>hmmm...
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>If I am reading you guys a'right, what's happening is this:
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>The Setup Wizard is calling an API call to determine the system directory and gets the directory 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM'. It then tries to write the VFP300.ESL file to that directory and gets the error 'no such directory'.
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I have no detailed knowledge of the internals of Setup Wizard; the approach taken by most installers when a file is marked to be installed in the current "Windows system" directory is to call the Win32 API function GetSystemDirectory(), which passes this back to the installer. It doesn't matter what the 'real' name is - whether it's C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM, or R:\You\LosingYourMind - the directory name is passed back.
The only way I know of to screw this up is to actually move the files to a new directory structure under a different operating system that doesn't keep the registry updated, and then manually edit the path in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT to reflect the new search path. If this were actually the case, there'd be a whole lot more broken on the system than just failing to register an OCX or two - likely as not, most of the registry associations for system related functionality would be showing signs of dementia...
>Methinks someone's computer is right royally screwed. Interestingly, there are at least 3 computers showing the same symptoms. I presume some bad installation of something has seriously corrupted them. < bitch > probably an IE beta < /bitch >.
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I've not seen this behavior as a result of installing even really, really bad IE betas; the symptoms you describe would require a great deal of "creative" behavior by someone with less than reasonable competence, or a very malicious streak, and the symptoms of trouble would be so broad that even inexperienced end-users would be franticly searching for their origial software disks or a backup from when the system wasn't seemingly frothing at the mouth almost every time they tried even ordinary tasks. I'd ensure that the install procedure was being followed in detail, and if there is any question that the install were being done by just trying to copy a few files nd let it go at that, I'd get the user to put in writing that they decided they had a better way of doing the install than running the Setup Wizard created install.
There are other problems that might surface from improper install procedure that might prevent a Setup Wizard install from running right, but failing to find the system directory is not one of the symptoms.
>I suspect there is nothing I can do. I could put the ESL file in the same directory as the exe (FPW style), but I suspect I will still get the same problem trying to register the OCXs that ship with the app.
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>Sadly, it is *my* problem that some computer 1000 miles away that I have never seen or touched is corrupted. I'd really like to find out what it might be so I can safely say "it's your problem - fix it". That will probably never happen.
