[Dx4win] Migrating to Win 7 from XP

[Rick Murphy]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Harry Williams <willisw200 at msn.com> wrote:
> Well I got dx4win to run on the windows 7 machine but I had to copy the
> directory from the xp machine and put it in the same directory on win 7
> machine....program files. If I put it under c:\ upon execution of dx4win it
> would open a window saying it could not find the log and dx4win ended up
> minimized in the task bar. From that point I could not open it.

One way to correct this if I'm not mistaken is to use Windows Explorer
to find the log on the new computer in the c:\dx4win\ directory, then
double click the log file. DX4WIN should then run and open the log.
Now you can shut it down and when restarting it should find the log in
the new place.

> So whats the
> downside of having it installed in program files on win 7

DX4WIN writes files to the same directory where the program is
installed (log files, backup files, etc.). This kind of behavior has
been deprecated since Windows 2000 or so, but programs have gotten
away with ignoring this advice for a long time.  Unfortunately,
Microsoft now enforces that restriction (since Vista and now Windows
7), causing the files to be invisibly redirected to other parts of the
disk. This can cause all kinds of unexpected behavior when Windows
loses track of the files it's redirected. When this happens, programs
don't work right, files get lost, and so forth. In the absence of a
fix to DX4WIN, the best solution is to not install it under Program
Files.

> and also is there any downside in installing by copying the directory across and not using the
> install process which puts entries in the registry.

You can use the installation program to install it wherever you want,
then move the license key and log file over from the old machine.
That's probably the best way to do it, as the installation program
will take care of driver installation and set up file type
associations so clicking on a .DXL file will cause it to be opened by
DX4WIN. I don't think there's anything else of consequence written to
the registry during DX4WIN install, but having those associations set
up is helpful.
73,
    -Rick
-- 
Rick Murphy, CISSP-ISSAP, K1MU/4, Annandale VA USA