Missing OCX

[hblackorby]

I'm using the MSINET.OCX Microsoft Internet Transfer Control 6.0 in a project. I can compile and run the project fine on my computer and different computer. However, when I run the compiled program this one computer, I get a missing OCX error. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I assumed any ActiveX controls I use in my project are bundled into my EXE file. I didn't think they had to exist on the user's computer. I've received this error on two different computers now, so I don't think it's a unique problem.

Any help or advice here would be greatly appreciated. My pure VB is pretty rusty, so maybe I'm missing something obvious here. Harold Blackorby
hblackorby@scoreinteractive.com
St. Louis, MO

 

[Lightseeker]

You may want to try using the Package and Deployment Wizard that comes with VB 6. It will scan your app for dependencies and create a bundle for installation on other computers. The activex controls your app needs aren't in the exe, but the P&DW will create a setup.exe that will allow you to distribute your app.

lightseeker

 

[Lightseeker]

Here are some hopefully useful links:

http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q197988

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q188582

http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q189739

 

[hblackorby]

I'm not sure I want to use the package and deply wizard. This program is a screen saver install program. Basically, you run it right away, it downloads the two files for which screen saver you want, moves them into the windows/system directory and updates either the registry or the system.ini file to make the new file the active screen saver.

Because this is a one time install for the most part, I'd rather not have to create an install program for the install program. There's no need to have the program stored anywhere but the browser's cache (or temp directory).

Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way though. The problem is I have three files I need for the screen saver, two for the screen saver itself, and the vb program that copies them into the right place, and modifies the user's Display settings. I'd like them to all three be downloaded as one EXE file. I developed this single VB program that uses the Internet Transfer Control to download the other two files by itself. Should I be doing this a different way?

Thanks for your advice.

Harold Harold Blackorby
hblackorby@scoreinteractive.com
St. Louis, MO

 

[Lightseeker]

You're welcome. I don't know of any other way to accomplish this. Unless you were to recreate the msinet.ocx as a class in your code??? Maybe someone watching these posts with more experience might know of a way.

Tim

 

[hblackorby]

There are a couple of downsides to using the PDW. It puts an entry for the program into the Add/Remove Programs listings. It tries to add Start Menu items, and when I run the program, I couldn't find any way to have it automatically run the newly "installed" .exe file. Is there a way to not have it do all this and then run the exe file when it is done? Harold Blackorby
hblackorby@scoreinteractive.com
St. Louis, MO

 

[CajunCenturion]

One thing that you can do, it to write a separate loader program that has no external dependancies - the function of which is to download the EXE, both files, and all of the required and dependant OCX's - and register them, then fire off the main executable. Within the main executable, it can delete the bootstrap program.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[hblackorby]

That's a good suggestion, but currently the only way I have to download files through Visual Basic is to use the Internet Transfer Control, which requires the OCX. It's a bad loop...if they don't have the OCX I need to download it, but to download things, I need the OCX.....

Do you know of another way to download files from a 'net site without using the Internet Transfer Control? I would happily ditch it if I could. Harold Blackorby
hblackorby@scoreinteractive.com
St. Louis, MO

 

[windows98]

Re usingPD Wizard make sure that you download Service Pack SP5. You need also to check Setup Listing that all files are correctly registered (.tlb should have TLB Register not SelfRegister); any errors you can change in Notepad.
Regards,
Henry

Henry Drillich
drillich@tpgi.com.au

 

[hblackorby]

It isn't a problem with the setup wizard. So basically, PDW did too much that I wanted, and still wouldn't execute the file once it "installed" it. I droped PDW, and dropped the idea of downloading the files from the Internet using the Internet Transfer Control. I went with a self-extracting zip file. All of my files get downloaded at once, and it is completely customizable. It also will run my created EXE file when it is done, and then delete all the temporary created files. Very fast and effecient. Much simplier than the Package and Deployment Wizard.

Thanks though for everyone's help. I would have liked to use Internet Transfer Control, but it isn't installed on about half the computers I tested. Oh well. Harold Blackorby
hblackorby@scoreinteractive.com
St. Louis, MO