Noob VB 6.0 Question

You can use the Package and Deployment wizard that comes w/ vb6.

Or, better yet, use the free Inno Setup.  You can get it here: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Using either of these, you then create, on your computer, a setup package
that contains all the files necessary for your program.

You then take the setup package to your friends and install it there.

If you don't have any dependencies other then the basic VB runtime file, you can download and run VBrun60SP6.exe (from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290887 ) and then just copy your exe on his PC.

With that  http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php  installer program  I like this it make it look nice...

But I do think I need the VB Runtime files...  How would I get this installer to install those runtime files as well?

>>But I do think I need the VB Runtime files

It is an absolute requirement!

Read Inno setup pages. It as all you need to create packages for VB6 application.

when you build the Setup package, ALL of the necessary support files will be included, so that all you need to do is to execute the setup on the target computer.

AW

WOW hehe

SO I just run that setup Wizzard and then that is it..... ok one last question.

I have a datadir folder  I need that folder and teh db file in it... it also...

So when it says OTHER FILES section.. Do I just tag that folder or do I tag that folder and the files in it?

in my personal opinion, I would go with the Package and Deployment Wizard that is built into Visual Studio (VB6) first, as that will automatically include all of the necessary files (and you can add your additional files as needed), using the same versions as you used when you developed the program.  YOu may or may NOT have the IDENTICAL versions to the ones you get from either the INNO site, or from Microsoft, and if you do not include the IDENTICAL versions, you may get installation errors, but building the installation files from YOUR PC, you are assured that the versions are 'correct' - if not 'current', they match (heck, they ARE) the versions you used to build the progrom in the first place.

You can then move to INNO if the PDW causes problems.  This is just my opinion, as I have never had problems with the PDW in Visual Studio.

AW

Agreed.  PDW gets a lot of flack, but I've never had problems w/ it.

Ok one probelm..

I the folder  Datadir

I need it ot MAKE that folder and then put the files that were in it.. .in it.

I click the ADD DIR and tag it... but it just copies the files and then puts then in the root install dir.

Any ideas?

Ok here is the line I think:

Source: "C:\Documents and Settings\t.berry\Desktop\Tickle\datdir\*"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion recursesubdirs

It is copying  all the files in my datadir  then when it goes to to where I tell it to install the app.. it is putting those files in \app

What do I need to changet to get it to copy those files and then put it in app\datadir ?

thanks

You should be able to change the destdir for that line to "{app}\datadir\"

Bah I forgot the last \  hehe

OK...

Now if i save this it saves as a .iss

not an exe or . bat

I assume that If I save that .iss to a cd  and take it over to my friends we can then do the install?

Arthur,

Thanks for the help. I will award you the points.  I would like to ask one last question though...

Were in VB do I start the Pacakge and Deployment wizzard?

Can you list steps in doing this for me?  

Thanks

Tim

Not sure about you but here is the command to launch the PDW on my machine...
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Vb98\Wizards\PDWizard\Pdcmdln.exe"

And you should be prompted about extra files/folders to include in the package and not have to edit anything.  If you aren't able to specify the correct folder during the packaging process, you can just edit the SETUP.LST file that is produced by the wizard to put the extra files and folders in place. There is lots of good info out there on adding simple things to these files if you do a Google search.