FIX: Setup Program Created by PDW Disables Windows 95/98/Me System (193034)

SYMPTOMS

The Package and Deployment Wizard (PDW) is used to create a standard installation program for a program created in Visual Basic 6.0. The target system is running Windows 95 and contains two hard drive partitions. The first hard drive partition contains the operating system files while the second hard drive partition contains the TEMP folder and the installation program.

When you run the installation program from the second hard drive partition, the following Setup Error message box appears:

"Setup cannot continue because some system files are out of date on your system. Click OK if you would like setup to update these files for you now. You will need to restart Windows before you can run Setup again. Click Cancel to exit setup without updating system files."

After you click OK, one of the following occurs:

The system restarts but does not completely install the program. When you run the setup program, the following error message appears:
During the Start Up process, the following error message appears:
Windows could not upgrade one or more system files.

You cannot start the system after seeing this message.

A required .DLL file, C:\Windows\System\OLEAUT32.DLL was not found.

NOTE: This bug only occurs on systems with the following attributes:

The system is running Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me.
The system contains at least two hard disk partitions.
The system folder and the TEMP folder reside on different partitions.

CAUSE

The following files were removed from the System folder and not updated because the Windows\System and Temp folders reside on different hard drive partitions:

ASYCFILT.DLL
COMCAT.DLL
MSVBVM60.DLL
MSVCRT40.DLL
OLEAUT32.DLL
OLEPRO32.DLL
STDOLE2.TLB

These files are updated during reboot via a mechanism built into Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me.

RESOLUTION

Make sure the Windows\System and Temp folders are on the same drive.
If this bug has already occurred, you need to copy the following files to the System directory and restart Windows:

ASYCFILT.DLL
COMCAT.DLL
MSVBVM60.DLL
MSVCRT40.DLL
OLEAUT32.DLL
OLEPRO32.DLL
STDOLE2.TLB

These files are included in your Visual Basic distribution disks or you can download the following file from the Microsoft Download Center:

Vb6sys.exe

For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file. This self-extracting executable file contains the files required by the System directory. After you run the self-extracting executable file, copy the expanded files to your system directory and restart Windows.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

This bug was corrected in Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3.

For more information about Visual Studio service packs, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

194022 INFO: Visual Studio 6.0 Service Packs, What, Where, Why

194295 HOWTO: Tell That Visual Studio 6.0 Service Packs Are Installed

MORE INFORMATION

When you run an installation program created by the Package and Deployment Wizard (PDW), the installation copies files to the TEMP directory. As part of the installation process, the installation program checks the versions of the previously mentioned files stored in the system directory.

If those files in the System directory are older than the files copied to the TEMP directory, the installation program causes Windows to restart and to replace the older files in the System directory with the newer files from the TEMP directory during the restart.

If these files are updated, Windows must be restarted.

While Windows is restarting, it first deletes the files in the System folder then attempts to replace them with the files in the TEMP folder. If the System and TEMP folders are on different hard drive partitions, the deletion succeeds but the replacement fails; the older version files are deleted from the System directory but the newer version files are not copied to the System folder.