I have an old 16-bit utility (Windows 3.1 version) which I have been using for years. The utility installed and ran under Windows 95 and Windows 98SE. The SETUP utility will not run under Windows 2000 or Windows XP--it comes back with a "...Cannot open file..." error.
I went back to the Windows 98SE installation and looked at the LOG file. The installation process copies a number of files to the destination directory, copies several files to the \WINDOWS directory, and copies several files to the \WINDOWS\SETUP directory. It also creates 2-3 INI files. The LOG file has a couple of lines that start with "Shell Link:", and several lines that start with "RegDB ...:". I have no idea how these commands work, but guess they must have to do with registry.
As an experiment, I copied files from the destination folder to my Windows XP machine, then copied the appropriate files from \WINDOWS and \WINDOWS\SYSTEM to the XP machine. Having done that, the application seems to run just fine on the XP machine. I haven't checked, but I'm sure there's nothing in the registry pertinent to this utility.
The particular utility I'm referring to is an address book utility which was put out by Parsons Technology some years ago. Parsons was bought out a couple of times anyway, and this software is no longer supported by anyone as far as I can determine. It's a good utility because it had a nice compact form for maintaining a lot of data, and will let you print envelopes and address labels. If I could find something newer that would accomplish the same thing, I'd use it, but haven't been able to find anything.
Anyway, this business of trying to use older software has raised several questions in my mind:
1. Are there websites where one can search for useful utilities such as this?
2. Is there a manual installation process one can go through to accomplish the same steps as the SETUP file accomplishes? If so, is there documentation I can obtain which details the steps one must accomplish?
3. Is there documentation which describes, in detail, the Windows architecture, how the registry works and that sort of thing?
In the "old" days when things were simpler, I used to be able to fumble my way through problems and get things to work out. But that certainly isn't the case anymore.
I went back to the Windows 98SE installation and looked at the LOG file. The installation process copies a number of files to the destination directory, copies several files to the \WINDOWS directory, and copies several files to the \WINDOWS\SETUP directory. It also creates 2-3 INI files. The LOG file has a couple of lines that start with "Shell Link:", and several lines that start with "RegDB ...:". I have no idea how these commands work, but guess they must have to do with registry.
As an experiment, I copied files from the destination folder to my Windows XP machine, then copied the appropriate files from \WINDOWS and \WINDOWS\SYSTEM to the XP machine. Having done that, the application seems to run just fine on the XP machine. I haven't checked, but I'm sure there's nothing in the registry pertinent to this utility.
The particular utility I'm referring to is an address book utility which was put out by Parsons Technology some years ago. Parsons was bought out a couple of times anyway, and this software is no longer supported by anyone as far as I can determine. It's a good utility because it had a nice compact form for maintaining a lot of data, and will let you print envelopes and address labels. If I could find something newer that would accomplish the same thing, I'd use it, but haven't been able to find anything.
Anyway, this business of trying to use older software has raised several questions in my mind:
1. Are there websites where one can search for useful utilities such as this?
2. Is there a manual installation process one can go through to accomplish the same steps as the SETUP file accomplishes? If so, is there documentation I can obtain which details the steps one must accomplish?
3. Is there documentation which describes, in detail, the Windows architecture, how the registry works and that sort of thing?
In the "old" days when things were simpler, I used to be able to fumble my way through problems and get things to work out. But that certainly isn't the case anymore.