RE: Root Windows install query

Hello Tom,  

> On Windows, I see that Root can be installed either via a standard .MSI
> installer, or via a tarball (using Cygwin). I am interested in the former.

There is the third way too.  

See http://root.bnl.gov  

This installation is done with InstallShield package. The InstallShield script to prepare the QtRoot installation is a part of the QtRoot CVS repository. The script have been in use for 7 years.

> Second: how do you expect users to know enough to obtain the VC++
> runtime .DLL-s? I see they are available on the "Root Download" webpage,
> but in my experience many Windows users won't be able to figure out
> what's wrong (MS doesn't help, giving users no clue why the program
> won't run). In my tests on 6 different Windows systems, 4 already had
> them but 2 did not.
 

This problem is not new and is common for Windows binary distributions. Usually ( I am not aware about an exception) InstallShield script does detect and resolve the possible conflicts properly. However, this may have required the user to logon as "Administrator" and may entail some side effect for other applications.  

To resolve the conflict VC++ (v8.0) env. introduces the support for the so-called Side-by-Side installation. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa375193.aspx    

To enjoy this approach you ought to include into your distribution the copy of the Run-time libraries you build your application against of and install it "Side-by-Side". Roughly say the later merely means the Run-time VC+8.0 libraries must be present under the same directory where your application executable is to be installed. This way user are not expected to know anything about other applications run-time environments (this why it is called "Side-by-Side")  

The InstallShield script I mention above does just that. You may try it to see how it works for the different Windows configurations.  

Hope this helps.  

  My best regards, Valeri

I am trying to use Microsoft's install program for the re-distributable VC++ Runtime .DLL-s (vcredist_x86.exe), but it failed without error message on one of my test machines (so my program just failed, without explanation -- I could figure out what went wrong, but most users would not). Remarkably, running it again succeeded....

Any help or suggestions on building a Windows installer would be appreciated.

Tom Roberts Received on Sun Feb 04 2007 - 22:57:53 CET