[WLX]Excellence_V1.20 failed to install in my 9.20 on windows 2008 R2 / 2003 / 2012

[Tangent Lin]

The Excel Viewer plugin Excellence V1.20 works well in my TC_9.20 on Windows 7_X64 /Windows XP_X86 . Image: https://imgchr.com/i/PHh5xH
But it failed to install in my TC_9.20 on Windows server 2003_X86 / Windows server 2008 R2_X64 / Windows server 2012_X64 / Windows Server 2016_X64 . The error message windows is the same. Image: https://imgchr.com/i/PHfc4S
I have test the redcell / uList plugin , but it failed to search the word in Chinese_character_set .
The author of Excellence had stopped the support for this 8 years old plugin .
Any clue to solve the missing DLLs ?

[sqa_wizard]

You may install fileinfo lister plugin to see the required and missing dll dependencies.
Just press F3 on excellence.wlx

[Dalai]

I can confirm the issue (tested only on Server 2003 x86). It's not DLLs that are missing. TC calls a function when installing a plugin. If this function fails, TC shows the message about missing DLLs although there might be a completely different reason why the function failed.

As I said I tested this, and I investigated with Dependency Walker. There's not a single DLL missing. It's the plugin itself, the packing of the file in particular. It was a very good hint for me that you named this many Windows OS versions where it either works or doesn't work. One thing that the Windows versions where it works (Windows client OS) have in common is that NX is set to OptIn, while it's OptOut on all other versions (Windows server OS).

To test this hypothesis I set NX on my Server 2003 VM to OptIn, rebooted, and voila, the plugin loads just fine. It seems that the ASPack with which this plugin is compressed (or the plugin itself) needs to execute code in the data section (which is prohibited by NX). I also unpacked the plugin file with AspackDie but to no avail; it doesn't load when it's unpacked even with NX set to OptIn .

Conclusion:

• Either set NX to OptIn which I don't recommend!
• or add totalcmd.exe to the exception list of the Windows NX setting. This works via Control Panel > System on Server 2003 but it might be different on newer Windows server versions.
• or look for a different plugin
• or install another viewer, maybe even the Microsoft Excel Viewer that's been out of support for some time now, but don't do this when you view files from unknown sources!

Regards
Dalai

[petermad]

Well, the Excellence 1.20 plugin works OK here - also on Windows 10.

You can install it manually:
1. Open the wlx_excellence_1.20final.zip file with Ctrl+PgDn
2. Copy the files (except pluginst.inf) to: Path_to_your_32bitTC\PLUGINS\WLX\Excellence
3. Put this in the [ListerPlugins] section of your wincmd.ini file:
4. XX=%COMMANDER_PATH%\PLUGINS\WLX\Excellence\excellence.wlx
XX_detect="EXT="XLS""
where you replace XX with a number that is one higher than the currently highest number in the section
5. Restart TC.

[Dalai]

2petermad
I tried the manual installation (and forgot to mention that above). It doesn't help on Windows Server OS as I already explained. The plugin doesn't load, neither in TC nor PlugMan. It's only because of NX (Data Execution Prevention, or DEP, as MS calls it). As soon as you either disable that or add TC to the NX exception list, the plugin works.

Regards
Dalai

[Dalai]

2Tangent Lin
Did I scare you away with my technical analysis? Are you confused? Don't know how to put my suggestion into practice?

Regards
Dalai

[Tangent Lin]

2Dalai
I am waiting for another confirmed pic from a friend for a long time in Server 2016 . And still get no confirmed pic.
I have installed the excellence_1.2 final plugin successfully.
Thanks for your help !

https://s1.ax1x.com/2018/11/03/i4ozad.jpg

[Dalai]

2Tangent Lin
Thanks for your feedback! So it works now on the systems it didn't work before? If so, I'm glad that it helped you.

Regards
Dalai