While packaging dependencies with Inno setup or any setup, there are some common set of Microsoft files like msvcrt.dll, comdlg32.dll, mfc42.dll etc. On surfing the net, I have so far received mixed information about these Dll's and whether they need to be there in a setup or not? What I want to know is a source on net where I can see details for respective Dll's. I have scanned msdn but there is not direct definition or detail of respective dll's. Example: should msvcrt be different for Win98 and XP and whether it should be installed on these machines or not?
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
http://www.mztools.com/
that what i currently use now, its free and a wonderful overall tool much better than aivisto or whatever.
I use it for a lot of different things of course but it has a tool that makes a xml documentation file that among other things shows you all references your program uses, this might be usefull.
One of the best of breed is to Use Install shield, it has a dynamic scan as well as static scan for all the dependent files/dlls for the project/executable you want to build setup. They have merge module files for all dependencies and you just need to include the correct merged module file ..msi file into your build plus any external dlls/other files you want to include.
Install Shield is excellent - I am currently using Developer 8. The merge modules are downloadable from http://www.installshield.c
You can also create your own merge modules for libraries, dlls and other components (or groups of components) that you have developed that seldom change.
I'm not sure what the current price is, but I paid about $600 for it last year (and the western lanugage pack was approx. $250 - this allows you to deploy install sets in multiple languages).
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Night
I cant afford to spend that amount. As i mentioned, I am using Inno setup and I find it as an excellent tool. All I want to know is a link to some site or some knowledgebase on net where I can read details of common Microsoft dll's and known problems with them. I have created everything with my Inno setup and this is the only thing that is left.
Hmm. I'm not sure if there is a kba anywhere that describes the version - OS dependancy. I will try and find out.
An alternative would be to actually test all your install sets on various OS's before deploying. I have a second PC with Norton's Ghost installed, and multiple images (Win95,98,98SE,2K,2Ksp1-4,
Obviously this would require a second PC (probably more than $600, unless you already have an old one that you can use), as well as Norton's Ghost (not sure what this costs these days - check out http://www.symantec.com)
Cheers
Night
http://www.dll-files.com - a good resource for downloading dll's.
Best thing I can suggest is the MSDN (either your local copy, or http://msdn.microsoft.com)
Usually dll versions that are backward compatible (i.e. binary compatible - the interface has probalby not been changed, or it has simply been extended) retain the same name, while newer versions with different interfaces have new names. This means that 'theoretically' it is safe to replace an existing MS dll with a newer version. However, this should probably be tested.
Cheers
Night
Saves an image of the installed partition for restoring at a later stage. I have 2 drives in my machine - one holds the OS and installed partition, another holds saved images of partitions. I do a fresh installation of say, win98SE on the c:\. When I'm finished, I then use Ghost to save the image to the second driver. Then, whenever I want to test on a clean machine (with no extra dll's, runtime components, etc), I simply use Ghost to restore the clean image. This means that I don't have to go through the hassle of re-installing the PC whenever I want to test on a specific OS - I simply restore the image and ...
Cheers
Night
This sounds very interesting. I have two machine networked with each other. One is the development machine I am working on A and the other is RND machine wherein I do all RND work B. I have been formatting and reinstalling things on that machine for RND work. This means, I can simply take an image of hard disk of machine B and store it on this machine A and after RND restore the image from this machine A to that machine B. Is it that simple?
Theoretically, yes.
However, networked drives could be a problem - I don't think that Ghost supports network config (will look up - but I think you would have to create a boot disk that sets the network config and then runs the ghost.exe - I haven't tried it as I have extra hard drive space), which means that you will not be able to restore across the network. It's better to create a seperate partition on you Machine B's hard drive to store the images (or a entirely seperate drive, if you have one).
Otherwise once it's configured, it is literally that simple - note though that the latest version of ghost does not support Windows 2003 Server.
link to ghost:
http://www.symantec.com/sa
Pricing ranging from $69.99 (Home/Retail User).
I missed your comment on http://www.dll-files.com. I went through this site today morning and all it is offering is the download of latest Dll's. regarding my own database of Dll's, this is what I am doing. I am storing most commonly required Dll's in a folder with their version no. etc and in VB I have created an application that displays me a list of DLL's in that folder. While creating a setup in Inno, I will click the files i want to include in a setup and the DLL's will be copied in the destination folder. However, before copying these DLL's I want to be sure that they would not crash the client machine. Although the possibilty is remote but why take a risk and why not know more about these DLL's. That's why I am hunting for the correct source. MSDN unfortunately doesn't explain about these DLL's, or may be I am not able to search it properly. There are some contradictions that are coming from MSDN. There are statements like Comdlg32.dll is not distributable but if you use PDW it will distribute it. So, I want to be sure about what is correct before going ahead from here.
Like I said - I haven't tried it.
Surely you would be able to write your own autoexec.bat / config.sys, etc (for those of use that still remember how to work with them - damn I'm getting old) - and load the drivers this way from a custom boot disk (i.e. a copy of theirs, with the relevant files hacked to suit your purposes)?
Sethi
Unfortunately MSDN documentation is the best I can suggest. Again, your alternatives are to purchase expensive (but reliable) install-set authoring software that can manage you dependancies / version checking / OS version checking automatically (or create your own MergeModule to do this if they don't already exist) or ensure that your software is tested on each OS that you support (which should be done anyway).
Many companies are moving away from providing support to the older OS - we have just terminated official support for Win98SE - we now require Win2K or later. This has also aided in minimising the volume of components to be redistributed, as there are some that are now redundant (eg JET) or get installed on the machine with the OS. I guess this would depend on your client requirements, though.
Sorry for the sidetrack ;)
Cheers
Night
Will this help you?
http://support.microsoft.c
You might also like to download the trial versions of Sertup factory, or InstallShield and then try with your App and could fine the needed files, if its only for one-time use.
Otherwise, as suggested by others, better to go for Install Shield or a similar product. I am not used to InnoSetup, btw.
Cheers.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: NBrownohPosted on 2003-11-19 at 00:53:01ID: 9777105
well i think that with each release of an operating system the basic function names and functionality of those functions was kept the same. If you were to release a winXP dll that was also included with Win9x it should just be a better version with a few more functions. Though i have heard of some things causing winnt to crash, but this is a very selective group i think.