up the registry.


One solution is to prepare your program as an isolated application. This only works on Windows XP or later, and works best starting with XP SP2. Such applications do not install and register ActiveX components, and must be written to use .INI files and such instead of putting junk in the registry. In the case of VB6 you must rely on the versions of the runtimes already in place.

You can use most DLLs and OCXs you normally would in VB6, you just have to rely on those installed as part of the system and those you isolate.

Isolated Applications


I know of two tools for doing this: Side-by-Side Manifest Maker and Make My Manifest.

There is also some info at Simplify App Deployment with ClickOnce and Registration-Free COM.

[paralyzedcitizen]

Thank you dilettante. That was very helpful. I used the second program you recommended (the first wasn't free) which got the job done after a few hiccups.

Cheers