Building and installing Mozilla signtool on Windows 7 - windows

Can anyone either point me to (or provide here) a clear, step-by-step approach that will get Mozilla's signtool (distinct from the Windows program of the same name) installed and working in a Windows environment (specifically, Windows 7)? It appears to be the best tool available to build a XPI file to package up a compiled Firefox extension (in this case, a plugin developed in C++ with Visual Studio). There are quite a few purported explanations on the web of how to do this, but I've tried following several now, and each seems to be missing major steps. For what it's worth, I don't care whether I start from source, download binaries to my dev machine, or do whatever else, just so long as it gets me a usable, properly installed signtool so I can use it to package my code.

Found it. http://mdn.beonex.com/en/Signing_a_XPI is on the mark, in stark contrast to many other web pages on the topic.

Related

MiKTeX dvipdfmx stopped working under Windows XP

On our PC (under Windows XP there is MiKTeX, and it have been working well for many years. However, several month ago, after installing the latest version (setup from 09/16/2017), dvipdfmx stopped working reporting something like 'it is not win32 application'. It has been appeared that the problem is arisen by mgs.exe (ghostscript for MiKTeX). The first thought was that a 64-bit version of mgs.exe was mistakenly included into 32-bit MiKteX. However, it is appeared not the bug: MiKTeX team says that it is worked under 32-bit Windows 7.
I do know that officially MiKTeX now requires Windows 7 or higher (so, XP is not supported). However. it was perfectly well until the latest update, and even now latex.exe, yap.exe and others still work. So, the question: is it possible to go the problem around within XP?
Without knowing what the actual problem is, its impossible to offer any advice. When quoting errors it is important to quote the exact error message.
"Something like 'it is not win32 application'" is not precise enough.
This is also not a Ghostscript question, because 'mgs.exe' isn't Ghostscript, its clearly a fork of some kind.
My guess is that its the fact you are using an ancient version of Windows, most likely the application is no longer compatible with such an old version, possibly because whoever built it is using a newer version of Visual Studio.
In order to build Ghostscript for Windows XP I think you need to use Visual Studio 2005 or earlier, a more recent version will create an executable that will not run on Windows XP.
The only solution to this would be to build 'mgs.exe' with an older version of Visual Studio, or try the pre-built executable 'gswin32.exe' which is available from the ghostscript.com website in the downloads section. Obviously that's not the same as mgs.exe, but I can't help you with a fork since I have no clue what's been done.
The first thing to try is running 'mgs.exe' from the command line, if that fails to work then its almost certainly because the developer who built it used too recent a version of Visual Studio.
If this is the case then no, you can't fix it within Windows XP, you need to do one of:
1) Upgrade to a newer OS
2) Downgrade your MikTeX and live with the older version until you are prepared to upgrade your OS.
3) Rebuild 'mgs.exe' yourself using an old version of Visual Studio. This could be challenging because I can't find anywhere on the MikTeX website where they make the source files available. I've been to their Github repository and I can't find anything from Ghostscript there either. I'm going to have to contact the developers, they are not using a stock version of Ghostscript, they do not appear to make their revisions available, ansd although they correctly reference Ghostscript as AGPL I cannot see anywhere in the install or their Github repository which lists Artifex as the owner or points to the Artifex website. They also don't copy the Licence or readme files (slapped wrists for them).
I was going to try using the regular Ghostscript instead of the modified version, but I don't have know anything about MikTeX so I have no way of testing whether that works. It looks to me like it probably would, since it appears that MikTeX forks Ghostscript as a process. So copying and renaming the 64-bit Windows version of Ghostscript's binaries would probably work.
As you note, the developers state themselves that they no longer support Windows XP.

