Outside of hardware woes and user errors (what IT personnel call a PEBCAK—Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard),
most computer problems are caused by improperly installing a program or
installing a program that doesn’t mesh correctly with your system. It
could be that the installation makes unfortunate changes to your
configuration files, or that the program replaces a crucial system file
with an older version, or that the program just wasn’t meant to operate
on (or wasn’t tested with) a machine with your configuration. Whatever
the reason, you can minimize these kinds of problems by understanding
the installation process as it relates to user accounts and by following
a few precautions before installing a new software package.
User Account Control and Installing Programs
In
Windows Vista, something as apparently straightforward as installing a
program isn’t straightforward at all. The biggest hurdle you face is the
Windows Vista security model—specifically, the User Account Control
feature—which doesn’t let just anyone install a program. More
specifically, it doesn’t let just anyone run unknown programs, and
install programs for new applications are, by definition, unknown. Why
the paranoia? Simply because Windows Vista wants to give you complete
control over what gets installed on your system and what doesn’t,
particularly the latter. Lots of spyware programs and other malware run
“stealth” installs and you never know they’re on your system until
things start to crash or other weirdness ensues. That won’t happen under
Windows Vista, at least not without your permission, because it
prevents stealth installs by intercepting all installation attempts.
Therefore, unless you’re running Windows Vista
using the built-in Administrator account, when you launch an
installation program, Windows Vista displays a User Account Control
dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 1.
If you initiated the install, click Allow (if you’re running Vista has a
standard user, type an administrator password and click Submit,
instead); otherwise, click Cancel.
Running Through a Pre-Installation Checklist
For those who enjoy working with computers, few
things are as tempting as a new software package. The tendency is to
just tear into the box, liberate the source disks, and let the
installation program rip without further ado. This approach often loses
its luster when, after a willy-nilly installation, your system starts to
behave erratically. That’s usually because the application’s setup
program has made adjustments to one or more important
configuration files and given your system a case of indigestion in the
process. That’s the hard way to learn the hazards of a haphazard
installation.
To avoid such a fate, you should always look
before you leap. That is, you should follow a few simple safety measures
before double-clicking that setup.exe file. The next few sections take you through a list of things to check before you install any program.
Check for Vista Compatibility
Check to see whether the program is compatible
with Windows Vista. The easiest and safest setups occur with programs
certified to work with Windows Vista.
Set a Restore Point
The quickest way to recover from a bad
installation is to restore your system to the way it was before you ran
the setup program. The only way to do that is to set a system restore
point just before you run the program.
Read Readme.txt and Other Documentation
Although it’s the easiest thing in the world to
skip, you really should peruse whatever setup-related documentation the
program provides. This includes the appropriate installation material
in the manual, Readme text files found on the disk, and
whatever else looks promising. By spending a few minutes looking over
these resources, you can glean the following information:
Any advance preparation you need to perform on your system
What to expect during the installation
Information you need to have on hand to complete the setup (such as a product’s serial number)
Changes the install program will make to your system or to your data files (if you’re upgrading)
Changes to the program and/or the documentation that were put into effect after the manual was printed
Virus-Check Downloaded Files
If you downloaded the application you’re
installing from the Internet, or if a friend or colleague sent you the
installation file as an email attachment, you should scan the file using
a good (and up-to-date) virus checker.
Although most viruses come to us via the
Internet these days, not all of them do. Therefore, there are other
situations in which it pays to be paranoid. You should check for viruses
before installing if
You ordered the program directly from an unknown developer.
The package was already open when you purchased it from a dealer (buying opened software packages is never a good idea).
A friend or colleague gave you the program on a floppy disk or recordable CD.
Understand the Effect on Your Data Files
Few software developers want to alienate their
installed user base, so they usually emphasize upward compatibility in
their upgrades. That is, the new version of the software will almost
always be able to read and work with documents created with an older
version. However, in the interest of progress, you often find that the
data file format used by the latest incarnation of a program is
different from its predecessors, and this new format is rarely downward-compatible.
