Win2K standard programs

You have to run tests with standard installs and see what is missing.

That is part of the quality Assurance (QA ) testing that should be done.

I hope this helps !

Thank you for the reply.  I realize you should test to see what's missing but what I'm after are things that I can assume are there...

I don't think you need the MDAC it has been a standard since Win98. IE should also be already on the system but you may want to do version check.


The Crazy One

Is it true that IE "has" to be there in order for the OS to run?  Wasn't that part of MS's case?

Yes, it's starting to look like there are no "givens" and that I'll have to check.  My main reason for not wanting to do this is because then I either have to install what I need or tell the user to.  If I do it myself, the installation becomes larger and more complicated.

Thanks for your input,
Joe

Yeah I know what you mean. It makes it even more problematic if one wants to make it a downloadable product. Some folks will strip down their setup to a bare minimum and if something is needed then have the user go back to the web site and download what they need. Problem with that is that a lot people just want a one step setup so it becomes a Catch 22 situation, damnded if you do and damded if you don't. I really dislike putting together setup routines, it almost takes as much time and effort as it does to put the product together in the first place. :>(

Windows without IE is not a valid Windows configuration.  In spite of the legal mumbo-jumbo and that professor who demonstrated the "removal" of IE from Windows, it's just not the case.  First, the "removal" was not really that.  It was just a "hiding".  There are componenent parts of IE that remained and MUST remain for many things to work  Most notable of these is HELP.  If IE is not installed, HELP will not work since it is dependent on IE components.

My approach is to assume IE is present.  If it's not there, then the Windows system is considered unsupportable by Microsoft and that's good enough for me as well...

As far as the other things, MDAC, MMC, VML, none of these are required to be present (although I don't think you can install a W2K SERVER without getting MMC) so it's not safe to assume that these are present.  Most installers have a dependencies checker that lets you say what needs to be there and what versions need to be present for your application to work.  What installer are you using?  My guess is that the option to check for these is there somewhere.

I'm using InstallShield Windows Installer (2.01) and yes, it does allow us to check for existing products.  The current version of my installation checks for all these things but is targeted to the NT 4 platform.  I was hoping to remove some of the "bloat" because we are now only going to support W2K.  I guess I'll just leave it alone to be safe although, as you and others have mentioned, MMC, IE, and MDAC should be present.

Thanks,
Joe

Thanks jhance for the clarification. I am wondering though if it can be assumed later down the road. If the Justice Department gets the judgement they seek it was my understanding that one of the stipulations would be that IE could not be an integrated part of the OS.

Well part of the bloat with InstallShield is the Windows Installer that InstallShield compiles with the setup. Window Installer comes with Win 2000 but I don't think it is part of the OS configuration on the NT 4 platform.

Well, it would not be retroactive and so could only affect furture releases of Windows.  And whether or not this is an issue also depends a lot on just what the definition of "IE installed" vs. "IE not installed".  Or perhaps an even more general question, "What is IE?"  Is IE just the browser that show up on the desktop in response to clicking on the "e" icon?  Or is it something else.

It's a trick question and unfortunately the correct TECHNICAL answer may not be the "legal" answer....

Whatever the outcome is, I'm sure that independent sofware developers will feel the pinch over it....