Installing VS2005 on Windows 7

I'm trying to install Visual Studio 2005 on a Windows 7 box but am repeatedly getting the same error. When I run the installer it starts to run then pops up with a message saying:
"A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Canceling setup."
Various suggestions has said that maybe the install is corrupted so I downloaded a fresh copy of the ISO from MSDN today, same issue. Another suggestion is that installing from the ISO may be the issue so I extracted the contents of the ISO to a folder on my HDD, same issue. I have also tried running the files as administrator and in XP compatability mode, same issue.
Searching for this issue the most common responses I've found have been about installing SP1, however I cannot get the base product to install and therefore cannot apply SP1.
Does anyone have any further suggestions as to what I can do to fix this issue and get VS2005 installed? If anyone wants any log files of any variety I am happy to supply so long as you tell me where to look as I'm not sure.
As for why I am using VS2005 and not a newer product, it is required for the ongoing support and maintenance of some older applications we manage. These cannot be easily migrated to a newer version of Visual Studio without some considerable investment of time and that would probably be longer than the time it will take to develop newer, replacement applications (which is currently in progress). Until the new applications are available though we need to maintain an environment to use.
Did you try running setup.exe in compatibility mode with Windows XP? Some discussion here on how to do this.
Another alternative since you alluded to having an MSDN subscription. Download Windows XP and install it into a VM. (If HyperV isn't already in installed with your Win7, you can add it from Control Panel->Programs&Features->Turn Windows Features on/off). Then install VS2005 from there.

installing debugging tools to analyse minidumps on windows 7

I've been trying to install the 'Debugging Tools', in order to try to analyse the dump file a server-crash (Windows Server 2008 R2).
I used to do this in the past, but I cannot find how to install / locate the Debugging Tools for Windows 7.
I've read this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263.
I've then tried to download the 'Debugging Tools for Windows' from the following article (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463009.aspx). I chose the 'Install Debugging Tools for Windows as a Standalone component', downloaded the file and installed.
It did install successfully, yet I still cannot locate the files. This seems like a silly question to me, but I cannot locate the debugging tools in any way! I've even tried to download the mentioned Debugging tools for Windows 7 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8279), yet again could not locate them!
Any help would be much appreciated
I had the same problem. I searched my whole system and no trace of windbg was found. I didn't bother to find the reason. Instead, I paused the installer and found the windbg MSI file in the temp directory and directly installed it. It works well.
In case someone want the file, I put it here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5395920/windbg-x86-6.12.0002.633.msi . The version is 6.12.0002.633 (x86) and its MD5/SHA1 is 2bd67a7b00507ad93539e138a4a6a2bf / 117814c255f19dc67e769c668bc97e547c05a55b. It's also here, directly from Microsoft http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/A/A6AC035D-DA3F-4F0C-ADA4-37C8E5D34E3D/setup/WinSDKDebuggingTools/dbg_x86.msi, but I don't know how long it will last.
Try this to find windbg.exe
cd /d c:
dir /s windbg.exe
Kinda similar problem here:
The Win SDK installer for Win7 which contains Debugging Tools always fails.
However in the install log one can find the above mentioned link http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/A/A6AC035D-DA3F-4F0C-ADA4-37C8E5D34E3D/setup/WinSDKDebuggingTools/dbg_x86.msi
This installer runs fine !
If someone needs other tools from the Win SDK: there are more msi installer links in the log !
I went through the Win SDK installer fail again yesterday on yet another system. I removed all references to the MVC++ 10 complier (again), but the installer still fails (even with the compiler checkbox unselected).
I need cdb.exe for a new Qt setup. There's an MSDN archive that can be found here - http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/debugtoolswindows/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4912
Although I used a different dbg_x86.msi, this one seems to be similar in byte count, etc. and it's from Microsoft's site.
If all else fails, you might wanna try the "Standalone Debugging Tools for Windows 8.1" found here. See my answer for more details.

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)

