Help and install utils

[NewsArchive]

Our old Help file system and install utility are outdated and no longer
being supported. Any suggestions?

Would like somthing that would use our current .HLP files.

Dennis

[NewsArchive]

Dennis,

> Our old Help file system and install utility are outdated and no longer
> being supported. Any suggestions?

Help & Manual and SetupBuilder - the ONLY way to go.

<http://www.helpandmanual.com/>

<http://www.lindersoft.com/products.htm>


--
Lee White

RPM Report Viewer.: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/rpm/
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[NewsArchive]

>> Our old Help file system and install utility are outdated and no longer
>> being supported. Any suggestions?
>
> Help & Manual and SetupBuilder - the ONLY way to go.
>
> <http://www.helpandmanual.com/>
>
> <http://www.lindersoft.com/products.htm>

Thank you, Lee!

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

> Help & Manual and SetupBuilder - the ONLY way to go.
>
Lee,

Totally agree about SetupBuilder, but Help & Manual is not "the only"
way to go <g>. We get rave compliments about our on-line help and it
was not created with Help & Manual.

Tony

[NewsArchive]

Tony,

> > Help & Manual and SetupBuilder - the ONLY way to go.

> Totally agree about SetupBuilder, but Help & Manual is not "the only"
> way to go <g>.

Read that as, "Help & Manual" and "SetupBuilder - the ONLY way to go."

Is that better?!<g>

--
Lee White

RPM Report Viewer.: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/rpm/
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[NewsArchive]

NO argument there. I use Dr Explain and really like it. Have not use
H&M so I can't comment or compare.

SB is great (Wikipedia notwithstanding).

Bob Roos

[NewsArchive]

WOW...thanks for all the info...

Questions about Help and Manual.....
Our current help files is ".HLP", I noticed that this program will import
them....This is the OLD system. What is the NEW format...HTML?

I am also assuming that all the Help ID's that we have installed throughout
our apps will still work.

Dennis

[NewsArchive]

Dennis,

> Our current help files is ".HLP", I noticed that this program will import
> them....This is the OLD system. What is the NEW format...HTML?

Compiled HTML in a .CHM file.

--
Lee White

RPM Report Viewer.: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/rpm/
RPM Review........: http://www.clarionmag.com/cmag/v11/v11n06rpm.html
Report Faxing.....: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/afe/
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Product Release & Update Notices
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[NewsArchive]

Hi Dennis,

Yes it will import them, though you will still have to make some changes in
your app to use .chm help. Nothing too major.
Working in Help and Manual is like looking at a .chm help file, topics on
the left, details on the right. This makes it very intuitive, and easy to
use.
When have your help written (or imported), you can output it as HTML help
(.chm), Webhelp, PDF, Visual Studio help, Winhelp (.hlp), Microsoft Word
(.rtf), or E-Book (.exe), with a click of the mouse.
Absolutely top notch!

Setupbuilder, is also top notch. Very intuitive and powerful. A programming
masterpiece with the best support in the industry (Really!!!).

BOTH programs are by far the best I have seen for their intended purposes.
They are also both chock full of useful features, stable, efficient, well
documented, and have superb support.

I wouldn't use anything else!

I think they both have free trial versions to download. You'll be impressed.


Ben Morehouse

[NewsArchive]

Dennis,

> Our old Help file system and install utility are outdated and no longer
> being supported. Any suggestions?
>
> Would like somthing that would use our current .HLP files.

In addition to a Win7-compliant installation system, a code-signing
certificate is a must have today. You have to code-sign all your
application files (.exe, .dll, etc.) and your install/uninstall. Otherwise,
it's impossible to provide an UAC-aware, Windows 7 compliant system.

To code-sign your applications, you need a code-signing certificate from a
trusted authority (e.g. Comodo, VeriSign, Thawte, etc.).

http://www.lindersoft.com/order_codesigning.htm

Here are some interesting readings:

http://www.lindersoft.com/CodeSign.pdf
http://www.lindersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8279
http://www.lindersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9498

BTW, this is a very brief description of how to make an application
"UAC-aware" and Win7-compliant:

-- Standard Application:

1. Embed an UAC manifest into your main application (.EXE). A manifest
basically tells Windows how aware the program is about the recent Windows
versions (and disables "Virtualization"). You should include a manifest for
Windows 7 (it's fully backward compatible with all previous Windows
versions).

