Win32/Wx - linked manifest file does not load on first invocation

[Bryan Daimler]

Hi, I'm developing a wxperl application packaged with PAR 0.85 (I tried 
0.87 but it caused catastrophic memory leakage in the resulting 
executable). I wanted it to get the XP look and feel, which I've 
discovered is only possible by embedding the App.exe.manifest with the 
-l option, so that it will show up in the same temporary directory as 
the app after the archive is decompressed. Trouble is, for some reason, 
it doesn't work the first time you run the program. On first invocation, 
it has the Windows 98 look. On subsequent invocations, it apparently 
reads the manifest because the program gets the XP style from then on. 
If I delete the temporary cache, it happens again: 98 style the first 
time, then XP for as long as the cache is there. Why does this happen? I 
would have thought all items in the cache would be available on the 
first invocation, otherwise it wouldn't load the DLLs and would not even 
run, right? But apparently not...