Base WFC Run-Time Dependencies

Microsoft Corporation

September 1998

Summary: Lists important dependencies for Windows Foundation Classes (WFC), including required versions of operating systems, VMs, and common DLLs. (4 printed pages)

World Foundations Classes (WFC) solutions run best on Microsoft® Windows® 95 or Windows® NT4/SP3 with Internet Explorer 4.00 installed, or on Windows 98. However, traditional applications written in WFC can typically run reasonably well on systems with Internet Explorer 3.02 installed. On each platform, a WFC-compatible version of the Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java (VM) must also be installed.

The following table lists the general run-time dependencies for any WFC solution. Only those dependencies that are not installed as part of the base-level operating system (OS) are listed.

In summary, the minimum run-time platform for WFC is:

1. Windows 95, Internet Explorer 3.02, and VM build 2922
   
   
2. Windows NT4, SP3, Internet Explorer 3.02, and VM build 2922

Several WFC classes will not behave correctly due to changes made to Comctl32.dll between versions 4.70 and 4.71. These changes include bug fixes and features added in the later build. This version is installed with Internet Explorer 4.00 or Windows 98. Please see the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support/ for details concerning which WFC classes are affected.

The following WFC components require that Internet Explorer 4.00 be installed on client machines:

1. The wfc.html package
   
   
2. The HTMLControl class
   
   
3. The HelpProvider class

wfc.html Dependencies

Client-side, code-behind HTML solutions require that Internet Explorer 4.00 or later be installed on the client machine.

Server-side, code-behind HTML solutions require that Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 and NT Service Pack 4 be installed on the run-time server. No version of Internet Explorer is required.

wfc.data Dependencies

Any WFC solution that makes use of the data components supplied with Microsoft Visual J++® version 6.0 must redistribute the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) version 2.0 with the application.

Server-Side Solution Dependencies

Please see the server-side topics and samples that ship with Visual J++ 6.0 for details on how to create and deploy server-side WFC-based solutions. Also, be sure to browse the Visual J++ Web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualj/ for the most recent information.

Redistributing a WFC Solution

Most WFC solutions will typically need to redistribute a compatible VM with it. For traditional Windows applications or dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), this can be accomplished by creating a self-extracting Setup project in your solution, and adding the Microsoft Virtual Machine to its list of items to redistribute. For Web-based solutions, the correct VM can be specified and made available for installation through HTML.

For solutions that make use of MDAC, those components must be redistributed with the solution. This can be accomplished in the same manner as the VM and WFC.

If your solution makes use of Microsoft ActiveX® controls, Component Object Model (COM) objects, or J/Direct™ calls into DLLs, these components must also be redistributed. Like the VM, these components can be specified and bundled with a self-extracting Setup project. Please be sure to redistribute only those controls and components to which you have a redistribution license.

For complete details, see "Packaging and Deploying Projects" in the Visual J++ 6.0 documentation included on the MSDN Library CD.

Dependency Details

The following table lists the main files on which WFC relies and the means of installation. Each file is installed to the Windows\System directory on Windows 9x or the Windows\System32 directory on Windows NT (except for Microsoft Data Objects, which are typically installed to C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ado).

Those files that are only available through Internet Explorer 4.00 or Windows 98 are only required for some WFC functionality as just described. These files are italicized in the table.

The Required Version column indicates the minimum version of the file that needs to exist on the deployed machine. Please note that some versions of these files may not have been released to the public. Therefore, as long as the version that exists on the deployed machine meets or exceeds the version described as follows, WFC should perform correctly.

The NT4.0, Win95, and Win98 columns list the component that must be separately installed over the top of the base-level OS in order to update each listed file.

Note   This is not an exhaustive list of all WFC's dependencies, only the most important ones. Installing the specified component will ensure that other required files are updated as well.