The amazing shrinking setup file - any VB experts out there?

[highplains]

Re: The amazing shrinking setup file - any VB experts out there?

Thanks, Darryl. That does help. I ran the Scan Project utility and it picked up the ocx file that the Scan File Dependencies didn't list. I guess I'm stuck with 3 mb setup files for 200 kb programs. Setup Factory is a slick tool though. It blows InstallShield and Wise away for ease of use, and it's plenty powerful enough for anything I'm likely to want to do. Thanks again.

R. Donges

[Darryl]

Re: The amazing shrinking setup file - any VB experts out there?

Yes, Worm's correct about the VB runtime support module. You can view the details document to see what is actually installed with that module.

Besides the "Scan File Dependency" tool, there's also the "Scan Visual Basic Project" tool, which you really should use. It will scan a Visual Basic project file for dependencies and add them to your project. Note: it will only add dependency (DLL and OCX) files. The best thing to do is do the scan in a new project to see what files are picked up. Then check to see what files are already included in the VB6 runtime support module. The rest should be the dependency files you need to distribute. Occasionally there may be a dependency file that is not referenced in the project, but is still needed, but that is rare.

Hope that helps.

[highplains]

Re: The amazing shrinking setup file - any VB experts out there?

Thanks for the quick reply, Worm. That's what I suspected, but didn't want to hear. What about the ocx calendar control file that I know the program uses, but that SF didn't show as a dependency file? How good is SF at making that determination? Do you know if VB includes what's needed when an exe is compiled, or does it have to drag that extra luggage along everywhere it goes? Thanks again.

R. Donges

[Worm]

Re: The amazing shrinking setup file - any VB experts out there?

Your best bet is to include the VB Runtimes, and the msvbvm60.dll. Your app worked on the machine you tested on because the runtimes were already installed and up to date. You will run into machines that do not have the runtimes, or they are out of date, and your app will fail.

This is a draw back with VB, no matter how small an app you make, you have to add a 1+ MB runtime to be certain it will work when deployed.

[highplains]

Howdy all. I'm new to SF and have limited experience with Visual Basic installation package requirements, so please excuse my ignorance.

My question is this: how do you determine what support files are actually needed in an installation package? For example, I have a small Visual Basic 6 program that uses mscal.ocx. I ran the "Scan Dependencies" utility in SF and it ony listed msvbvm60.dll, so I included that file in the package. I also noticed that the VB6 runtime support module was included, apparently by default.

The first installation package I made for this program using SF was 3.1 mb in size. The installation worked fine, as did the resulting installed program. But since the executable for the program is only 208 kb, I started trying to figure out why the installation package was so big, and started removing stuff. I removed msvbvm60.dll. Setup worked, program worked, file size was reduced to 2.34 mb. I then removed the runtime support module. Setup worked, program worked, file size was reduced to 1.06 mb. Finally I removed everything but the executable and an ini file the program needs. Setup and program still worked, and file size was reduced to 501 kb. That seems a lot more reasonable for a 208 kb program. I'm telling SF to create an uninstall procedure, so I'm sure that adds some size to the final setup file.

I'm testing stuff on a different computer than the one I'm developing the software and installation packages on. But unfortunately, I don't have an absolutely clean computer to try the installations on. That means I really don't know if the program is going to work when installed on a computer that has never had VB installed on it or any of my junk programs installed. Sorry for the epic post. But to restate my question - does the VB executable contain everything it needs, or should I include the dlls and other files associated with the program? Thanks for any suggestions.

R. Donges