Microsoft Windows(TM) 32-bit Installer Components

11/08/2000

Disclaimer:

It is my true belief that as these components have previously been made available to developers and others for free download from Microsoft's site, that they may be freely shared and distributed. However, no representation is hereby made to that fact. Use at your own risk. No warranty is either expressed or implied.

Version:

I have no idea what version(s) these installers are.

Purpose:

Odin (the successor to the Win32-OS/2 Project) holds much promise for being able to run 32-bit Windows executables in the OS/2 PM environment. One problem which has been routinely reported is that of 16-bit Windows installers shipped with 32-bit Windows apps. Upon running such a SETUP.EXE, OS/2 either immediately launches a Win-OS/2 session or Odin reports an error message that the app is not 32-bit Windows. Replacing both SETUP.EXE and _ISDEL.EXE with the 32-bit versions in this archive should allow these applications to install normally under Odin.

Contents: These files are the 32-bit installer components. Replace any 16-bit installers with these for use under Odin. The files contained in this archive are:

_ISDEL.EXE	27,648	27-Oct-1998
SETUP.EXE       73,728  12-Jan-1999
Read.me (this file)

Directions:

** NB: This is not meant to be an all-inclusive installation procedure for loading applications under Odin, rather, a brief outline of the steps involved in replacing the 16-bit installer with the 32-bit components.

1. Copy the contents of the application to be installed into a temporary directory on a drive supporting long filenames (e.g., HPFS). This is necessary due to the fact that many Windows applications install into X:\Program Files\... and will fail if longname support is not available.

2. Overwrite SETUP.EXE and _ISDEL.EXE with the two components from this archive.

3. Start SETUP using either PE.EXE or WIN32K.SYS (see Odin documentation for the differences between these two methods, as such a discussion is well beyond the scope of this document).

Support: None, really. However, I would suggest you check out the Odin Users Mailing List on eGroups for a constant stream of excellent information. Absent that, you are certainly welcome to email me, though I can't guarantee that I will be able to respond quickly. See my email address, below.

Guaranty: None. If you want a guaranty, I suggest you buy a toaster. :-)

Contact: Lewis Rosenthal lgrosenthal@compuserve.com
