Hi Friedrich,

Thank you for the instant reply. You have an incredible product, and your support is absolutely outstanding. I've been using Installshield since before there was a Lindersoft, but once I get my VISTA approach nailed down, I'll be moving to SetupBuilder.

Downloaded the trial last week and converted one of my installs from Installshield in less than an hour without hiccups. Well, except for the fact that when the code-signing dialog box requesting my Comodo password pops up, it closes a few seconds later without the password having been entered and still code-signs. If I do enter a password, the install fails. Minor stuff that I should be able to sort out once I open and read the manual.

Getting back to VISTA, we're running three machines with XP and two with VISTA. All are on automatic updates. Aside from being slower, VISTA is still so full of surprises, none good, that developing our software on it is out of the question. I see where Microsoft is lowering the price of some versions by $100, and where Dell has gone back to offering new machines with XP. Wonder why! For us, the switch to VISTA is inevitable, but not this year, and maybe not the next.

Your point about workarounds is well taken, but I just can't conceive of following the official strategy, if MS even has one. I checked your archives (20 e-mails in as many months and no response) and Jane's post (MS wouldn't commit face-to-face about where to put a program's data files). Unless that has changed since then, we're pretty much on our own.

In any event, what I'm after is a simple, bullet-proof way to place our data files in a non-roaming, non-virtualized, non-junctioned (did I miss anything?) per-machine location. We have more than 4,000 installations, most of them in small to medium sized print shops. My current recommended install path for VISTA is C:\Printfire\Morningflight - definitely on the don't do this list by Microsoft. But it works, avoids virtualization, and poses no greater security risk than C:\Program Files\Printfire\Morningflight under XP.

Virtualization is one of the really great dumb ideas for business applications. First, it can be turned off by the user, which will promptly break the program. Second, Microsoft is telling us "don't look for Virtualization in future versions." From what I understand, VISTA 64 is already one of those versions. Third, two or more people using the same program on the same machine will generate two or more customer files, for instance, in two or more separate "virtualized" locations.

Paul's question and your answer piqued my interest and made me give SetupBuilder a second look. I needed a way to install a manifest in my apps if I wanted to go back to installing the app in C:\Program Files and turn off virtualization, which SetupBuilder does with the simple click of a button.

What would be your objection to

1. Installing a manifest asInvoker (ignored by XP but makes the program VISTA-aware and turns off Virtualization)

2. Setting the recommended program path to C:\Program Files\Printfire\Morningflight for both XP and VISTA

3. Setting the recommended data file path to C:\Printfire\Morningflight, let the user change that path or confirm, then store the data file path in an INI file in either the INSTALLDIR, or as Doug Hennig suggests, in a writeable sub directory. The question I think Paul and I are both asking is, how does the %DATAFOLDER% variable get written by SetupBuilder to the INI file?

(Paul, if you know the answer, I'm all ears)


Helmut (Hal) Heindel
www.printfire.com