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Using xyplorer with bartpe/winpe - does it work

Posted: 21 Apr 2008 18:25
by mark
I am trying to run xyplorer from a BartPE CD I have created - VB6 runtimes have been "installed". However free version and paid for versions of xyplorer both fail to start - no errors are given. A temp file is created briefly in the folder run from but deleted again.

Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong ?

Posted: 21 Apr 2008 19:08
by j_c_hallgren
Hi and welcome to the XY forums!

The only prior reference that I found to BartPE here doesn't do much to help :( http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?t=1177

And I've not used it so as much as I'd like to, I can't do much to help...
Maybe the issue has been discussed more on some BartPE forum?

We at least try to provide a prompt reply to new members! :)

Re: Using xyplorer with bartpe/winpe - does it work

Posted: 21 Apr 2008 20:06
by admin
mark wrote:I am trying to run xyplorer from a BartPE CD I have created - VB6 runtimes have been "installed". However free version and paid for versions of xyplorer both fail to start - no errors are given. A temp file is created briefly in the folder run from but deleted again.

Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong ?
I know from personal communication with the author of this review ( http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/f ... ption.html ) that you can run XYplorer from a BartPE CD. He told me that msvbvm60.dll has to present in the system (system32?) folder on the CD. Maybe that helps already.

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 11:28
by mark
Thats strange as you have obviously got furher than me

So far I have tried :

Running xyplorer from the CD (no VB6 DLL in program directory, but in I386\system32). I do not have an XYplorer.ini created when I run the exe

Running xyplorer from a RAM drive once booted from CD (no VB6 DLL in program directory and with and after issusing regsvr32 command against DLL in both locations). I have created an empty ini file in the directory which holds the program files on the RAM drive. I have copied one from my PC. I have added the RAM drive directory to my PATH.

Each time I run exe I get no errors and no GUI....... :cry:

The version of the VB6 DLL is 6.0.97.82 (as per my PC install which seems to run XYplorer fine).

The Bart CD is created from a Windows 2003 SP2 CD whilst my PC runs Windows XP. I have tried Xyplorer on a full install of Windows 2003 SP2 and all works well there also......

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 11:56
by admin
mark wrote:Thats strange as you have obviously got furher than me

So far I have tried :

Running xyplorer from the CD (no VB6 DLL in program directory, but in I386\system32). I do not have an XYplorer.ini created when I run the exe

Running xyplorer from a RAM drive once booted from CD (no VB6 DLL in program directory and with and after issusing regsvr32 command against DLL in both locations). I have created an empty ini file in the directory which holds the program files on the RAM drive. I have copied one from my PC. I have added the RAM drive directory to my PATH.

Each time I run exe I get no errors and no GUI....... :cry:
Please download a little test app just to check if VB6 apps in general run on your CD: http://www.xyplorer.com/download/hi.zip
Should pop a message "Hi!".

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 12:29
by admin
mark wrote:Thats strange as you have obviously got furher than me

So far I have tried :

Running xyplorer from the CD (no VB6 DLL in program directory, but in I386\system32).
Watch out for the bold:
PCWorld wrote:XYplorer is portable, meaning you can install it on a thumb drive and carry it with you to use on any PC. However, to use it when you boot from a Windows PE CD such as Bart's PE, Norton Ghost, or the Active @ boot disc you'll need to copy msvbvm60.dll from \Windows\System32 to the directory you installed XYplorer to.

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 13:07
by mark
Thanks for all the feedback.

I tried the test program - hi to you to :) - the program worked fine with the DLL in the I386/system32 directory (equivalent of windows\system32 on a standard PC)

Regarding the location of the DLL as in my other post I have tried it in the same directory as the program files from XYplorer in various ways and it doesn't seem to help - can I start XYPlorer in some kind of debug mode maybe to see at what point it is failing ?

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 13:26
by admin
mark wrote:Thanks for all the feedback.

I tried the test program - hi to you to :) - the program worked fine with the DLL in the I386/system32 directory (equivalent of windows\system32 on a standard PC)

Regarding the location of the DLL as in my other post I have tried it in the same directory as the program files from XYplorer in various ways and it doesn't seem to help - can I start XYPlorer in some kind of debug mode maybe to see at what point it is failing ?
Well, the problem is: You should definitely get an error message already now. If you do not get one, then the problem is outside my reach. (Not that I could explain why...)

