Magicians at Lindersoft

[NewsArchive]

Will the "magicians at Lindersoft" ever be able to strip out the C6 XP
Manifest and then add a Vista manifest?

--
Lynn Howard
www.linkedsoftware.com

[NewsArchive]

Lynn,

> Will the "magicians at Lindersoft" ever be able to strip out the C6 XP
> Manifest and then add a Vista manifest?

The main problem is that the underlying Windows APIs to manipulate PE
resources do not work reliable on all Windows (NT, XP, etc.) versions.
Adding resources always works fine, removing does not. So (IMO) it's better
to be on the safe side here and not provide a way to remove an existing
embedded XP manifest from an application.

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.7
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Thanks Friedrich. I suspected as much. But OTOH you always seem to have a
lot of rabbits in your hat. <G>

Lynn

[NewsArchive]

> Thanks Friedrich. I suspected as much. But OTOH you always seem to have
> a lot of rabbits in your hat. <G>

<G> :)

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

> Will the "magicians at Lindersoft" ever be able to strip out the C6 XP
> Manifest and then add a Vista manifest?

You don't need to do that Lynn (unless your trying to repair in the field
and that would be a bad idea as altering the exe would break your code
signing, protection, etc.

It is a "Catch 22" with a simple fix.

You want to have the file manifested so that you can see what it looks like
during development.

However you want to let SetupBuilder add the manifest file so that it is
always correct.

The simple solution is that you add an External Manifest file into your
application folder.

Just name it as "YourAppName.exe.manifest".

Then UnCheck the option in Clarion that adds the manifest.

Then in SetupBuilder use the built-in tools to add the manifest to your exe
during the installer build.

"Presto-Changeo" you are done!

Your app ALWAYS looks right during development (not to mention that you can
see what it looks like on a pre-XP computer by simply renaming the file and
restarting the app), AND you never have to worry about getting it wrong on
a customer PC again.


Why work hard when Friedrich will do it for you???

;-)

Charles





--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

Hi Charles,

"Why work hard when Friedrich will do it for you???" That's what I mean.

The problem I was trying to solve was to have an app display with the XP
manifest on XP and the Vista manifest on Vista.

So can I do that somehow?

Lynn

[NewsArchive]

Hi Lynn,

> "Why work hard when Friedrich will do it for you???" That's what I mean.
>
> The problem I was trying to solve was to have an app display with the XP
> manifest on XP and the Vista manifest on Vista.
>
> So can I do that somehow?

From the technical point of view, a Vista-aware manifest is "backward
compatible". That means, a Vista-aware manifested application gives you the
XP look on XP and the Vista look on Vista. And it does nothing special on
Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000.

Friedrich

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.7
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Aha! I believe I tried that and there was a problem with disabled buttons
using a Vista manifest in XP. I'm trying to remember. <G>

Lynn

[NewsArchive]

> Aha! I believe I tried that and there was a problem with disabled buttons
> using a Vista manifest in XP. I'm trying to remember. <G>

<G> IIRC, this was a C5x powered application!? I think C6x applications do
not have this "black background" checkbox/radio button problem.

Here is an interesting thread:
http://www.lindersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8265

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Hi Lynn,

>The problem I was trying to solve was to have an app display with the XP
>manifest on XP and the Vista manifest on Vista.

Select to generate XP manifest but not link it in. It will be created
as appname.exe.manifest. Then you'll have the XP themes in there and
no problems, then let SB add the vista manifest.

Clarion 9058 has an option to link in a vista manifest (with a bug
that makes it useless, but easy to fix<g>) and our Icetips Utilities
will have an extension template to add a vista manifest in next
release:)

Best regards,

Arnór Baldvinsson
Icetips Creative, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.icetips.com


Subscribe to information from Icetips.com:
http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnor and Friedrich,

Now it's coming back to me.

My problem was the 9029 build of 6.1 and Makeover combination. When a
MakeOver theme was enabled the Tool Bar disabled icon background was a grey
box.

It's not a problem with Makeover or the manifest, it's just that my
particular combination of C6 version and Makeover just weren't compatible.
Bruce was very patient with me. <G>

Thanks for your info!

Lynn

[NewsArchive]

> So can I do that somehow?

(solved in later thread responses)

See - all I have to do is be gone for a few hours and things sort
themselves out<g>.

;-)

Charles

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

Magicians are marvelous creatures. ;-)

Lynn

[NewsArchive]

Hi Charles (or Friedrich),

> The simple solution is that you add an External Manifest file into your
> application folder.
>
> Just name it as "YourAppName.exe.manifest".

Your way sounds pretty easy and logical and it let me feel pretty stupid :-)
! No matter what I do my application won't get the XP/Vista look until I
check "Link generated Manifest in Project" in the global settings.

It's not that bad because it's just for developing (adding the manifest via
SB works perfect) but sure would like to have it right. Maybe somebody can
attach a working .manifest file.

Thanks
Hanspeter Stutz
ARCO Software AG

[NewsArchive]

Hi Hanspeter,

>> The simple solution is that you add an External Manifest file into your
>> application folder.
>>
>> Just name it as "YourAppName.exe.manifest".
>
> Your way sounds pretty easy and logical and it let me feel pretty stupid
> :-) ! No matter what I do my application won't get the XP/Vista look until
> I check "Link generated Manifest in Project" in the global settings.
>
> It's not that bad because it's just for developing (adding the manifest
> via SB works perfect) but sure would like to have it right. Maybe somebody
> can attach a working .manifest file.

Just a quick note. Do not accidentally embed a manifest *and* distribute
the external manifest. You have to be careful with external manifests under
Vista (when you distribute your app). On Windows XP, if an external
manifest is present in the application's local folder, the operating system
loader uses this manifest instead of a manifest embedded inside the binary.
On Windows Server 2003, Vista and later versions of Windows, the opposite is
true. In this case the external manifest is ignored and the embedded
(internal) manifest is used when present.

Under XP, it does not make any difference if the embedded manifest is used
or the external one. Under Vista (and later) it can make a difference
because of the "manifest cache". So always embed the manifest for
applications that are used on Vista!

Friedrich

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.7
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

Ok I think I got it now and thank you for the warning. I don't and won't do
that.

So in short, if there's an external manifest and I work with Vista it won't
be loaded. Luckily I have SB and just made a small script that I run with a
..bat file to add the manifest. Nice :-)

Have a great weekend
Hanspeter

[NewsArchive]

So apparently Microsoft never learned about Manifest Destiny... ;-)

--

Ben E. Brady
Want MASSIVELY OUTRAGEOUS web disk space and bandwidth?
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The information contained in the message above, as expressed by the author,
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The information contained in the message above may not be posted on any
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and are not necessarily shared by other members of the newsgroup and may or
may not be in agreement with SoftVelocity, the host of this newsgroup.

[NewsArchive]

Gents,

I'm just as puzzled as Hanspeter and Lynn were. I can't get the
manifest to work as described on my XP development machine.

How do you create the External Manifest file? Does Clarion create it?
Where can I find it? When I create files they are empty, is it
magically filled as the application loads?

Thanks,
George Riddell.

[NewsArchive]

Hi George,

Attached setting does create the manifest on my PC. Note that it will be
created in your app folder - just in case (as we do) you redirect the Exe to
another folder.

HTH
Hanspeter