HOWTO: Run Setup1.vbp in the Design Environment

• Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0

SUMMARY

You can customize the installation program created by the Setup Wizard (renamed Package and Deployment Wizard, or PDW, in Visual Basic 6.0) by modifying the Setup1.vbp project, also known as the Setup Toolkit. However, you cannot run or debug this project in the Visual Basic Design Environment unless you emulate the behavior of the compiled setup routine.

NOTE: Microsoft Technical Support does not support the modification of the setup process or any of the setup files. Support is provided for the Setup Wizard on an "as is" basis only.

MORE INFORMATION

Before you can run the Visual Basic portion of setup, the Setup.exe program must copy certain files to their destination directories. Setup.exe also creates an uninstall log file that is used by Setup1.exe for 32-bit applications, and it copies Setup1.lst to the \Windows directory so it will not be swapped out.

Setup.exe invokes Setup1.exe (Setup132.exe using Visual Basic 4 32-bit) with certain command-line arguments. In order to run the Setup1 project in the Visual Basic Design Environment, these arguments must be set. Do this by launching the Visual Basic Design Environment from the Setup program and specifying your modified Setup1.vbp as a command-line argument.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Run the Application Setup Wizard or PDW, and follow the steps to produce the default setup distribution set in a folder.



2. Edit the Setup.lst file in a text editor, such as Notepad. Use the method described below for the version of Visual Basic installed, making changes where noted:
   
   Visual Basic 4.0 16-bit
   
   Locate:

   
   Setup=setup1.exe 

   Replace it with:

   
   Setup=c:\vb\vb.exe c:\vb\setupkit\setup1\setup1.vbp /cmd 

   Visual Basic 4.0 32-bit
   
   Locate:

   
   Setup=setup132.exe 

   Replace it with:

   
   Setup=c:\vb\vb32.exe c:\vb\setupkit\setup1\setup1.vbp /cmd 

   Visual Basic 5.0
   
   Locate:

   
   Setup=setup1.exe 

   Replace it with:

   
   Setup="c:\program files\devstudio\vb\vb5.exe"
         "c:\program files\devstudio\vb\setupkit\setup1\setup1.vbp" /cmd 

   NOTE: The entry should be on one line only, with necessary quotation marks depending on long file name usage.
   
   Visual Basic 6.0
   
   Locate:

   
   Spawn=setup1.exe 

   Replace it with:

   
   Spawn=C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\VB98\VB6.exe 
   C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\VB98\Wizards\PDWizard\Setup1\Setup1.vbp /cmd 

   NOTE: The entry should be on one line only. Your path may vary depending upon where you installed Visual Basic 6.0. Please change the path in the example above as needed, using short file names (8.3).
   
   Modify the paths as appropriate. Save Setup.lst when this step is complete.



3. Start the installation by running Setup.exe.
   
   After Setup.exe finishes, it will start the Visual Basic Design Environment with the Setup Toolkit (Setup1.vbp) project loaded, the correct files in the correct places, the uninstall log already created, and with the command-line arguments set properly. This is the function of the /cmd argument. It allows Visual Basic to pick up the command-line arguments that Setup.exe sends to the second portion of the installation process, Setup1.exe (Setup132.exe using Visual Basic 4.0).



4. Add the desired break points. Press the F5 or F8 key to run the project.
   
   Note that if you click the "Exit Setup" button at any time while running the project, or if the program runs to the end either successfully or by a trapped error, the log file (setup.lst) and the uninstall program are deleted. Conversely, if you run repeated tests of your version of Setup Toolkit, multiple copies of the log file (StXunst.000, StXunst.001, and so on) are copied into your \Windows directory, where "X" is the version of Visual Basic being used. These may be safely deleted after you exit the Visual Basic Design Environment.

Additional query words: command line parameters IDE

Keywords : kbwizard kbAppSetup kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpVB
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto