Re: Installing an application on Vista/Win7 with VirtualStore ProgramData

"Mikey" wrote in message news:ie900u$7fv$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I suspect you'd have better luck for a correct solution on the Inno
newsgroups. Windows isn't making it easy on us......

I think I will do this in the application itself, rather than the setup script. The setup script will run the SetACL.exe application to change the permissions of the installed Application Data folder. In my install setup script I am copying sample database files OrtRes.dbf, OrtRecl.dbf, and others which are designed to be edited by the customer, as well as OrtRes1.dbf, OrtRecl1.dbf, etc, which are blank databases (in case I need to change the structure in future installs).

When the program is first installed, the sample databases are included, since they do not exist. In subsequent installs, only the blank database files are updated.

When the program first runs after a new install, it will see the OrtRes1.dbf file and will use it to import the existing data into the OrtRes.dbf file using the new format. This is repeated for other files. Then it will delete the blank database files so the next time it runs it will skip this step.

The application will also check for virtualization and copy the virtualized files from their folder and then probably delete them and the virtual store folder, or maybe just rename them so there will be a backup copy in case something goes wrong. This is a new version of this application and there are only a few customers using it, but I need to make sure they don't lose any of this data. And I'm not sure how well backup software handles the virtual folder in Vista and Win7.

The explanation above is not how the present implementation works, and fortunately I think the old data files are preserved. The install script only updates the files in the actual Program Data folder, while the program actually uses the virtual folder where the most recent database files are located (and only if they were changed). However, this is not true for XP users, and I think that is what most of them are using.

This application actually replaces one that was written in Borland C for an MSDOS platform, and the hardware has also changed from using the parallel port for data transfer, to the USB port. There are over 100 units in the field and eventually most of them will be converted. For more information see www.ortmaster.com.

If you have any comments or suggestions, they will be most appreciated. Thanks.

Paul

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