Release 4.00 Installation Instructions

These are the installation instructions for R4.  If you are running the previous Manifold System release, Release 3.00, see the Release 3.00 Installation Instructions.

To install the system, run setup.exe on the CD and follow the prompts. 

Note 3: Many users will wish to transfer copies of the "read only" files from the CD onto hard disk. When copying files from CD to hard disk, don’t forget to click off the "read only" property after you paste them to hard disk. If the files stay "read only", Manifold will be unable to add objects or otherwise edit the files.

Note 4:  Install the lastest Service Pack to upgrade your system to the latest spec.  Service Packs are zip files.  Place the zip file in your Manifold System installation directory (by default, C:\Program Files\Manifold System) and unzip it.  It will overwrite various files with the latest versions.   If you are using an "unzip" program that cannot automatically overwrite read-only files, you may have to use Windows explorer to manually remove the read-only property from the ggf2.dll file so that the unzip program can overwrite it with the latest version.  In addition to fixing errata (all minor), Service Packs provide upgrades and some additional new features between major Manifold releases.

Release 4.00 Installation Troubleshooting

Obvious Errors:

• Your login must have Administrator privileges in NT.

• You must have a Microsoft Internet browser installed to guarantee a successful installation, although technically this is not strictly required in all cases.  See the Requirements document for a discussion on this theme. Any minimal installation of IE 3.02 or IE 4 is fine. 

There are two classes of errors that emerge in Release 4.00 installations:

Runtime Error!   Program: C:\TEMP\_INS0576._MP abnormal program termination

This error pops up if you do not have a Microsoft Internet browser (IE 3.02 or IE 4) installed.  If you do have a Microsoft browser installed and this error pops up, it is caused when a previous installation of some other software package has left a system file in a non-standard condition (files not writable, registry errors, etc).   See the discussion below.

(Error messages regarding ODBC related files or other files)

These errors occur when a previous installation of some other software package has left a system file in a non-standard condition (files not writable, registry errors, etc). The installer crashes when attempting to work with a system file that is not within Microsoft spec.  Regrettably, this is a fairly common occurance within ODBC installations and currently appears to affect approximately 1%  of Manifold installations.

Due to the very wide array of programs that may be installed, it is not always possible to identify exactly which application has misbehaved.  Non-standard installation and registry issues can be so subtle that only a complete re-load of the operating system will restore the system to a known good state. We have developed a set of extended installation instructions that may be used to debug installations where previous applications have misbehaved.  See the extended installation instructions further down in this page.

If you are not able to identify the misbehaving application, a drastic remedy is to re-load Windows and IE4 and then load Manifold first, followed by other applications.   Manifold installs flawlessly on Windows '95, '98, or NT 4.0 with any combination of Microsoft applications.   Note: uninstalling suspect applications before installing Manifold is not normally enough:  an application which leaves your system in a non-standard state after installation is not likely to do any better after uninstallation!  Likewise, simply freshening the system will not be enough if the registry has been mishandled.  Therefore, a system is not a "virgin" system unless the hard disk has been wiped or reformatted (quick format is enough).

Extended Installation Instructions

Manifold System uses numerous Microsoft operating system facilities to accomplish standard system tasks.  This design philosophy allows the system to reliably take advantage of Microsoft standards and to continue operating (or even, to improve operation) when Microsoft releases upgrades and service packs to system facilities.   Microsoft, and we, expect that applications will upgrade the system as necessary by installing newer versions of Microsoft files and dlls that Microsoft provides to developers.

Note that there are many ways for a Microsoft operating system facility (normally, a dll file) to be upgraded.  To facilitate the necessary upgrading of systems, newly installed applications are supposed to check to see if the system dlls are older versions of the system dlls they use.  If an older version is present, the installer should install the newer Microsoft dll to assure correct functioning.  If a newer version is present, the installer should prompt before overwriting with the older, presumably downrev dll.

This is a great system that normally works quite smoothly.  Many systems will have ancient applications running on them that were compiled two or even three years ago, which nonetheless merrily co-exist with the very latest software downloaded from Microsoft or Manifold Net.  It is not possible, though, to assure that each of hundreds of thousands of applications that use and install thousands of different Microsoft files or upgrades will in all cases perform the installation perfectly.