That is, an older version of the software will usually gag on a data
file that was created by the new version. So, you’re faced with two
choices:
Continue to work with your existing
documents in the old format, thus possibly foregoing any benefits that
come with the new format
Update your
files and thus risk making them incompatible with the old version of the
program, should you decide to uninstall the upgrade
One possible solution to this dilemma is to
make backup copies of all your data files before installing the upgrade.
That way, you can always restore the good copies of your documents if
the upgrade causes problems or destroys some of your data. If you’ve
already used the upgrade to make changes to some documents, but you want
to uninstall the upgrade, most programs have a Save As command that
enables you to save the documents in their old format.
Use the Add or Remove Programs Feature
Click Start, Control Panel, Programs, Installed Programs to display the Installed Programs window shown in Figure 5.2.
This is Windows Vista’s replacement for the venerable Add or Remove
Programs window, and it operates as a kind of one-stop shop for your
installed applications. The items you see here come from the following
Registry key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
As shown in the bottom window of Figure 2, each installed application (as well as many installed Windows components) have a subkey in the Uninstall key. This subkey provides the data you see in the Installed Programs window, including the program Name (from the DisplayName setting), Publisher (the Publisher setting), Installed On (the InstallDate setting), Size (the EstimatedSize setting), Support link (the HelpLink setting), and File version (the DisplayVersion setting).
Click an installed program to activate the following three items on the Task pane:
|
|
|---|
| Remove | Click
this button (or Change/Remove) to uninstall the program. Note that each
uninstallable item in the Installed Programs list has a corresponding UninstallString setting in the program’s Uninstall subkey (see Figure 5.2). |
| Change | Click
this button (or Change/Remove) to modify the program’s installation.
Depending on the program, modifying its installation might mean adding
or removing program components or modifying settings. |
| Repair | Click
this button to repair the program’s installation, which usually means
either reinstalling files or repairing damaged files. |
Tip
After you’ve uninstalled a program, you might
find that it still appears in the Installed Programs list. To fix this,
open the Registry Editor, display the Uninstall key, and look for the subkey that represents the program. (If you’re not sure, click a subkey and examine the DisplayName setting.) Delete that subkey and the uninstalled program will disappear from the list.
Save Directory Listings for Important Folders
Another
safe setup technique I recommend is to compare the contents of some
folders before and after the installation. Windows programs like to add
all kinds of files to the %SystemRoot% and %SystemRoot%\System32 folders. To troubleshoot problems, it helps to know which files were installed.
To figure this out, write directory listings
for both folders to text files. The following two command prompt
statements use the DIR command to produce alphabetical listings of the %SystemRoot% and %SystemRoot%\System32 folders and redirect (using the > operator) these listings to text files:
dir %SystemRoot% /a-d /on /-p > c:\windir.txt
dir %SystemRoot%\system32 /a-d /on /-p > c:\sysdir.txt
Note
You need administrator privileges to write
files to the root. To open the command prompt as an administrator,
select Start, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt,
click Run As Administrator, and then enter your credentials.
When the installation is complete, run the following commands to save the new listings to a second set of text files:
dir %SystemRoot% /a-d /on /-p > c:\windir2.txt
dir %SystemRoot%\system32 /a-d /on /-p > c:\sysdir2.txt
The resulting text files are long, so comparing
the before and after listings is time-consuming. To make this chore
easier, use the FC (File Compare) command. Here’s the simplified syntax to use with text files:
FC /L filename1
filename2
|
|
|---|
| /L | Compares files as ASCII text |
| filename1 | The first file you want to compare |
| filename2 | The second file you want to compare |
Note
The FC command can also compare
binary files, display line numbers, perform case-insensitive
comparisons, and much more. For the full syntax, enter the command fc /? at the command prompt.
