Beta Testers, You may well be wondering where we're at with DBT 10.6. It appears to me that the time is right to switch DBT's installation procedure. While what is now DBT 10.6 remained a "service pack" release to DBT 10.5, I didn't want to do this. However, with the new numeric designation we have a bit of freedom. We've also been hearing more lately about installation problems. What I propose to do is to retire our "homemade" SETUP.EXE process in favor of a Windows Installer (.MSI) solution, built with a commercial installation builder. The following will be among our design goals: 1. Interactive and Administrative (automated) installations will be supported. 2. Installation will be localizable, using the same procedure that allows localization of the DBT interface itself. (For those of you unfamiliar with this process, our partners web site allows certain of our business partners to edit the interface strings in various languages.) 3. Add/Remove will work properly (for a change). 4. It will remain possible to have installed different editions of the software, each independent of the other. Indeed each release -- even beta 1, beta 2, etc. -- will be independent. This does imply that pre-release testers may want to periodically use Add/Remove to clean out old pre-release versions. 5. When a Service Release is approved, it will be set to install over the earlier version with the same major & minor version, so that users who do not do pre-release testing will not experience the same DBT overload in Add/Remove programs. 6. Installation will give the option of installing a computer to use a centrally-managed, possibly multi-user option (as can now be done with NETINST) or to use a client-hosted activation. This option will also be available for Administrative installations. All current installation options should remain possible. I do not at this time propose to try solving the problem that installation of SWIFT & Word BANA Templates is not possible for "All Users". Also -- and importantly for some -- switching to a .MSI installer will mean retiring NETINST. Network adminstrators will instead be urged to use the Administrative installation options built into Windows Installer. The difference to the end user will be that the resulting installation will have software installed on the local machine. This should improve performance without affecting maintainability. Moreover, while the software will be local, the activation may either be local or server-based, as explained above. For those of you who have single-user installations, the impact should be essentially none. I'm most interested in hearing thoughts from those among you who manage larger installations, or work with people who do so. If we do go forward, the new installer will certainly need some testing. Best Regards, Peter * * * * This message is via list duxhelp at freelists.org. * To unsubscribe, send a blank message with * unsubscribe * as the subject to <duxhelp-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>. You may also * subscribe, unsubscribe, and set vacation mode and other subscription * options by visiting //www.freelists.org. The list archive * is also located there. * Duxbury Systems' web site is http://www.duxburysystems.com * * *