question on install dir

[Tuffgong4]

ok so my friend is an assistant to a laser surgeon and the surgeon uses this ancient(like 8 year old) program for something he does for the operations he does. The program he uses needs to be taken from an old computer to a new one so he owns a copy of the program legally. Also he has called the company that made the program and they won't help him at all and he can't even get a chance to talk to someone about buying a new one or anytihng. My problem is this. is there anyway to go into the .exe file or to look into the registry of the computer so that I can move the program from one computer to the other. Oh yeah by the way there is no cd for program.

Just to let everyone know this is not a warez situation...I've been here way to long and would never discuss anything warez or illegal here...

 

[ElementalDragon]

try checking around in the folder where it was installed. sometimes (if you're lucky) it will have a .reg file to add what it needs to the registry

 

[Tuffgong4]

that almost sounds too good to be true...what I was figuring what I was going to do if the reg file the install isn't there was going into the registry and making a copy of the registry values that need to be there and putting them into the new system...thanks and keep the suggestions coming...I will be working on this idea this coming thursday so I will need as much help as possible and will be able to let yo know how it goes...keep the good ideas coming!

 

[Elroy Jetson]

if this is an old win3.1 or win95 program, I have done the following before. Just copy the folder onto the new pc. run the program, chances are it is going to come up with a bunch of error messages. it will need certain .dll files and so on. just note down the name of the files missing, and search for them on the old pc. then copy the file to the same directory on the new pc. do this over and over again, until the program runs smoothly.

BTW: Hope this program is not actually needen DURING the surgery, otherwise I would recommend a new installation of a newer program over this copying method. I don't want to be responsible for a failed surgery

Cheers, EJ

Oh, and resistry entries are not critical for running a program on a pc, they are only critical for the communication of this program with the OS and other programs (but being 7 years old, it is not going to need this!).

 

[LeeJend]

This one may get real ugly or it could be a piece of cake.

Piece of cake -
Copy the program directory to backup and write it to your PC at home. See if it runs.
Look for *.ini files. That was what early windows used instead of a registry. There was win.ini, sys.ini and then individual programs. Then ask around to find out how to put that in the registry.

Ugly - just a few of the issues.
Is this a win 95 program or is it Win 3.x or even older?

First off you have to determine if it has a copy protection scheme built in. That could involve hidden files, reg. entries, or even a hardware Dongle. And identify any "owner keys" you may need to find or recover.

Search the registry for any occurence of the program name. Copy the entry and any subentries to a text file so you can copy them into the new comps registry.

I feel your pain, I wrote a 180k line DOS based dBase IV application. It now has to run on Win 2000. Problems I encountered were:
-It has to be in it's own special directory structure that violates company security and backup policies.
- It won't print over the new networks at all.
- The laser printer setup codes are no longer valid.
- Formatting of printout is next to impossible to put into word, wordpad or even notepad. It skips lines, split pages, etc. for some unidentifieable reason.
- It runs so fast I can not tell if steps have completed or not (no noticeable time to repaint the screen) and repeating them damages the data entry.

If it were on my job considering this is related to medical treatment I would recommend finding a replacement application that is upto date. Sorry man.

 

[Tuffgong4]

incredibly helpful thanks...I will be working on it Thursday...let you guys know how it goes...


edit...installed on 98 machine

 

[Hipster Doofus]

What's the name of the program?

 

[Tuffgong4]

haven't found out yet...I am luckily moving up the day I'm going to see it to tomorrow so I will find out tomorrow

 

[Tuffgong4]

if someone can show an example or screenshot of where this stuff would go let me know!!! emergency help

ok I have all the files for this program and I need to add registry stuff to my registry to see if the program will run on my comp which means I'm on the right track...can someone please help on where exactly this stuff needs to go in my registry


RegDB Key: Software\blank\blank
RegDB Val: C:\Program Files\blank\blank
RegDB Name: blank
RegDB Root: 2
SubSystem: blank blank blank blank

ok when it says this where does the stuff go...like HKEY local or current user or users or more than one
and what is the root and subsystem...