XL5: Open EIS Pak Setup Error with Excel Workstation Install

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Open EIS Pak for Windows, version 1.1

SYMPTOMS

When you run the Microsoft Open EIS Pak Setup program, you receive the following error message if you have performed a workstation installation of Microsoft Excel:

   Setup could not find Microsoft 5.0 installed on your system. Please
   install Microsoft Excel 5.0 before installing this application.

CAUSE

When you have performed a workstation installation of Microsoft Excel, rather than installing the application to your hard drive, the Microsoft Open EIS Pak Setup program cannot locate the Microsoft Excel files, and assumes that the application is not installed.

Because it does not prompt you to locate the Microsoft Excel files, as version 1.0 did, you cannot install the Microsoft Open EIS Pak if you are running a workstation installation of Microsoft Excel.

WORKAROUNDS

To install the Microsoft Open EIS Pak AND run Microsoft Excel from the network, do either of the following:

One Workstation

To install the Open EIS Pak on a single workstation, do the following:

   1. Perform a local (Custom/Complete, or Minimum) installation of
      Microsoft Excel to install the application to your local hard drive.

   2. Run the Microsoft Open EIS Pak Setup.

   3. Run the Microsoft Excel Setup program in maintenance mode, and choose
      the Remove All button to remove the local installation of Microsoft
      Excel.

   4. Run the Microsoft Excel Setup program again, and choose the
      Workstation installation option.

Multiple Workstations

To install the Microsoft Open EIS Pak on multiple computers that are running workstation installations of Microsoft Excel, you can install the Open EIS Pak on one computer using the above steps, and then copy the Microsoft Open EIS Pak directories to other machines on the network.

Notes

These steps assume that you have a license for every computer that is running the full EIS Builder tools. Computers that you use to run applications created using the EIS Builder do not need to be individually licensed.

Note that the Microsoft Open EIS Pak Setup program does not modify any .INI files, does not install system .DLL files, and is not serialized.

In this example, the computer that already has the Microsoft Open EIS Pak installed is the source computer, and the computer that needs a copy of the Microsoft Open EIS Pak installed, is the target computer.

1. On the target computer, use the network to connect to the Open EIS Pak directory on the source computer. By default, this is c:\eispak11, however, this directory could be different if it was changed during the Setup program.

2. Copy the EXCEL\LIBRARY\EIS.XLA file from the source computer to the network location of the EXCEL\LIBRARY directory that the target computer is using.

3. Copy the Microsoft Open EIS Pak directory, including all files and subdirectories, from the source computer to the target computer.

4. To run the Microsoft Open EIS Builder on the target computer, open the AUTHOR.XLA file, located in the Open EIS Pak directory on the computer's local hard drive.

These steps can be repeated for each target computer that you want to install the Open EIS Pak to.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q98654
   TITLE     : Excel: Network Installation of Open EIS PAK