Anyway, the next version (upload within a few minutes) will have some basic error logging to file (BTW, can you write on your BART CD???). If an error happens on startup it is written to a file in app path called like this (dep. on the date): xylog-2008-04-22.txt

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 13:57
by mark
You don't write to the CD but you can setup a RAM drive via what are reffered to as a plugin (many of which are used to setup the CD) so that when booting a RAM drive of a given size is created and made the temp location for the system, has docs and settings folder created for default user (you don't login in to a BartPE seession as such). If you need to create/modify/delete files you make sure they go to the RAM drive. So my plan was to run XYplorer and use an ini file which is put in the PATH environment variable on the RAM drive (when starting up the CD environment you can have a startup group style list of programs/scripts run to do suhc things) and use this with XYplorer

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 14:23
by admin
mark wrote:You don't write to the CD but you can setup a RAM drive via what are reffered to as a plugin (many of which are used to setup the CD) so that when booting a RAM drive of a given size is created and made the temp location for the system, has docs and settings folder created for default user (you don't login in to a BartPE seession as such). If you need to create/modify/delete files you make sure they go to the RAM drive. So my plan was to run XYplorer and use an ini file which is put in the PATH environment variable on the RAM drive (when starting up the CD environment you can have a startup group style list of programs/scripts run to do suhc things) and use this with XYplorer
So, would the xylog-2008-04-22.txt log file end up somewhere?

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 14:48
by mark
Oh dear - downloaded the latest beta version and got the log - great I thought something to work on now however the log file says :

Main: 339 - component 'shdocvw.dll' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid

The file is on the CD and a regsvr32 doesn't fix the error.

A quick google later tells me - for another app but the fix is mentioned on other hits I spotted :

http://pubmlst.org/software/analysis/start/readme.shtml

The software utilises an embedded web browser control for data output and consequently requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher to be installed. If this is not installed, an error reporting "component SHDOCVW.DLL or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid" will be displayed. If required, this may be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.

I don't have IE on the CD - I have firefox (easier to make run on CD and smaller install size, more secure many would say) so that looks like the end of XYplorer running on BartPE unless I work out how to install IE ?

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 14:59
by admin
mark wrote:Oh dear - downloaded the latest beta version and got the log - great I thought something to work on now however the log file says :

Main: 339 - component 'shdocvw.dll' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid

The file is on the CD and a regsvr32 doesn't fix the error.

A quick google later tells me - for another app but the fix is mentioned on other hits I spotted :

http://pubmlst.org/software/analysis/start/readme.shtml

The software utilises an embedded web browser control for data output and consequently requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher to be installed. If this is not installed, an error reporting "component SHDOCVW.DLL or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid" will be displayed. If required, this may be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.

I don't have IE on the CD - I have firefox (easier to make run on CD and smaller install size, more secure many would say) so that looks like the end of XYplorer running on BartPE unless I work out how to install IE ?
First of all I'm content that the new log file actually brought some light into the dark!

About the embedded web browser control -- yep, it needs IE installed, and there is no way to turn this off. Unless I compile an alternative version without the embedded web browser control. That, of course, would mean: no html preview, no office preview, no pdf preview... Hmmm...

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 15:15
by mark
Is it worth a quick try ?

It may well be it falls over on something else that can not be fixed so "easily" and that really will be an end to it.

If this fixes the problem then you could decide if its worth issuing two versions of the program - one for those who use IE and those that do not (I know its unlikley on some a full PC install rather than a Bart CD but people do uninstall IE and use firefox instead) and are willing to live without the preview facility.

Just an idea........

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 15:24
by admin
mark wrote:Is it worth a quick try ?

It may well be it falls over on something else that can not be fixed so "easily" and that really will be an end to it.

If this fixes the problem then you could decide if its worth issuing two versions of the program - one for those who use IE and those that do not (I know its unlikley on some a full PC install rather than a Bart CD but people do uninstall IE and use firefox instead) and are willing to live without the preview facility.

Just an idea........
Unfortunately there is no quick try for this (would take many hours of work). Not much quicker than for you to find out how to have IE on a Bart CD. :wink:

Posted: 22 Apr 2008 15:46
by mark
Fair enough.

At least we got to what appears to be the bottom of the problem.

Maybe one of us will get the time at some point to try the two ways of testing if we can get XYplorer running under BartPE