Friday, July 29, 2011

InstallSheild Error -3 - Missing Setup.iss

I've seen this a few times when you try and run a Setup.exe in silent mode and all  you get is error -3 at  the end of it.

What install shield is errors on -3 it's trying to tell you it doesn't know how to install silently because it doesn't have the instructions to do so.

You will need to do 2 pieces of work to resolve this.

First - Record a new setup.iss file:
We will need to record a new setup.iss file in order to be able to tell the installer what the silent install instructions are.

  1. Create a shortcut to the setup.exe 
  2. Modify the  properties of the shortcut 
  3. Append to the end of the target line  i.e setup.exe /r /f2"c:\setup.iss"
  4. Then install the software by launching the shortcut this will create the setup.iss file in c:\windows (if you leave off  the /f2 option the setup.iss file will be created in c:\windows\temp\setup.iss
  5. Copy the setup.iss file to the same directory as the setup.exe

Now we need to tell setup.exe to install silently and also tell it to use the newly created setup.iss file
  1. Create a new shortcut to the setup.exe (rename it to Install_silent or something)
  2. Modify the  properties of the shortcut
  3. Append to the end of the target line  i.e setup.exe /S /f1"setup.iss"
  4. Execute the installer and this should work fine.
Notes: 
Installsheild doco indicates that you can just place the setup.iss in the same directory as the setup.exe and then when you launch the setup.exe it will just find the setup.iss if it exists. I've found this to be true for some packages and not true for other so naming the setup.iss directly seems to work for me most times. 

Friday, July 22, 2011

Internode realeases National Broadband Network plans

Internode seems to be the first out of the gate with Australia's National Broadband plans. Exetel quickly hit back with much better plans.

Check the links for the plans.
Internode Plans
Exetel NBN Plans

i.e
Exetel best value plan looks to be
79$ for 100mbit DL / 40Mbit UP this gives you 100GB of downloads.
Then if you compare this to my current Naked ADSL2+ is currently 59$ for 120GB.

The question for most people will be "Does the speed increase beat the extra cost?"

More Comments:
http://delimiter.com.au/2011/07/25/undercutting-internode-exetel-reveals-nbn-prices/

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

File System Redirection - How to target the real system32 directory

"32-bit applications can access the native system directory by substituting %windir%\Sysnative for %windir%\System32. WOW64 recognizes Sysnative as a special alias used to indicate that the file system should not redirect the access. This mechanism is flexible and easy to use, therefore, it is the recommended mechanism to bypass file system redirection. Note that 64-bit applications cannot use the Sysnative alias as it is a virtual directory not a real one."


The above is correct.. in your scripts just make sure your target "%windir%\Sysnative" and your file will go where you intended it to go. 

File System Redirection - How to target the real system32 directory

"32-bit applications can access the native system directory by substituting %windir%\Sysnative for %windir%\System32. WOW64 recognizes Sysnative as a special alias used to indicate that the file system should not redirect the access. This mechanism is flexible and easy to use, therefore, it is the recommended mechanism to bypass file system redirection. Note that 64-bit applications cannot use the Sysnative alias as it is a virtual directory not a real one."


The above is correct.. in your scripts just make sure your target "%windir%\Sysnative" and your file will go where you intended it to go.