Two new USB installers for Total Commander

[Tilde]

Hello,

Thank you for your fast answers, I apologize to have written this message in
the forum in English in French

Tilde

[Sir_SiLvA]

2ghisler(Author)

Suggestions:
3. Please name starttc.exe as StartTC.exe or StartTotalcmd.exe.

Sorry but this is <enter word you like>.
We are not under *unix where its important if a file
has capital letters or not. On Fat/16/32/NTFS
its starttc.exe = StartTC.exe

[ghisler(Author)]

OK, here are some replies:

The Mainmenu entry in wincmd.ini is left unchanged

Not here! It should be set to the program directory, or no directory at all (just name). What entry did you have in there?

Does 'starttc.exe' do something special, or just launch 'totalcmd.exe'?

Just start totalcmd.exe via the path stored inside the EXE. The ini location is set via the useiniinprogramdir variable.

So maybe 'tc2usb.exe' should create a 'autorun.inf' file on the USB stick instead of or additionally to 'starttc.exe'?

Hmm, what do other users think? I didn't create it because it didn't actually auto-run the program.

At least you can just copy all INI files of TC program folder ...

Hmm, yes, this could be done, but what plugins put their ini files there? Instead, I could offer the user a list of ini files in the wincmd.ini directory which he could check for copying.

1. You should make it as Wizard: big window (same size for all steps), with big white caption on the top, with buttons "Next >", "< Previous".

A wizard for two pages? Isn't this a bit overkill?

2. Please add field for TC folder name. I want to specify "TC" or "TotalCmd", not "totalcmd".

I could make the combobox editable, OK?

3. Please name starttc.exe as StartTC.exe or StartTotalcmd.exe.

As someone else pointed out, this has no effect, you can write it as you like.

4. Give names for plugins folders as original names, and copy 1 file only 1 time.

I'm already copying now all plugins in one directory again into one directory. I cannot use the path name, though, the plugins may be scattered across the harddisk and some may have the same dir name in other places (at least this was the case here).

Now it copies my TC folder in about 20 sec (it copies several times, because some plugins are installed in the same folder).

Maybe you still had the older 0.90 release?

[Alextp]

2ghisler(Author)

A wizard for two pages? Isn't this a bit overkill?

Four pages: 1) configuring paths 2) selecting plugins to copy 3) selecting ini-files to copy 4) copying of files.

I could make the combobox editable, OK?

Combobox with destination path? Ok.

Quote:
Now it copies my TC folder in about 20 sec (it copies several times, because some plugins are installed in the same folder).
Maybe you still had the older 0.90 release?

Yes, it was version 0.90. But now it copies all plugins in one folder to one folder with name=<first plugin name>. Can it just copy files to folder=<original name relative to TC folder>? "Plugins\WFX" and "Plugins\WDX" in my case: several wfx/wdx plugins are installed there.

[ghisler(Author)]

Four pages: 1) configuring paths 2) selecting plugins to copy 3) selecting ini-files to copy 4) copying of files.

Hmm, progress within the wizard? I will try that. It's just that wizard pages are very bad to create with MS VC++ 6.0. I have to put all controls of all pages on one dialog and then show/hide them manually...

Can it just copy files to folder=<original name relative to TC folder>? "Plugins\WFX" and "Plugins\WDX" in my case: several wfx/wdx plugins are installed there.

Apparently you don't use the subdirectory scheme suggested by my auto-installer. My USB stick installer isn't clever enough to guess what scheme was used (it's trying to create the default scheme wcx\pluginname etc.)...

[AlleyKat]

So maybe 'tc2usb.exe' should create a 'autorun.inf' file on the USB stick instead of or additionally to 'starttc.exe'?

Hmm, what do other users think? I didn't create it because it didn't actually auto-run the program.

Overkill IMHO, but if people really use it and it would be better within and not as a separate little program, who am I to object. Personally I've turned off all autorun of blank CDs and non-CD-drives here. A checkbox which adds an autorun wouldn't ruin my day, I just wouldn't use it. And if I ever did, TC alone wouldn't cut it; I'd be adding my portable webserver and my IM too anyway.

At least you can just copy all INI files of TC program folder ...

Hmm, yes, this could be done, but what plugins put their ini files there? Instead, I could offer the user a list of ini files in the wincmd.ini directory which he could check for copying.

Hmm well.. I see the idea, but would it end there? How about icon libraries etc? My current setup goes something like this:

c:\Programmer\totalcmd\(files) - including 2 extra icon DLLs, alt. sfx-header and a 'visualdirsize.ini'
./Icons - my single-icons-folder (yeah yeah I'm too lazy to .icl/.dll them)
./addons - TCColPS, TweakTC, UltraTC-package and newfile.exe
./wcx - 5 subfolders with various plugins and a lonely one in the folder itself
./wfx - 2 subdirs
./wlx - 5 subdirs and 2 plugins
Plus the LANGUAGE folder and a logs folder. This just to give some idea as to how complex it can end up being.

