MS Access Multiuser - Tony Toews Auto FE Updater Problem

Author

Tony Toews Auto FE Updater Problem

Alphonse Giambrone

2005-08-31, 8:25 pm

I am having a bit of a problem with the Auto FE Updater and hope Tony or
someone can help.

Clients system consists of Win 2003 SBS w/Terminal Server and about 15
workstations with a mix of Win98, Win2000 and WinXp.
There are multiple users for the Win2000, WinXP and TS, so I need to have
the shortcut placed on the common desktop.

I tried setting CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=Yes.
This works fine for all (including TS) but the Win98 machines. On Win98 the
updater generates the error
'Unable to fetch Common Desktop Short Cut Folder'
which is understandable, since Win98 has no common desktop.

I thought about creating two sets of ini files and shortcuts (one placing
the shortcut on desktop on one on common desktop), but I also need to run my
app from a third party app where I can only provide a single command line to
run. Therefore I need to have an ini file that will work with all of the
OS's.

Thought about setting up a third ini file for the third party app to run,
setting both CreateShortCutOnDesk
top=No
and CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=No. Tried that out on my system and with
Win98, the FE Updater crashed (...Illegal operation). Does work ok on XP.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

--

Alphonse Giambrone
Email: discuss at customdatasolutions dot us

Tony Toews

2005-08-31, 8:25 pm

"Alphonse Giambrone" <NOSPAMa-giam@example.invalid> wrote:

>I am having a bit of a problem with the Auto FE Updater and hope Tony or
>someone can help.
>
>Clients system consists of Win 2003 SBS w/Terminal Server and about 15
>workstations with a mix of Win98, Win2000 and WinXp.
>There are multiple users for the Win2000, WinXP and TS, so I need to have
>the shortcut placed on the common desktop.
>
>I tried setting CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=Yes.
>This works fine for all (including TS) but the Win98 machines. On Win98 the
>updater generates the error
>'Unable to fetch Common Desktop Short Cut Folder'
>which is understandable, since Win98 has no common desktop.

I never knew that.

What you could do is create the shortcut manually on the Win 98
systems. Once it's created the first time it won't try to create it
after that. Or will it? I'd have to dig through the logic

Anyhow try creating a shortcut on the server share and copying to the
Win 98 desktop and see what happens..

>I thought about creating two sets of ini files and shortcuts (one placing
>the shortcut on desktop on one on common desktop), but I also need to run my
>app from a third party app where I can only provide a single command line to
>run. Therefore I need to have an ini file that will work with all of the
>OS's.
>
>Thought about setting up a third ini file for the third party app to run,
>setting both CreateShortCutOnDesk
top=No
>and CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=No. Tried that out on my system and with
>Win98, the FE Updater crashed (...Illegal operation). Does work ok on XP.

This is an interesting problem. I would've said to have two sets of
INI files but obviously that won't work.

Another thought would simply be to move the Win 98 client systems to
using TS. I'dve thought the Win 98 systems would be getting a bit
pokey by now.

But there's no real way of doing this with how the Auto FE Updater
currently works. And I'm not sure how I could configure it so it
would work in this situation.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

Alphonse Giambrone

2005-09-01, 3:25 am

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the quick response.

I just tried copying the shortcut to Win98 desktop on my system and it does
still try to create the shortcut and therefore errors out. My guess is
because the Updater needs to look in the common desktop just to see if it
needs to create the shortcut and can't find it.

I think the multiple ini files would work if the updater did not crash with
CreateShortCutOnDesk
top=No
and CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=No.

The third party app is a real pain, but necessary for client. I even had
trouble getting the Updater to work at all with it. It does something to the
command line ini file switch that the Updater does not like, so I need to
have that app call a bat file that then calls the Updater. Sorry, can't give
you details on that as that trial was a couple of months ago and I lost the
details.

Client does intend to ultimately use TS on client machines, but can't do
that as yet because of pdf creation/merge problems on the server. Plus wants
to be able to fall back to current method anyway.

As to how to configure in this situation, my thought (this is only my second
time using the Updater so take it for what it is worth) would be that, if
CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=Yes and errors, then create it on the desktop.
If that errors, then present the error.

Is the source code for the Updater available? $? I should be able to work
out the tweaks that I need and keep client happy.

--

Alphonse Giambrone
Email: discuss at customdatasolutions dot us

"Tony Toews" <ttoews@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
news:9kkch11nmdcv2ou
oqsb8j822g860jl00bk@
4ax.com...
> "Alphonse Giambrone" <NOSPAMa-giam@example.invalid> wrote:
>
>
> I never knew that.
>
> What you could do is create the shortcut manually on the Win 98
> systems. Once it's created the first time it won't try to create it
> after that. Or will it? I'd have to dig through the logic
>
> Anyhow try creating a shortcut on the server share and copying to the
> Win 98 desktop and see what happens..
>
>
> This is an interesting problem. I would've said to have two sets of
> INI files but obviously that won't work.
>
> Another thought would simply be to move the Win 98 client systems to
> using TS. I'dve thought the Win 98 systems would be getting a bit
> pokey by now.
>
> But there's no real way of doing this with how the Auto FE Updater
> currently works. And I'm not sure how I could configure it so it
> would work in this situation.
>
> Tony
> --
> Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
> Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
> read the entire thread of messages.
> Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
> http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

Alphonse Giambrone

2005-09-16, 8:24 pm

Tony,

Please reply!

--

Alphonse Giambrone
Email: discuss at customdatasolutions dot us

"Alphonse Giambrone" <NOSPAMa-giam@example.invalid> wrote in message
news:OP2XOuprFHA.3060@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Hi Tony,
>
> Thanks for the quick response.
>
> I just tried copying the shortcut to Win98 desktop on my system and it
> does still try to create the shortcut and therefore errors out. My guess
> is because the Updater needs to look in the common desktop just to see if
> it needs to create the shortcut and can't find it.
>
> I think the multiple ini files would work if the updater did not crash
> with CreateShortCutOnDesk
top=No
> and CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=No.
>
> The third party app is a real pain, but necessary for client. I even had
> trouble getting the Updater to work at all with it. It does something to
> the command line ini file switch that the Updater does not like, so I need
> to have that app call a bat file that then calls the Updater. Sorry, can't
> give you details on that as that trial was a couple of months ago and I
> lost the details.
>
> Client does intend to ultimately use TS on client machines, but can't do
> that as yet because of pdf creation/merge problems on the server. Plus
> wants to be able to fall back to current method anyway.
>
> As to how to configure in this situation, my thought (this is only my
> second time using the Updater so take it for what it is worth) would be
> that, if CreateShortCutOnComm
onDesktop=Yes and errors, then create it on
> the desktop. If that errors, then present the error.
>
> Is the source code for the Updater available? $? I should be able to work
> out the tweaks that I need and keep client happy.
>
> --
>
> Alphonse Giambrone
> Email: discuss at customdatasolutions dot us
>
>
> "Tony Toews" <ttoews@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
> news:9kkch11nmdcv2ou
oqsb8j822g860jl00bk@
4ax.com...
>
>

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