Re: VB6 and VB-PowerWrap

Hi,

Thank you for the information and suggestions. Since I have had no luck in
getting access to the support people for the VB-PowerWrap program (I think
they must have disbanded) I will most certainly look into your suggestions.
Unfortunately I have quite a bit of learning to do since I am not all that
familiar with such things as dependencies and so forth. I have briefly
looked ino the Inno Setup program. It looks very interesting.

Most of my programs include the use of some DLLs and OCXs that are not
normally included in Windows. I am not sure what problems this will incur.

Again thank you.

Doug H.

"BeastFish" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gkb2ho$jra$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IIRC, what VB PowerWrap did was create a self-extracting exe containing
your
app and the dependencies... when executed, it extracted your app and
dependencies into a temp folder and either temporarily registered the
dependencies or ran it side-by-side.

I don't know offhand of any "replacement" to VB PowerWrap. But if your
app
only has Microsoft dependencies (VB6 runtimes and dll's/ocx's included
with
VB6 like mscomctl.ocx, etc.), then perhaps you can author an autorun
"bootstrap" using something like Inno Setup (which is free), where it
checks
if the MS dependencies are already present, if so just launch your app, if
not then install the dependencies then launch your app. I think Inno has
directives in which you can launch the app and abandon the "setup" on
condition (don't hold me to it, it's something I haven't really explored).

You shouldn't be concerned about having it install MS runtimes (as long as
it's done properly) since they are MS ones (and can be left there as they
are typically considered a part of Windows since other apps may rely on
them
as well). You probably shouldn't be too concerned about installing
dependencies of your own design or exclusive to your app (as long as you
include a proper "uninstall"), as plenty of "run from CD" titles do this.



"Doug H" <courses@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uf7al.6993$Jy.1338@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Several years ago I needed help in distributing a VB6 program I use with
my
classes at a seniors' computer club where I volunteer (I am a senior as
well). I posted the problem to this group and received the suggestion
that
the program VB-PowerWrap would do what I needed. The club purchased it
and
it worked very well. It wraps any DLLs or OCXs etc into the .exe file of
the
program so that the program does not have to be "installed" on a computer
to
run. Instead, when the wrapped program is executed it temporarily
registers
any needed DLLs, OCXs etc that are not on the target computer and then
runs
my coding. The very great advantage of this is that my students can put
my
program in a folder on a memory stick and run it both on their computers
at
home and on computers at the computer club during workshops. They simply
plug the memory stick into the computer and run the program. It also
enables
them to put projects using my program on CDs, give them to friends and
relatives who can run them from the CD without any installation.

My problem is that the company that produced VB-PowerWrap (Moonlight
Software) seems to have gone out of business. So when I had to replace my
hard drive I could not contact them with a new computer "fingerprint" to
get
a new "key" to enable the VB-PowerWrap to run.

Does anyone else use VB-PowerWrap? If so, how are they handling this
problem? Can anyone suggest another program that would do the same or a
similar job--enable my VB6 program to run without actual installation on
a
computer. Is there any other solution to distributing my program to my
students and letting them put projects using my program onto CDs and run
without installation?

Thank you.






.

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