| Support running in a read-only environment |
Administrators are always looking to tighten up security and reduce complexity for their users. Well, it doesn't get much better than a user inserting your CD, or clicking on an icon pointing to a network share, and the application just starts up and runs the first time and every time - without ever needing to write application data to the local machine at run time.
Running from read-only sources such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and read-only LAN directories isn't that hard if you have followed the previous data separation guidelines. Just remember to use SHGetFolderPath to find the folders you'll need to access for both your application data and user data, use GetTempPath to find the location to write temporary files, check for read or write access, and use your hard-coded defaults where needed.
An additional consideration for your application is that it should support Autoplay so that your application does something automatically upon insertion of the CD. Usually this consists of installing (if necessary) on first insertion, then just running on subsequent insertions.
If the program is designed to run from the distribution CD it needs to have a full install of the program on the CD with an install program to point to that location.
System support for SHGetFolderPath is not native on Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.0. These downlevel clients will require the installation of new system files prior to use. (Redistribution specifics not available at press time)
AutoPlay Overview, GetTempPath, SHGetFolderPath, Windows Installer