OLE: How Windows 3.1 Searches for Server Applications

Last reviewed: June 21, 1996
Article ID: Q82813

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11

SUMMARY

With Windows version 3.1, OLE clients look for a server application (that is, the application associated with the object) in the following order:

The location specified in the REG.DAT file.

2. The WIN.INI file. 3. The WINDOWS directory. 4. The WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. 5. The location specified in the MS-DOS PATH environment variable

   (which is specified in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file).

A correct path in any of the above locations is sufficient to start the server application. If the server application is moved, then do any one of the following:

Locate the application's *.REG file and issue the following command:
```
     REGEDIT /S <FILENAME>.REG
```
Make sure the server's location is specified in the MS-DOS PATH environment variable.
Reinstall the application to update the REG.DAT file.
Make sure that the server is in the WINDOWS or WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.

MORE INFORMATION

If the server application is not found in the location specified in the REG.DAT file, the path specified in REG.DAT is ignored and the client looks in the next location.

The "synching" properties of the registration file makes it so that it looks in the [Embedding] section of the WIN.INI. For example, if you install Microsoft Excel 3.0 (not 4.0), then the application writes its OLE information to the WIN.INI [Embedding] section. The first time that you use OLE in Excel, it looks in the REG.DAT file, doesn't find anything about Excel, then looks in the [Embedding] section of the WIN.INI, finds the information, updates the REG.DAT, and then launches the program.

If the client doesn't locate the information in the WIN.INI, it looks in the next location (the WINDOWS directory). The REG.DAT and WIN.INI files are not changed to remove the incorrect location. Therefore, the identical search pattern is used the next time the OLE libraries request the location of this particular server application. (The entries in the [Embedding] section of the WIN.INI file are not used by the OLE libraries because SHELL.DLL keeps the REG.DAT file and the WIN.INI [Embedding] section identical.)

If the client still doesn't locate the information, it looks in the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, and then in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

If Windows is unable to find the server application in any of the above locations, the following error message is displayed when the client requests the server's services:

   The server application cannot be found.

   Make sure that the application is properly
   installed, or exists in your DOS path, and that it
   has not been deleted, moved, or renamed.

KBCategory: kbother kbole
KBSubcategory: win31
Additional reference words: 3.10 3.1 find search order

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Last reviewed: June 21, 1996
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