forum.vdsworld.com

jules · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

If you use a decent installer then this decision is a no-brainer, because you just use some macro like %sysdir" to specify the location, and it automatically installs it in the right system directory according to the OS it's being installed under.

A great little installer that costs practically nothing is AGInstaller http://www.agentix.org/.

vdsalchemist · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:18 pm Post subject:

Mac · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:50 pm Post subject:

FreezingFire · **Admin Team** Joined: 23 Jun 2002 Posts: 3508

My guess is that when System64 comes out, they'll retain at least System32,
if not System also Smile

Mac · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:57 pm Post subject:

Hmmm... after looking over section 2.5 of the MS Server 2003
certification documentation, this is a bit more more complicated
than I realized. Although recommendations are not requirements,
it's prolly a good idea to go with them. Wink

Here's the way I understand it (I'm sure mindpower will correct
this if I'm wrong): Wink

NOTE: These guidelines are for "certification" only, which allow
use of the Windows logo.

98SE and later - "With side-by-side sharing, applications can use the versions of components that they were designed for and tested with, even if other applications require different versions of the same component."
If this is the case, your DLLs should be in the installed app dir
ONLY, so your app loads the proper version.

The rest here is for non "side-by-side sharing" (only one
version of the shared file is available):

"Shared components that are private to a single software vendor must install in one of two places: the Common Files directory or the publisher’s directory in the Program Files folder. Do not store these files in the System directory."
Pretty self-explanatory. Includes custom or registered DLLs that
are for your company use only.

"New control panel applets (CPLs) must install in the application’s folder"
Self-explanatory as well.

"Drivers must be placed in a location under the %SystemRoot% so that they can safely be referenced in all the boot phases and be resilient to re-mapping boot and system drive letters. The recommended location is the system32\drivers subfolder of %SystemRoot%, and drivers placed elsewhere under %SystemRoot% must be fully documented in the product release notes."
%SystemRoot% is the Windows folder. Note that "system32\drivers"
is a recommendation, not a requirement. I'm not sure if anyone has
a VDS app that installs drivers anyway, but maybe so.

"The recommended location for non-driver binary files for services is the system32 folder."
Note this is for services, and once again a recommendation.
BTW, here's a definition of services from http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
"What are services? By definition, it's a program that runs invisibly in the background. But can't the same thing be said for a number of programs that run in the background such as anti-virus programs? Yes, but the real difference is that services load and start running whether or not anyone logs into the computer, unlike a program that is launched from the Startup Folder under All Programs."

"Files with the extensions .ocx and DLLs that are not side-by-side and that multiple software vendors share can be placed in the System directory to ensure backward compatibility with those applications. "
I assume this applies to free license VDS DLLs (available
to other vendors) as well.

Also - "Your product documentation or release notes must document any cases in which your software application writes to the System directory."

The MS certification documentation is here (399kb):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/a/8/aa82f1fb-2eaf-48b2-89ec-959ba0f00a4a/AppSpec.doc

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I found this interesting. Thanks
to mindpower for bringing this up. Wink

Cheers, Mac Smile

vdsalchemist · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 9:25 pm Post subject:

hehehehe Mac,
I have always wanted to make a VDS program that could be MS logo certify Wink

That's the only reason I brought it up. Anyway I was just trying to share info is all. Didn't mean to wake up everyone Wink

hehehehehehe

vtol · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:52 pm Post subject:

System PATH(s) used to be located in the MSDOS.SYS file on some OS.

The reason I asked is because I noticed when I had the vdsrun50.dll in my program ROOT folder, it was changed. (dont know if that DLL should change).

Thanks all, I guess I was ok the where I was placing the DLL.