we need to deploy some custom DLL on Win7 Desktop computers that will be used for VBA.
Now, what would be the best location to store these files ?
Surely not in the standard Win locations such as Program Files or SystemXX folders...
Thanks a lot in advance for your answers
I have been working on a project which uses custom dlls and I place them in the workspace folder or the folder I am working from.
I use python(ctypes) so I have included them in the package that I am creating.
You can add the path of your dll location to the path variable as well if you like
Related
I want to know how installation in windows works like what sort of files get created first as .dll , drivers & all.
To be more precise when we click on .exe file what happens internally?
Generally speaking, anything can happen after you click the exe. But most of the time, installer does some or most of these:
check if the needed frameworks and libraries are already installed (ex: .NET framework)
create a registry entry with the application settings and uninstaller path
extract the binaries and assets or download them
create the needed directories (ex: Program Files/SomeProgram) and move the extracted files to the proper folders
create a desktop shortcut
associate the file extensions with the program
do whatever else the program needs.. It really depends on what you are installing and what needs to be set up for the program to
function properly.
Is it possible to add a path to the project VC++ Directories to load a external library but have the paths relative to the solution root?
I ask this as I work off a USB that I work on at home and take to uni, and at uni I am always on different systems (witch ever is free) I would like to works wit ha external library, but every time i sit at a new computer I need to set everything up...
I am looking for a way to place the entire external library inside a dir in my solution folder, and then set the project paths relative to that.. so were ever I load the solution, on any system. it can still find the library and compile.
It is possible using subst:
Map your library dir to a virtual drive:
subst Z: C:\dev\lib\
From Visual Studio, direct references to Z:\ (e.g.: Z:\some.dll is actually C:\dev\lib\some.dll)
If I use the publish feature in VS2008 (I think it's called ClickOnce install), and then install the published application in another computer, where are the files copied?
In other words: If I need an auxiliary file (a .txt file) in the same path of the assembly, where do I have to create it?
Thank you.
You should have specified the location when you published the application. Just note down that folder.
If you run the wizard again for the same project it should have remembered the location and the folder will be pre-filled on the form.
I've used this and I specified a location on my hard drive for the Publishing Folder Location. This folder contains the following files:
publish.htm
setup.exe
[application].application
It also contains a folder called Application Files which contains the files needed to build the installation - the exe, the manifest, other dlls and external resources.
I then copy the three files and the folder to the web location specified by the Installation Folder URL.
If you're talking about where the files get installed to then they're in:
C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Local Settings\Apps\2.0\H165QZM1.QBE\0OAEZTRX.Y3N\[some truncated version of the exe name followed by a GUID]
Which isn't the most obvious place. I should also point out that the folders H165QZM1.QBE and 0OAEZTRX.Y3N will probably be different on different machines, but the only other folder under C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Local Settings\Apps\2.0 is called Data so they should be easy to spot.
Is the application available offline or online only? My experience is online only and in that case I believe it installs into a temp directory. Can you include your auxiliary file as part of the application files? This may help as well it talks about including data files which can be of any type.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d8saf4wy.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6fehc36e.aspx
I want to put my dependent files in the app directory.
I seem to remember that you can force VB6 to use the files in the local directory only.
Any hints?
You may also want to try setting up Reg-Free COM for your project. There's a freeware called Unattended Make My Manifest that will do most of the work for you.
Placing component libraries in the EXE folder (with or without .local files) can be deleterious to the hygiene of target machines too.
VB6 programs will register the components here via the self-reg entrypoint behind your back if they are not previously registered. Then if the application is moved or removed you leave the user with a broken reigistration - possibly fatal to subsequently installed applications using some of the same components. This is probably fine though for application specific components, i.e. your own DLL or OCX that will never be needed by another application.
The .local trick was really not meant for use with VB6 programs and if it is used your installer needs to be aware and properly install and register the components if they are not already on the machine. It was meant as a manual hack to get around DLL version compatibility problems on individual machines, not a deployment strategy.
Move up to SxS application and assembly manifests (Reg-Free COM and more) for a better solution. DLL/COM Redirection (.local) was a good try but it has many warts.
Clay Nichol's answer about the search order is not quite correct. That search order only applies to non-COM components. I.e. only some DLLs, and not OCXs. If you register your COM objects, they will be used from the directory where they are registered regardless of what's in the local directory, unless you use reg-free COM or a .local file.
EDIT:
MakeMyManifest is well spoken of as an automatic tool for creating manifests for VB6 projects, haven't tried it myself.
DirectCOM also has fans, again I haven't tried it.
EDIT The MMM website is down. I see here that the author was having trouble with their hosting and has provided another location to get Make My Manifest - download it here.
There is a semi-automatic technique to generate reg-free COM manifests. You can create the manifests with Visual Studio 2008 (you can use a free version like Visual Basic Express Edition). Then make a couple of edits by hand to make the manifests suitable for use from VB6. See this section of this MSDN article for step-by-step instructions - ignore the rest of the article which is about ClickOnce.
It can be sort of confusing because every version of windows, the rules change. Older versions of Windows search the path before the current directory.
A simple solution without manifests:
If your executable file is A.EXE, add a (0-byte, empty) file in the same directory named A.EXE.local -- for older versions of Windows this puts the app directory ahead of the path in the search order.
Found it myself:
Windows does look in the App Directory first:
If SafeDllSearchMode is enabled, the search order is as follows:
The directory from which the application loaded.
The system directory. Use the GetSystemDirectory function to get the path of this directory.
The 16-bit system directory. There is no function that obtains the path of this directory, but it is searched.
The Windows directory. Use the GetWindowsDirectory function to get the path of this directory.
The current directory.
The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable. Note that this does not include the per-application path specified by the App Paths registry key. The App Paths key is not used when computing the DLL search path.
If SafeDllSearchMode is disabled, the search order is as follows:
1. The directory from which the application loaded.
2. The current directory.
3. The system directory. Use the GetSystemDirectory function to get the path of this directory.
4. The 16-bit system directory. There is no function that obtains the path of this directory, but it is searched.
5. The Windows directory. Use the GetWindowsDirectory function to get the path of this directory.
6. The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable. Note that this does not include the per-application path specified by the App Paths registry key. The App Paths key is not used when computing the DLL search path.
according to : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682586.aspx
But you can redirect where it looks for .dll's using a Manifest:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa375365(VS.85).aspx
I'm trying to make a distribution directory with my application. I've copied several Qt DLLs to that directory, and the program seems to be working, with one exception: it doesn't seem to find SQL plugin for SQLite. Copying qtsqlite.dll to the directory, doesn't allow my application to open or create SQLite files. What must be the direcotry structure or which additional files need to be copied so that the program can read the database?
you can use depends.exe to see exactly what the dependencies of your exe are and make sure they're all included.
Also, read this page about qt plugins. they are supposed to be in a specific directory called "plugins" and not in the main directory with all the other dlls.
Most probably, the qtsqlite.dll itself depends on original SQLite DLL's which you probably need to copy as well.
Don't forget to include an LGP license copy in your distribution as well as pointers to the original download ressources of the libs you include and their sources. To stay with the law :-)
Thanks to the link #shoosh provided, I was able to fix the problem. I needed to create sqldrivers subdirectory in the distribution dir with qsqlite.dll library inside. But that was just step one. Do you have any tips and resources on creating a full-blown Windows installer? I'm mainly a Linux programmer so this area is unknown to me.