SetupBuilder 7 Developer Edition can embed such a manifest into your
executable.

2. Request "asInvoker" execution level privileges through the manifest for
your application.

3. Code-sign all your application files (e.g. .EXE, .DLL). SetupBuilder 7
Developer Edition can handle this for you.

4. Your application should not depend on any administrative APIs.

5. Do not write per-user information or user-writable information to Program
Files or Program directories.

6. Do not write to any other protected Windows area (e.g. the OS drive root
folder, the "Windows" folder tree, etc.).

7. Do not write to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or any other protected registry
key.


-- Standard Installation:

1. Use an UAC-aware installation system. By default, installations run
elevated.

2. Install applications per-machine (all users) and store per-user data in
different locations.

3. Do not install Quick Launch shortcuts.

4. Never write to per-user locations from the elevated running installer.
That means, never write to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key or to per-user
file locations.

5. Launch applications non-elevated at the end of the installation process.

6. Code-sign the installer.

Note: if you have to install "per-user" data, install it to a common
location and as a "first run" action of your main application, copy the data
from the common location into a per-user location.

Respect the recommended (default) locations for applications and data files,
but provide users with an option to select another installation location for
both. A true "Mixed User Application" should work elevated and non-elevated.

That's it :-)

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Is a certificate per application or per entity? If I sell 5 different
applications do I need 1 certificate or 5?

Thanks, Bob Roos

[NewsArchive]

Hi Bob,

> Is a certificate per application or per entity? If I sell 5 different
> applications do I need 1 certificate or 5?

You only need one code-signing certificate to code sign your files. If you
sell 5 different applications then you only need 1 certificate.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

You purchase the certificate once. Then code-sign all your applications
with that certificate, which is only valid for the next 3 years. After
that, you have to renew your certificate.

Kelvin Chua

[NewsArchive]

> In addition to a Win7-compliant installation system, a code-signing
> certificate is a must have today. You have to code-sign all your
> application files (.exe, .dll, etc.) and your install/uninstall. Otherwise,
> it's impossible to provide an UAC-aware, Windows 7 compliant system.
>
> To code-sign your applications, you need a code-signing certificate from a
> trusted authority (e.g. Comodo, VeriSign, Thawte, etc.).

That raises in interesting question. Maybe it has already been
answered, but if you are shipping 3rd party DLLs with your application,
is it ok (legal) to sign them along with your own executables? Do you
need permission from the 3rd party vendor to do so?

Thanks,
Tony

[NewsArchive]

Hi Tony,

> That raises in interesting question. Maybe it has already been
> answered, but if you are shipping 3rd party DLLs with your application,
> is it ok (legal) to sign them along with your own executables? Do you
> need permission from the 3rd party vendor to do so?

First of all, "signing" files of other developers is a bad (and dangerous)
idea. Why? Well, are you sure that there is really no spyware stuff in the
3rd-party DLLs <g>. Can you swear ;-) Signing application files means that
you take over responsibility. What happens if that DLL "phones home" to
send sensitive data to the web and this is brought to the court? The judge
will tell you that you have code-signed the application file and so your
customer trusted the file.

And code-signing modifies the binary contents of the file. In most cases,
the license agreement does not allow this. For example, if there is an
"unsigned" Microsoft .dll or .exe file then it is not legal to code-sign it
because this "modifies" the file.

IMO, it's better to contact the 3rd-party developer and ask him to code-sign
the files.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

What if you distribute a LIB (why do they call it that) built EXE file?

You will incorporate DLLs from others and then sign the resultant exe,
no?

Bob Roos

[NewsArchive]

Bob,

> What if you distribute a LIB (why do they call it that) built EXE file?
>
> You will incorporate DLLs from others and then sign the resultant exe,
> no?

When libraries are linked within your EXE you're only signing the EXE
not any others.