For example, here’s the command to run to compare the files sysdir.txt and sysdir2.txt that you created earlier:
fc /l c:\sysdir.txt c:\sysdir2.txt > fc-sys.txt
This statement redirects the FC command’s output to a file named fc-sys.txt. Here’s an example of the kind of data you’ll see in this file when you open it in Notepad:
Comparing files C:\sysdir.txt and C:\sysdir2.txt
***** C:\sysdir.txt
09/04/2006 07:00 AM 657,920 WMVXENCD.DLL
09/04/2006 07:00 AM 272,384 WOW32.DLL
***** C:\SYSDIR2.TXT
09/04/2006 07:00 AM 657,920 WMVXENCD.DLL
11/22/2006 08:56 PM 913,560 wodFtpDLX.ocx
09/04/2006 07:00 AM 272,384 WOW32.DLL
*****
In this case, you can see that a file named wodFtpDLX.ocx has been added between WMVXENCD.DLL and WOW32.DLL.
Tip
The FC command is useful for more than just directory listings. You could also export Registry keys before and after and then use FC to compare the resulting registration (.reg) files.
Tip
Most high-end word processors have a feature
that enables you to compare two documents (or any file type supported by
the program). In Word 2003, for example, open the post-installation
file, select Tools, Compare and Merge Documents, and then use the
Compare and Merge Documents dialog box to open the pre-installation
file. Word examines the documents and then inserts the changes using
revision marks.
Take Control of the Installation
Some setup programs give new meaning to the term brain-dead. You slip in the source disk, run Setup.exe
(or whatever), and the program proceeds to impose itself on your hard
disk without so much as a how-do-you-do. Thankfully, most installation
programs are a bit more thoughtful than that. They usually give you some
advance warning about what’s to come, and they prompt you for
information as they go along. You can use thisnewfound thoughtfulness to assume a certain level of control over the installation. Here are a couple of things to watch for:
Choose your folder wisely—
Most installation programs offer to install their files in a default
folder. Rather than just accepting this without question, think about
where you want the program to reside. Personally, I prefer to use the
Program Files folder to house all my applications. If you have multiple
hard disks or partitions, you might prefer to use the one with the
largest amount of free space. If the setup program lets you select data
directories, you might want to use a separate folder that makes it easy
to back up the data.
Tip
Most installation programs offer to copy the program’s files to a subfolder of %SystemDrive%\Program Files (where %SystemDrive%
is the partition on which Vista is installed). You can change this
default installation folder by editing the Registry. First, display the
following key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
The ProgramFilesDir setting holds
the default install path. Change this setting to the path you prefer
(for example, one that’s on a drive with the most free disk space).
Use the Custom install option—
The best programs offer you a choice of installation options. Whenever
possible, choose the Custom option, if one is available. This will give
you maximum control over the components that are installed, including
where and how they’re installed.
Installing the Application
After you’ve run through this checklist, you’re
ready to install the program. Here’s a summary of the various methods
you can use to install a program in Windows Vista:
AutoPlay install— If
the program comes on a CD or DVD that supports AutoPlay, it’s likely
that the installation program will launch automatically after you insert
the disc into the drive. To prevent the install program from launching
automatically, hold down the Shift key while you insert the disc.
Tip
Rather than holding down Shift each time you
insert an install disc, you can configure Vista to never launch a disc’s
AutoPlay program.
Run setup.exe— For most applications, the installed program is named setup.exe (sometimes it’s install.exe).
Use Windows Explorer to find the install program and then double-click
it. Alternatively, select Start, Run, enter the path to the setup.exe file (such as e:\setup), and click OK.
Decompress downloaded files— If you downloaded an application from the Internet, the file you receive will be either an .exe file or a .zip file.
Either way, you should always store the file in an empty folder just in
case it needs to extract files. You then do one of the following:
If it’s an .exe file,
double-click it; in most cases, the install program will launch. In
other cases, the program will extract its files and you then launch setup.exe (or whatever).
If it’s a .zip file, double-click it and Windows Vista will open a new compressed folder that shows the contents of the .zip
file. If you see an installation program, double-click it. It’s more
likely, however, that you won’t see an install program. Instead, the
application is ready to go and all you have to do is extract the files
to a folder and run the application from there.
Install from an .inf file— Some applications install via an information (.inf) file. To install these programs, right-click the file and then click Install in the shortcut menu that appears.