For example, it is possible that an application that installed a complex Microsoft system facility such as ODBC or DAO did not perform the installation in all details as specified by Microsoft's standards, or that an inadvertent user action after installation resulted in a non-standard configuration.   Access permissions, registry configuration, filenames, and many other factors might not be in conformance with the standard.  At times applications are installed in a deliberately non-standard way.  While the application itself might work fine, any subsequent installation that also seeks to use (presumably) standard facilities will find its way blocked. 

Another issue is that some applications might utilize system facilities that prevent those facilites from being upgraded as required by Microsoft even if the actual system facility is not misconfigured.  This too may result in a standard installation that fails to proceed.

Therefore, when a standard installation does not succeed, one must find out exactly what it is about the target system that does not conform to the standard specification.  To date, the Manifold support team has not been defeated by any target installation, no matter how weird.  If the standard installation does not succeed in your system, we are ready to help you.  However, you will need to help us by providing detailed information on your system as directed below.

Try the standard installation first.  If that does not work, follow the instructions for the manual installation. If that hits a block, collect the information required and forward it to us.

Standard Installation:

1. Exit all running applications.

Note: Don't forget to quit all applications that normally never get unloaded unless you turn off your PC - mail checkers, pagers, ICQ, net monitors, background ftp clients, background disk compression utilities, screensaver/wallpaper managers, etc. (all of them are typically loaded at startup).

Note: It's possible that some program has crashed during your Windows session and continues to use system libraries while otherwise being invisible - in this case it is necessary to unload the application from TaskManager or simply by restarting the computer (logging off and back on is not enough for some applications). Manifold might also need to update some program or driver at the system level (e.g. security watchdog). If it uses system libraries that need updating (i.e. if the dll version required by Manifold is newer than the installed dll), Manifold will mark them to be replaced on next restart. This may or may not work out automatically depending on the program or driver involved.

2. Run setup.exe from the R4 CD.

Note: if you have a previous version of Manifold installed and are having installation problems, it is best to uninstall the previous version. You can also choose to install the newer version to another directory; however, while using two different Manifold versions is technically possible it requires much accuracy and discipline. This is not a good idea when trying to resolve installation issues.

3. Allow the installation process to run to completion (or, as far as it will go in the copying files and registry manipulation phases) and then restart the computer.

Note: When installing on a machine with no previous ODBC and DAO installations, the installer will complain with the message "Some files failed to self-register..." Restart the computer and run setup again to finish the installation.

The fastest way to see if ODBC is installed is to check Control Panel for the ODBC applet.  The fastest way to see if DAO is installed is to check the shared files location (normally "\program files\common files\microsoft shared") for a DAO directory. When both ODBC and DAO are not installed, Manifold will install the Microsoft ODBC/DAO files and will first configure ODBC. On startup after the first installation, Manifold will try to configure DAO but will fail because it relies on a configured ODBC that has not yet taken effect. After the first installation and restart, you should see the ODBC applet in Control Panel and DAO files in the shared files directory location, however, although ODBC is fully configured, DAO is not yet properly installed. Re-running setup and re-starting for a second time completes the installation and fully configures all files for both ODBC and DAO.

Note: there can be cases when ODBC and/or DAO and/or some other system components are installed improperly by previous installations. In this case the Manifold installation may or may not fail. In case it fails you can: 1) try to do a manual installation (likely to remove problems caused by ODBC and DAO), 2) uninstall some programs and try to install Manifold without them, 3) reinstall your Windows system (Win95 or NT) and then install Manifold just before any other applications (usually the cleanest way if possible).


Manual Installation

These instructions for manual installation assume you have tried the standard installation, and that the standard installation did not fail before all files are copied and the progress bar was at 85 percent or higher.

In the directions that follow, when we say the "Windows" directory we mean "Windows" for '95 and "Winnt" for NT. For certain problems, we ask you to send us file lists: these are lists of files in your Windows and Windows\System[32] directories made with dir *.* and dir /a:r *.* commands (note that we need both lists for each directory, so you should provide a total of four lists).

1. [preparing to do manual installation] Copy regsrv32.exe from the Manifold ftp site ("support" on 216.15.110.75 or 207.181.219.11), and place it in a dir in PATH (Windows dir or Windows\System[32] dir). This program is used to register system components from a command line. Sample usage: regsvr32 filename.dll.

Restart your computer. Do not run any applications just after restarting. Close any automatically started applications like mail checkers and ICQ. (See the note to standard installation step 1).