I have a client/server app which I have been developing on a single PC. Now it needs two serial ports, so I borrowed a PC from a friend.
When I build my app and try to run or debug it (whether in the Delphi IDE or from Windows File manager), it errors "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)".
Googling doesn't bring up much, but seems to indicate that this is nothing Delphi specific and happens with other apps. It seems to be caused by calling into a 32 bit DLL from a 64 bit app or vice versa.
both PCs are Windows 7, 64 bit
both have Delphi Xe2 starter edition which can only handle 32 bits
The app runs fine on my PC, but not on my friend's
Other Delphi apps run just fine on both PCs
Can anyone give me a hint as to how to track this down?
Normally we get the 0xC000007B error-code (which means STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_FORMAT), if:
If a 32-bit app tried to load a 64-bit DLL.
Or if a 64-bit app tried to load a 32-bit DLL.
Or if a 64-bit app tried to run on a 32-bit Windows.
To really know, I would suggest to test whether there is a problem between your application and its dependencies using dependency walker
Note that all you need to do is open your App using said tool, and issues appear as red log-entries at buttom of screen.
(At least, at time of writting, namely 2022)
Also, make sure you run the correct version of Dependency Walker, for example, the x86 version will display incorrect results when openning x64 binaries.
A load time dependency could not be resolved. The easiest way to debug this is to use Dependency Walker. Use the Profile option to get diagnostics output of the load process. This will identify the point of failure and should guide you to a solution.
The most common cause of this error is trying to load a 64 bit DLL into a 32 bit process, or vice versa.
I tried all the things specified here and found yet another answer. I had to compile my application with 32-bit DLLs. I had built the libraries both in 32-bit and 64-bit but had my PATH set to 64-bit libraries. After I recompiled my application (with a number of changes in my code as well) I got this dreaded error and struggled for two days. Finally, after trying a number of other things, I changed my PATH to have the 32-bit DLLs before the 64-bit DLLs (they have the same names). And it worked. I am just adding it here for completeness.
It is a missing dll.
Possibly, your dll that works with com ports have an unresolved dll dependence.
You can use dependency walker and windows debugger. Check all of the mfc library, for example. Also, you can use nrCommlib - it is great components to work with com ports.
It has been mentioned in earlier answers that using dependency walker is the way to go, in my case (my application keeps failing with the error code), dependency walker showed a few dll that are NOT relevant!
Finally figured out that I can run profiling by going to "profile" menu and it will run the application and stop at the exact dll that's cause the problem! I found out a 32bit dll was picked because of path and fixed it.
I experienced the same problem developing a client-server app using Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
If you used Visual Studio to develop the app, you must make sure the new (i.e. the computer that the software was not developed on) has the appropriate Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package. By appropriate, you need the right year and bit version (i.e. x86 for 32 bit and x64 for 64 bit) of the Visual C++ Redistributable Package.
The Visual C++ Redistributable Packages install run-time components that are required to run C++ applications built using Visual Studio.
Here is a link to the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 .
You can check what versions are installed by going to Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs and Features.
Here's how I got this error and fixed it:
1) I developed a 32 bit application using Visual Studio 2012 on my computer.
Let's call my computer ComputerA.
2) I installed the .exe and the related files on a different computer we'll call ComputerB.
3) On ComputerB, I ran the .exe and got the error message.
4) On ComputerB, I looked at the Programs and Features and didn't see Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64).
5) On ComputerB, I googled for Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable and selected and installed the x64 version.
6) On ComputerB, I ran the .exe on ComputerB and did not receive the error message.
I recently had an issue where I was developing an application (that used a serial port) and it worked on all the machines I tested it on but a few people were getting this error.
It turns out all the machines that the error happened on were running Win7 x64 and had NEVER ONCE been updated.
Running a Windows update fixed all of the machines in my particular case.
Actually this error indicates to an invalid image format. However, why this is happening and what the error code usually means? Actually this could be appear when you are trying to run a program that is made for or intended to work with a 64 bit Windows operating system, but your computer is running on 32 bit Operating system.
Possible Reasons:
Microsoft Visual C++
Need to restart
DirectX
.NET Framework
Need to Re-Install
Need to Run the application as an administrator
Source: http://www.solveinweb.com/solved-the-application-was-unable-to-start-correctly-0xc000007b-click-ok-to-close-the-application/
This may be a case where debugging the debugger might be useful. Essentially if you follow the instructions here you can run two ide's and one will debug into the other. If you un your application in one, you can sometimes catch errors that you otherwise miss. Its worth a try.
I have seen the error trying to run VC++ debug executable on a machine which did not have Visual C++ installed. Building a release version and using that fixed it.
In my case the error occurred when I renamed a DLL after building it (using Visual Studio 2015), so that it fits the name expected by an executable, which depended on the DLL. After the renaming the list of exported symbols displayed by Dependency Walker was empty, and the said error message "The application was unable to start correctly" was displayed.
So it could be fixed by changing the output file name in the Visual Studio linker options.
You can have this if you are trying to manifest your application that it has a dependancy on the Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls assembly. You do this when you want to load Version 6 of the common controls library - so that visual styles are applied to common controls.