3. Please name starttc.exe as StartTC.exe or StartTotalcmd.exe.

Are you smoking something interesting or running under some emulated type of OS?


Offtopic, after last reinstall I can't quite locate where I set my TC to only mark the filename without extension when renaming files, and I was quite happy about that setting, so if anyone got a hint/pointer I'd apprecite it, thx.

[Alextp]

2ghisler(Author)

I will try that. It's just that wizard pages are very bad to create with MS VC++ 6.0. I have to put all controls of all pages on one dialog and then show/hide them manually...

You may put on form 4 Panels (for 4 steps), put controls on Panels
and then change visibility of Panels. If you're doing this in Delphi, as TC.

Apparently you don't use the subdirectory scheme suggested by my auto-installer.

Yes, there are plugins installed before auto-install was made.
But installer must works with this case too, as with folder-per-plugin case.

[ghisler(Author)]

You may put on form 4 Panels (for 4 steps), put controls on Panels
and then change visibility of Panels. If you're doing this in Delphi, as TC.

I'm not using Delphi for this tool because of the VCL (controls library) size overhead. This is no problem with larger programs like Total Commander, but it is for such a small installer tool.

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)
Here is a little demo project (VS 2003). I don't have VS 6 on this machine, sorry. What exactly is the problem in VC 6?
www.lefteous.de/tc/archives/misc/wizard.zip

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately I cannot load your project in VC++ 6.0, it uses a different project format. I don't have VC7 because .Net is completely useless for Shareware or Freeware.

It seems that you have simply put each page on a separate dialog. I can't do this here because I need the checked items and a lot more of the plugins listview for copying the plugins. However, with a Wizard interface, all files need to be copied at the last page of the wizard, not in between. I'm really asking myself whether I should spend another few days on this project, it really delays the main TC development more than I want...

[Sven]

Unfortunately I cannot load your project in VC++ 6.0, it uses a different project format. I don't have VC7 because .Net is completely useless for Shareware or Freeware.

Simply create an empty "Win32 application" project and add the source files. Also you have to link against "comctl32.lib".

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)

Unfortunately I cannot load your project in VC++ 6.0, it uses a different project format.

I know I'm sorry for that but Svens advice will work.

I don't have VC7 because .Net is completely useless for Shareware or Freeware.

The old Win32 and MFC is still included. VS 2005 (7.2 or 8.0?) has been released a few days ago.

It seems that you have simply put each page on a separate dialog.

I understood your previous post in a way that you wanted to do this .

I can't do this here because I need the checked items and a lot more of the plugins listview for copying the plugins. However, with a Wizard interface, all files need to be copied at the last page of the wizard, not in between.

A not displayed page doesn't mean it's been closed. There are nice macros to access the other dialogs. OK and apply button clicks will be send to all dialog procedures so it's no problem to get all user choices easily.

Here is the reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/commctls/propsheet/reflist.asp

I'm really asking myself whether I should spend another few days on this project, it really delays the main TC development more than I want...

I just wanted to help a bit on providing an official wizard.

[Horst.Epp]

OK, here are some replies:

The Mainmenu entry in wincmd.ini is left unchanged

Not here! It should be set to the program directory, or no directory at all (just name). What entry did you have in there?

I have Mainmenu=C:\Program Files\wincmd\LANGUAGE\MY_WCMD_ENG.MNU
This subdir is from the official setup and I only made my own menu file in it.

[sqa_wizard]

I have Mainmenu=C:\Program Files\wincmd\LANGUAGE\MY_WCMD_ENG.MNU

just use

Mainmenu=MY_WCMD_ENG.MNU

this will work for the standard location ...

[ghisler(Author)]

Simply create an empty "Win32 application" project and add the source files. Also you have to link against "comctl32.lib".

Ah, thanks, it worked with a few modifications then!

2Lefteous
Sorry, I just looked at the .rc file and saw the different dialog box templates, so I thought that you used one dialog box per page. Thanks very much for your nice sample!

2Horst.Epp
You are indeed right, I checked my sources and found that only the path to the lng file was corrected, but not the one to the mnu file!

2All
I have now written my first Wizard-based installer. I have also added the option to copy ini files located in the same directory as wincmd.ini. I have also added a manifest resource for Windows XP.

Please try it! You can find the link in the first post.

Please note that the U3 installer has NOT been updated yet, just the normal installer.