"Don Phillipson" wrote in message
...
"Don Phillipson" wrote in message
...
What was the date of the last Win98SE Installer
upgrade from Microsoft? . . .

"glee" wrote in message
...

Windows Installer 2.0
instmsia.exe is for Win9x.
instmsiw.exe is for the WinNT family.

OK, problem solved i.e. Open Office installed OK. . .
1. Beforehand I spotted that its temp files included both
instmsia.exe is for Win9x.
instmsiw.exe is for the WinNT family.
I was surprised that there was no Registry entry for
either. How would Win98 know where to find Installer 2?

2. At 2nd attempt to instal Open Office there was a
different error message: "Your installer is out of date.
Would you like to upgrade?" After keying Yes installation
completed apparenty OK (and like Adobe wrote into its own
folder a copy of instmsia.exe (1,708,856 bytes, nonidentical
with the version with 1,709,160 bytes downloadable from MS.)

Then I had a look at InstallShield
Browse to the Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield folder.
-- which seemed VERY STRANGE. . .
e.g. (1) multiple copies of IDriver and IKernel
(2) multiple entries in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\SharedDLLs
(3) GV's advice:
Open Windows Explorer or My Computer.
Right-click the InstallShield folder, click 'Rename', name the folder
InstallShieldOld, and press Enter.
Reboot.

I guess InstallShield is legacy code from Win98 or Win3.1.
Is it well documented anywhere?
With thanks.

No, you'll find the InstallShield folder tree on an XP system that was not upgraded
from 3x or 9x....the InstallShield engine is used by Windows Installer 2, but I
don't know why so many versions end up staying in that folder tree. Perhaps they
are like Sun Java, which installs updated versions without removing the older ones.
I really don't know for sure, Don.

You might find some documentation here if you search their Knowledge Base long
enough:
http://support.installshield.com/
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+