You probably followed Microsoft's original documentation way back from Windows XP days, and added the following to your application's manifest:
<!-- Dependancy on Common Controls version 6 -->
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity
type="win32"
name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
version="6.0.0.0"
processorArchitecture="X86"
publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
language="*"/>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
Windows XP is no longer the OS, and you're no longer a 32-bit application. In the intervening 17 years Microsoft updated their documentation; now it's time for you to update your manifest:
<!-- Dependancy on Common Controls version 6 -->
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity
type="win32"
name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
version="6.0.0.0"
processorArchitecture="*"
publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
language="*"/>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
Raymond Chen has a lovely history of the Common Controls:
The history of the Windows XP common controls (archive)
The main problem, of course, is that a DLL file is missing, or, even more likely, corrupt. If this is the case, then I have some pretty good ideas (especially if you've downloaded and installed a DLL manually!)...
TLDR: Delete every manually copy/pasted DLL you've done, uninstall old redistributable installs, and reinstall new redistributables for both 32-bit and 64-bit installs.
What To Do
This solution of copying/pasting missing DLL's into system32, etc., used to work since I can remember in the 1990's, but it doesn't seem to work anymore (2020). So if you run into this problem recently, I suggest:
Within windows\system32 and windows\SysWOW64, delete all files that match ms*.dll, that the operating system will allow you delete as admin.
Uninstall all Visual C++ Redistributables that you have with Windows. This prevents the "You already have this!" dialogue showing up upon reinstall, as detailed in the next step when we re-install.
Reinstall the 2015-2019 Visual C++ Redistributable from a regularly available download site. If this does not work, download and install the others, but personally, the 2015-2019 covered everything for me. Regardless of your machine, install both x32 and x64 packages! (All Download Links: Collected VC++ Download Links; MSVCR120.dll Fix; MFC140U.dll Fix.)
How You Know It's Working
There's a lot of variation in coders experiencing this, so, the idea that there's one single, possible solution is often discarded, but let's be positive!
If deleting the matching ms*.dll files worked, then you will no longer get an error about error code 0xc000007b. Instead, you'll get a message about a missing .dll. This tells you that you're hitting the right code path!
If installing the redistributable works, then certain popular, DLL files should appear in the above-mentioned system32 and SysWO64 folders. For instance: MSVCR120.dll, MSVCR140.dll, MSVCR100.dll, MSVCP100.dll, MSVCP120.dll, MSVCP140.dll, and friends.
Last, Possible Best Chances
Sometimes things don't work according to plan (as we all in the Windows world know). You can also try the following!
Open the "Turn Windows Features on or off" tab in Windows (supported in Windows 8-10). Uncheck the .NET Framework installations. You'll see a small installation go by.
Restart the system. Go to the above feature again, recheck .NET Framework, and click "okay". If this works, you'll see a "installing and updating .NET framework" message that takes maybe a minute or so to go by. Once this is done, I recommend a reboot again.
Good luck!
Just solved this problem for my personal project (thanks to Dries for that). For me it was because the project path was too long. After saving the .sln to a shorter path (C:/MyProjects) and compiling from there it ran without the error.
Also download and unzip "Dependencies" into same folder where you put the wget.exe from
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm
You will then have some lib*.dll files as well as wget.exe in the same folder and it should work fine.
(I also answered here https://superuser.com/a/873531/146668 which I originally found.)
I just ran into this issue. I searched for "C++" under my "Apps & Features" in Windows 10 control panel and noticed that some kind of update had just run a few days prior and installed VC++ Redistributable 2012-2017. The app that was running into the error message only required VC++ 2010. I uninstalled all of them and then reinstalled just 2010 x86/x64, and the error went away and the application functioned as expected.
That can happen if for some reason a x86 resource is loaded from a x64 machine. To avoid that explicitly, add this preprocessor directive to stdafx.h (of course, in my example the problematic resource is Windows Common Controls DLL.
#if defined(_WIN64)
#pragma comment(linker, "\"/manifestdependency:type='win32' name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' version='6.0.0.0' processorArchitecture='amd64' publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df'\"")
#endif
It is possible that you have multiple versions of the dll(s) on your system. You can search your system to find out. The issue may be solved by simply changing the order of the directories in your path. This was my issue. (Cannot run Qt Creator GUI outside of Qt. "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)" error)
I ran into this issue when fetching code from my repository and compiling on a new machine. Copying over the entire repository and then compiling resulted in an executable which worked. Turns out a 32bit DLL accidentally wasn't checked in. As the people above state, use "Dependency Walker" to figure out where it goes wrong.
To make it more clear what to look for see the below screenshot, with in the background the exe trying to load the wrong DLL (notice the '64') resulting in "the application was unable to start correctly 0xc00007b" and in the foreground the exe which was simply copied over (which included the correct DLL).
I came here when I was searching for: "golang Windows (0xc00007b)"
I have an app written in Golang, which uses iconv. It worked on my machine, but not in someone else's machine.
The first error was the missing DLL: libiconv-2.dll, so I guess they downloaded it on the internet but it was the 32 bit and not 64 bit version, so the 0xc00007b error appeared.
I searched the DLL on my system but I did not have success until I searched on MinGW 64 path which in my case is: C:\msys64\mingw64\bin
The solution was to distribute the DLL with the .exe, which was in the MinGW folder.