2. [checking ODBC components] Verify that ODBC is installed by pressing the ODBC applet in Control Panel. Go to About page. You should see the following core components: Administrator, Control Panel Device, Control Panel Startup, Cursor Library, Driver Manager, Localized Resource DLL. In addition,under the ODBC Drivers page you should see Microsoft Access Driver. If you don't see any of these components there is a problem with installing ODBC. The most common case for this problem to occur is installing some 3rd party software using an installation program that does not follow standard installation rules. We can try to help you if you'll send us a list of files in your Windows and Windows\System[32] directories made with dir *.* and dir /a:r *.* commands (note that we need both lists for each directory, so you should provide a total of four lists). If a previous application has mis-installed ODBC, we need to attack this on a case-by-case basis.

3. [registering DAO components] Open a DOS command line, go to the Windows/System[32] directory and execute the following commands:

    regsvr32 oleaut32.dll
    regsvr32 olepro32.dll
    regsvr32 msjet35.dll
    regsvr32 msrd2x35.dll

After each command there should appear a message box stating that the file has been registered successfully. If not, have you checked ODBC in step 1 above? If everything is fine with ODBC it is most likely a problem with system dlls like msvcrt.dll. We can try to help you if you'll send us a list of files in your Windows and Windows\System[32] directories made with dir *.* and dir /a:r *.* commands. If a previous application has left a system dll such as msvcrt.dll in a non-standard condition, we need to attack this on a case-by-case basis.

Then go to DAO directory (normally "\program files\common files\microsoft shared\dao") and execute the following command:

    regsvr32 dao350.dll

Again, if the dll failed to register, send us the dir *.*, etc, file lists mentioned above.

4. [registering VBScript] Go to Windows\System[32] directory and execute the following command:

    regsvr32 vbscript.dll

If the dll failed to register there is a problem with the scripting engines. VBScript.dll usually comes with Internet browsers, so we need to know which browser(s) you have installed. Attach this information to the file lists and send it to us.

5. [registering Manifold components] Go to Manifold directory (normally "\program files\manifold system") and execute the following commands:

    regsvr32 mfdproxy.dll
    regsvr32 mfdstatx.dll
    regsvr32 mfdvslv.dll
    regsvr32 mrtm10.dll
    regsvr32 mggf.dll
    regsvr32 mhpgk.dll
    regsvr32 mistat.dll
    regsvr32 mstat.dll
    regsvr32 mtools.dll

If some dll failed to self-register there is a problem with system dlls like msvcrt.dll and mfc42.dll. However, it also can indicate a problem with the dll itself. Although it is extremely rare, it is possible that some defect in your hard disk or CD drive caused one of these dll's to be damaged or incomplete. Attach the file lists (two - one made with dir *.* and second - with dir /a:r *.*) for the Manifold directory to the file lists for Windows and Windows\System[32] dir and send them to us.

6. [creating directories - optional] Create the following directories in the main Manifold directory (normally "\program files\manifold system") if not created yet:

    Data Files
    Format Styles
    Morph Grids
    Print Layouts
    SQL Queries
    DLG Imports
    SDTS Imports
    Tiger Imports
    Shape Imports
    VPF Imports
    DNS Discoveries
    SNMP Discoveries
    TCPIP Discoveries

This step is optional, however if some directory is absent when Manifold starts, the system will complain and reset the appropriate entry in the Tools - Options / File Locations dialog.

7. [registering other components] In the Manifold directory execute the following commands:

    svrexec.exe
    svrurl.exe
    regedit /s _master.reg

None of these commands are likely to fail. However, if you will experience problems send us file lists for Windows, Windows\System[32] and Manifold dir.

8. [finalizing manual installation] Restart. If everything went ok you should be able to work with Manifold.

Concluding Notes

There, wasn't that easy and user-friendly? We apologize for this process; however, if the standard installation does not work we need to work together to find out what it is about your system (or, in hopefully rare cases) about Manifold that is not correct.

To end on a philosophical note, it is amazing that an installation protocol that so loosely depends on the good citizenship of hundreds of thousands of disparate applications works so well most of the time. But, it is difficult when creating sophisticated applications within an operating system environment that itself is being updated constantly to cover all the bases. We mean no disrespect when we say that it is possible that some previous installation did not follow Microsoft spec. It is easy to make mistakes, especially when the spec itself so rapidly evolves.  We don't mean to complain about the evolution either, because we are all the beneficiares of spectacular progress within Windows.

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