--
Lee White

RPM Report Viewer.: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/rpm/
RPM Review........: http://www.clarionmag.com/cmag/v11/v11n06rpm.html
Report Faxing.....: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/afe/
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Product Release & Update Notices
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[NewsArchive]

I am calling them DLLs and you say "libraries". I am not sure of the
difference. I am meaning that I have only 1 file to distribute and it
has an extension of .EXE. It will run without using any other Clarion
modules.

At execution time something looks at all the DLLs that are already
linked in to check if they are signed before saying that this is a
"signed application" and can pass without warning?

Bob Roos

[NewsArchive]

Bob,

> I am calling them DLLs and you say "libraries". I am not sure of the
> difference. I am meaning that I have only 1 file to distribute and it has
> an extension of .EXE. It will run without using any other Clarion
> modules.

If the static .LIB library file makes it into your .EXE, then you can only
code-sign your .EXE as a whole and you take over responsibility for the code
that comes from the .LIB.

In this (static .LIB) case, there is no Dynamic Link Library (DLL)
dependency file required because the code that is included in the .LIB file
is compiled into your .EXE.

> At execution time something looks at all the DLLs that are already linked
> in to check if they are signed before saying that this is a "signed
> application" and can pass without warning?

Most protection software products (anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.) do this.
If an application file is not code-signed, it's possible that the execution
is blocked.

And if an "unsigned" .EXE file requests administrator execution level
privileges on UAC-aware operating systems, it's possible that Windows does
not allow the execution at all.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Bob,

> What if you distribute a LIB (why do they call it that) built EXE file?
>
> You will incorporate DLLs from others and then sign the resultant exe, no?

Yes, that's correct. The same "responsibility" applies to STATIC .LIB
files.

There are two types of .LIB files:

1. A "dynamic" library (.LIB) is nothing more than an import library for a
DLL. The file only contains the exported symbols and the name of the
3rd-party DLL to load.

2. A "static" library (.LIB) contains the definitions and is linked directly
into your application. That means, there is no 3rd-party dependency. The
..LIB is part of your own .EXE or .DLL now! So in this case, you do not have
a choice. You have to code-sign the application file as a whole (including
the code that comes from a 3rd-party vendor).

Code signing creates a digital "shrink-wrap" that shows your customers the
origin of the company responsible for the whole file. It also confirms that
there have been no code modifications since the signature.

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Thank you. That clears up 2 questions for me. ;)

Bob Roos

[NewsArchive]

>
> IMO, it's better to contact the 3rd-party developer and ask him to code-sign
> the files.

Friedrich, execellent advice!

Tony Tetley

[NewsArchive]

> Our old Help file system and install utility are outdated and no longer
> being supported. Any suggestions?
>
> Would like somthing that would use our current .HLP files.

We are using the following:

Help and Manual 5: http://www.ec-software.com/

SetupBuilder 7: http://www.setupbuilder.com/

Top-notch products and top-notch support. Don't waste your time with other
products.

Matt

[NewsArchive]

> Help and Manual 5: http://www.ec-software.com/
>
> SetupBuilder 7: http://www.setupbuilder.com/
>
> Top-notch products and top-notch support. Don't waste your time with other
> products.

Thank you, Matt!

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

On 2 Mar 2011 13:23:44 -0500, Dennis_POSAL wrote:

> Our old Help file system and install utility are outdated and no longer
> being supported. Any suggestions?
>
> Would like somthing that would use our current .HLP files.

Dennis,

While less expensive tools make the initial purchase easier - it's your
investment of time and productivity over the long haul that make selecting
the right "product" AND "company" - a much more prudent purchase.

Both companies are more like artisan or master craftsman who rank as the
best in their field of expertise AND are highly successful - ensuring they
are always state of the art - and available for your future success as
well!

Product Description - SetupBuilder Developer, MFG - Lindersoft
Internet Link - http://www.lindersoft.com/products_setupbuilder_dev.htm

Product Description - Help & Manual, MFG - EC Software
Internet Link - http://www.helpandmanual.com/

It should be noted - both companies and products had very humble beginnings
- AND have kept their operations and product development very lean and
customer responsive - unlike larger companies with bloated, less efficient
products and more lethargic support systems.

David

--
From David Troxell - Encourager Software
Microsoft Forums NNTP Bridge - Instructions to use
http://profileexchanges.com/blog/?p=397