At 12:09 PM 7/10/2009 -0700, Michael Madigan wrote: >That may be true, but it still blows up a program that works fine in XP.
I think you had your question answered (and the thread may be dead), but here are a couple lessons learned regarding Vista and application installation. First, turning off UAC probably resolves a lot of issues, but I imagine any "bigger" companies will have some policy about leaving that turned on. Not that UAC is really anything wonderful, but it is a big CYA for when Windows gets compromised (i.e. the IT shop says it's not their fault, they had MS's "security" turned on, etc). Next, do not install the application under Program Files. Because of Vista's bizarre operation of that folder, you basically can't set rights anywhere under there. Even if you're admin. Even if you've got the most top-level, highest, most wonderful, most trusted access level defined by MS. You just can't set read/write access to users under that branch. What I've seen most corporations doing is create a brand new folder off the root called "Custom_applications" or "<company name>_apps". Once that folder is created, it is treated as the "new" "Program Files" folder. From there, admins can assign rights to users like they should be able to. Also, by avoiding the Program Files path, you avoid problems caused by Vista "virtualization" (??). That may not be the right term - but something like you try to save a file to a location (under Program Files) and Windows actually writes it to a different location automatically. Of course, if you then check for file existence, you get a "fail" result. Lastly, I'd recommend not using any MS-recommended folder locations for anything. MS likes to change stuff to frequently (need to justify price??). And, frankly, I find it quite counter-intuitive the way they set things up anyway. The whole "My Documents" crap has cost me lost files a couple times (I can't recall the specifics, but in one case MS blew away the whole My Documents folder - in another I think it had to do with roaming profiles). I've heard similar things from a few other companies. They all standardized on default file saves to network drives, etc. And I think the other common practice is to create another new root folder called "Documents_user" and then subfolders under that based on user logon (I don't do that myself, I just place files where I want them when I save/edit them - usually project or client-based). It's almost funny. A couple companies were a little reluctant to buck the MS-way on installation of my apps under Vista. But when I hear back from them, it seems they're much more pleased with my approach than MS's. And man, I gotta say, for maintaining and troubleshooting issues, the non-MS way is a LOT less effort. Even the IT shops at various client sites agree. We're getting way to sheepish, or lemming-ish, in Windows. Letting MS dictate how your company, your PC, is to be set up and operate is the exact opposite of where the computer industry should be heading. -Charlie _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
