Manifold System Installation

install_cd.JPG (13493 bytes) Release 4.50 Installation Instructions

These are the installation instructions for Release 4.50. If you are running earlier Manifold System releases, please upgrade your system. If for some reason you can't upgrade (?) Here are archival copies of the installation notes:

Release 4.00 Installation Instructions

Release 3.00 Installation Instructions

Release 4.50 Installation Notes:

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

After installation, launch Manifold System from the Windows Start menu. Manifold documentation is provided on-line within the Help system. Click on the Help main menu choice to read the Help system. There are hundreds of pages of text and topics in the online documentation.

Both experienced and novice computer users should begin with the Welcome topic.

Note 1: In some heavily-loaded Windows ‘95 systems, there may be a delay of a minute or two after the Choose Destination Location step while the installation program searches for possible conflicts.

Note 2: The first time Manifold System is launched, it will automatically register all Manifold files with the Windows registry. This may cause a slight delay before the first time startup. Some versions of Manifold System may also open supplemental installation dialogs the first time they are launched. Follow the prompts to complete installation.

Note 3: If you have never previously installed an ODBC driver or a database-capable application, Manifold will tell you in the installation procedure that you will need to install Manifold twice. The first time through, Manifold will install all the database stuff that must be there for a normal installation to proceed. Follow instructions (it's easy) and reboot your system and then run the Manifold installation a second time. The second time through, Manifold will be able to configure the database system files and will install all the Manifold stuff.

Note 4: Like most NT applications, Manifold installs on a per user basis. It must be installed first as Administrator, and then must be re-installed within each user login that is to have access to the application.

Note 5: 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 6: Download and Install Service Pack 4 From time to time, manifold.net releases Service Packs for Manifold System. Service Packs fix bugs and add new features and other improvements in between major releases. Service Packs are free to download, but they require Manifold System. SP2 for Release 4.50 should be downloaded and installed by all Manifold Release 4.50 users. 4.50 is remarkably bug free. Nonetheless, there are several bugs fixed and improvements added. See the readme file for information.

server_surgery.JPG (17340 bytes) Release 4.50 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. You can use another browser as your default browser; however, we use the IE4 installation to guarantee that your Windows operating system is equipped with reasonably current Microsoft system files.

Kill all other applications and background processes. The thumbnail at right illustrates an NT Task Manager report of processes running. It is a screenshot provided by a customer having difficulty installing Manifold. Note the numerous application and background processes that are running. The advice given our customer was: "Before installation, open up Task Manager and kill all processes that do not say "Access is denied" (do not close taskmgr.exe since this is Task Manager itself ). This should get rid of ziptoa.exe, mcshield.exe, vstskmgr.exe, esri.exe, sens.exe, jre.exe, getright.exe, realplay.exe and others. On a typical system an "empty" set of processes (many of which could still be safely killed) consists of "system idle process", system, smss.exe, csrss.exe, winlogon.exe, services.exe, lsass.exe, spoolss.exe, rpcss.exe, pstores.exe, mstask.exe, nddeagnt.exe, explorer.exe, systray.exe, mdm.exe and ddhelp.exe." If you have a zillion applications and other processes running they could easily interfere with the installation.

Other Errors:

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 or IE 5) installed. If you do have a Microsoft browser installed and this error pops up, it is caused when either a previous installation of some other software package has left a system file in a non-standard condition (files not writable, registry errors, etc), or if you are attempting to install Manifold with background programs or processes running. See the discussion below for ODBC.

Could not load the setup or translator library Microsoft dBase Driver (*.dbf)

This and similar installation messages can be the result of the following:

Do you have any other processes running in background? (see above).
Do you have Administrator privileges on the target machine?
Is your TEMP directory correctly setup? (Windows does this but a user error or damage from another program might have blown it away. Go to a command prompt and execute the "set" command. This will dump a list of system variables in effect. If there is no line referencing the TEMP variable, add it from Control Panel.)
Do you have enough free space in the hard disk hosting the TEMP directory as well as on the system hard disk drive? (40 MB is enough.)
Have you installed software that may have changed your Microsoft Windows system files?

If you have determined that it is the last point (something has changed your system files), for normal humans the best and fastest resolution is to wipe your hard disk and re-install Windows. Once some program (a virus, a Trojan Horse or just simply a badly-behaved program) changes your Windows system files it is almost impossible for the average user to restore Windows to a state of normal functioning where Windows standard programs can install.

For extreme experts who look forward to full-contact, fight-to-the-death interactions with Windows installations: you can attempt to fix your Windows system by hand. The following suggestions are from Paul Anderson, a Manifold user and fearless REGEDIT warrior. These tips on fixing Windows are not supported by Manifold Tech Support:

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q260558:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q260/5/58.ASP

If this does not resolve the problem -- reinstall MDAC. General Microsoft Universal Data Access Download page:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/download.htm

From the general MDAC page down load the following 3 items:

1) MDAC troubleshooter & installer (Comcheck.exe):

http://www.microsoft.com/data/download.htm#CCinfo

[Text from the MS website]

The Component Checker tool is designed to help you determine installed version information and diagnose installation issues with the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). Component Checker runs on the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000. Only 32-bit and 64-bit platforms are supported. Component Checker has been updated to include MDAC 2.6 data.

2) MDAC 2.6 RTM (2.60.6526.3) Download page:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/download_260rtm.htm

NOTE: Only install MDAC with the 'Component Checker Tool'!

Run the MDAC Component Checker Tool. After the analysis is complete, open the help menu and review MDAC installation instructions.

3) Jet 4.0 (required for MDAC 2.6 but not included), will need to be installed after installing the new MDAC components.

Microsoft Jet 4.0 Service Pack 3 Download Page:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/download_Jet4SP3.htm

Note that the Microsoft links are subject to change. If you understand the above well enough to attempt to repair your Windows installation you should be able to find what you need. We do not recommend the above procedure, because usually it is not possible to determine what program caused the damage to your Windows installation. If it was caused by a virus or Trojan Horse, fixing the above issues may allow Manifold to install but there is no guarantee that all damage (weird registry entries, time bombs, etc.) has been repaired. Our universal experience is that the time spent in reloading Windows is always less than the time spent tinkering with the above. Of course, if you only have one machine and no way of backing up gigabytes of files you don't have the option of reloading Windows.

(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), or if you are attempting to install Manifold with background programs or processes running. . The installer crashes when attempting to work with a system file that is not within Microsoft spec. Regrettably, this is a fairly common occurrence within ODBC installations and currently appears to affect approximately one in 200 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.

If you are not able to identify the misbehaving application, a drastic remedy is to re-load Windows and IE and then load Manifold first, followed by other applications. Manifold installs flawlessly on Windows '95, '98, or NT 4.0, Me and NT 2000 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).

If you have problems other than the above, please contact technical support by email. Remember to include full information on your system.

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