>i have made an exe that i would like to run on computers without VFP on it. i have tried the setup wizard in VFP but i fine it restrictive, can you suggest any install program that can install VFP properly.
> the reason why i am finding the setup wizard a problem is:
>1.) it doesn't let you do a network installation where all the data and exe's are on the server.
It can, but requires a good deal of work. At the low end, InstallShield Express does a fine job. I use InstallShield Pro (I know it already, own it and it offers lots of scripting capabilities not built into InstallShield Express) and Wise is also a fine product - both have considerably more capability than Setup Wizard, or even IS Express, but with a big learning curve and cost.
FWIW, I still build a Setup Wizard RunTime install and fire it from my InstallShield Script - the one thing Setup Wizard does really well is to get the necessary runtime files in place.
>2.) the user can change the desination of the installation and the post-setup executable doesn't know where the exe's have been installed.
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Actually, a post-setup executable can know based on SYS(16,0) if its installed in the hierarchy. George Tasker's LNKFILES.DLL does a fine job of maintainign shortcuts programmatically from a VFP app, and I use the Wscript.Shell's CreateShortcut method to do much the same thing. I make WSH a part of all my applications for a number of reasons, the automation objects being one, and the availablity of the WSH as a lightweight installer and general purpose scripting engine that can use VBScript of JScript built on demand is another.
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>in my program i need some setting in the autoexec.bat which states where the exe's are and some configuration settings. i have been thinking if putting these settings into the registry would be a better why. if you think it would be better to put these settings into the registery, can you tell me how to add these settings and how to read the information from the registry.
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The FFC contains a class for reading/writing registry values, and several classes are available for download here on UT that provide access to the registry. WSH's Wscript.Shell object has a set of methods to read and write keys and values in the registry as well (another good thing about the WSH!)