where does msscript.ocx gets installed from

I'm using msscript.ocx in my application which is an activex scripting host for windows.
Although I want to be able to use the same for XP embedded(XPe) which's highly customizable.
1.I want to know whether on XPe, msscript.ocx can be optionally installed or not?
2.Where does it get installed from, IE?
3.Or is it a windows core component which gets installed during the XPe setup?(I know one can unregister it, but can it be an optional installation)
Answering any or all of these questions will be of great help to me.
Thanks in advance.
Sam.
Microsoft's documentation of the MSScript.ocx library is somewhat contradictory on this issue. The short answer is, starting with Windows 2000, the MSScript.ocx library became part of the Windows OS. Subsequent service packs for Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 included bug fixes (1,2,3) for this library. Since that time, the library has remained part of the 32bit portion of Windows and is still included with Windows 7/2008 R2. Even 64bit versions of Windows still include msscript.ocx with WOW64 in C:\Windows\SysWOW64.
For a little history of this library's distribution keep reading.
Msscript.ocx was originally included on the Visual Studio 6 CD as a "optional" library - optional meaning it had to be manually installed. While the library was part of Visual Studio, it was migrated to being part of the Windows OS starting with Windows 2000.
This is where the confusion comes into play. Since msscript.ocx is considered to be a component of both VS6 and Windows 2000, updates were distributed in service packs for both. Even after the last service pack for VS6 was released, additional bug fixes needed to be distributed for older OS's, so a separate download was created specifically targeting Windows 95, 98 and NT4.
This download is targeted for older OS's for the simple fact that it had become a part of the OS in "modern" versions of Windows. If you are using Windows 2000 or greater, the download is unnecessary and - in my experience - can cause compatibility problems.
I think it is not shipped with Windows XP(not a 100% sure)...
But the best choice is to ship it with your installer(even if it was shipped, it can be removed). About the installing - you can put it where you want (in the program folder in Program Files is ok), the important thing is to register it.
The best choice for making installers - Wix
EDIT: reference
The Script control ships with Visual
Basic 6.0; however, Visual Basic 6.0
setup does not install the Script
Control for you. The control is
located in the CD directory
Common\Tools\VB\Script. To install the
script control, try the following
steps:
I think this answers your question....
For those having issues getting MSSCRIPT.OCX to work do the following:
Go to References in Project settings:
Microsoft Script Control 1.0
Microsoft Scripting Runtime
Microsoft Scriptlet Library
Check all those on.
you'llneed to change your development environment to produce a 32 bit version of your appliation, which for most apps won't matter.
For this goto Project,
then select Properties,
select Compile,
Target CPU: x86
In your code, and i'm using visual studio 2019,
' by using the references above the ScriptControl
' should become available for inclusion into your source c
Dim ms As ScriptControl = New ScriptControl
ms.Language = "JavaScript"
ms.Reset()
Try
ms.ExecuteStatement(RichTextBox1.Text)
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
End Try

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