Randem Systems Support Board

You right click the mouse to exit Ray Rover. It's listed in the keyboard and mouse controls if you press S. There's a message for the first couple screens to press w for instructions or S for keyboard and mouse controls. Maybe I should let the message run longer or periodically. You're one of my first beta testers for Ray Rover. The first 219 screens use the A Phase section which uses the most basic graphics but things get fancier if you keep on watching. There's over 2500 preset screens and 5 different phases or sections that create graphics and you can create your own custom screens and save them.  Press w for instructiions and S for a list of controls. You can jump ahead by pressing j or J for a big jump. This is assuming everything is working as it's supposed to and the translation from vb03 to vb05 didn't create any problems.  
 
If you want to download VB2005 express you're directed to VB2008 express. Does that work ok with InnoScript? I didn't think that VB2008 was going to be released until Feb 2008 but I guess the express version is out now.

Yes, it ran. Even though I could not exit the program (did not know how), it did run.
I do not know what VB2005 lacks, I still use VB6... Maybe one day I will be bored enough to attempt a conversion of one of our programs to see what the differences are.

I knew that VB2005 express is free. Maybe I should try it. You can use ClickOnce with VB2005 and I want to eventually set my program up for updates and ClickOnce I understand makes that easy. I have an academic version of Visual Studio 2005 but I thought it wouldn't be good to release my program using that and I'm sort of a penny pincher so I thought I'd make some money with this version of my program if I could and then upgrade to 2005 or 2008 later.
 
 Do you know what the express version of VB2005 would lack?  
 
You said you built an exe of my app. Did the app run ok? You said there weren't any errors and maybe you mean there weren't any errors and it ran ok.

BTW: I only have VB .NET 2005 and those parameters come from a AssemlyInfo.vb file. Which will also be included in the next beta release.
 
Have you tried VB express 2005? it's free. I loaded you app converted it and builded an exe all without any errors.

Yes, You can check the registry entries and that will be included in a template in the next version of the beta release.
 
This is what the template would look like:
 
[Code]
// Indicates whether .NET Framework 1.1 is installed.
function IsDotNET11Detected(): boolean;
var
    success: boolean;
    install: cardinal;
begin
    success := RegQueryDWordValue(HKLM, 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v1.1.4322', 'Install', install);
    Result := success and (install = 1);
end;
 
// Indicates whether .NET Framework 2.0 is installed.
function IsDotNET20Detected(): boolean;
var
    success: boolean;
    install: cardinal;
begin
    success := RegQueryDWordValue(HKLM, 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v2.0.50727', 'Install', install);
    Result := success and (install = 1);
end;
 
// Indicates whether .NET Framework 3.0 is installed.
function IsDotNET30Detected(): boolean;
var
    success: boolean;
    install: cardinal;
begin
    success := RegQueryDWordValue(HKLM, 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v3.0', 'Install', install);
    Result := success and (install = 1);
end;[/b]

VB.NET 2003 Standard
 
Here's a link to a VB Forums thread that you might be interested in.  
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=360427
 
the second page of the thread has this link:
http://www.zerosandtheone.com/examples/Install-Dot-Net-App-With-Inno-Setup.aspx
 
Code is posted for an INNO install but its checking for and installing the .NET Framework 2.0 which is for Visual Basic 2005. I'm using VB.NET 2003 so my program needs the .NET Framework 1.1. VB.NET 2002 I think uses the .NET Framework 1.0 and Visual Basic 2008 something else. You have to have each one separately to run the different versions of VB.NET. So if you have the .NET Framework 2.0 that's for VB2005 and only VB2005. If you wanted to run a VB.NET 2002 program, a VB.NET 2003 program, a VB.NET 2005 program and a VB.NET 2008 program you would need 4 different .NET Frameworks. 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and something else for 2008 maybe 3.0. I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know.

Which version of VB .NET are you using?

I've unzipped a decent number of things but today is the first time I remember zipping anything and sending it to someone. I noticed that the Ray Rover folder I put inside of a Ray Rover Folder. On my computer it's not like that.
The folder Copy of Stuff for Ray Rover is inside of the folder Stuff for Ray Rover. The sub folder should be taken out of the other and Copy of removed if the vb project file is going to use it. I'm telling you this in case you want to install the program on your computer. If you keep on helping me and we get a succesful result which I'm sure we eventually will I'll gladly pay you something for your time. I can make a donation.

Now I can say that you have everything I'm working with. The gif images are used by Ray Rover for texture brushes. The Visual Studio installation program is installing them to the Program Files folder inside a folder named Taylor Entertainment and that's where Ray Rover looks for them. I might want to change that and install them to a separate folder in case the user doesn't install the program at the suggested location. Ray Rover will use a different type of brush if it doesn't find the gif images so it's not that critical. Plus the images are used very little.  
 
 
 
 

Ok, I will take a look at it soon...

Here's the big folder that has the vb.net project file and everything it uses zipped. I'm adding a copy of the folder Stuff for Ray Rover without the .net framework and the mdac file so you have everything I'm working with if you want it.

Here's the .NET project file. It's only 14 KB so I didn't zip it.

The short answer... Yes. In depth... When you want to include a .NET installation or any other type of installation, you can include it in the External Installs Tab. If you remove the check mark from Internal Installs, InnoScript expects all the needed installations to be in the sub folder Support that is created inside the Output folder that Inno Setup creates for your output file. You would simply copy the whole Support folde to your CD where your installation is (which will be considerably smaller since they are not included in the installation). The installation process will remain the same the check marks will still be present for the user to select which (external) installation they would like to install.
 
So to answer your question you can include the .Net framework in the Support Folder and have the installer look there for it on the CD.
 
As far as the .NET project. Could zip you post the .net project file you are using. Not the whole project (unless of course you just want to)  

You said earlier :
I believe the .Net framework contains a check to see if it is installed already and then it will install if it isn't.  
 
I want to create an installation program for the version of my program that I'll be selling on cd. If someone was trying to install my program and they didn't have the .NET Framework 1.1 (necessary for a Visual Basic.NET 2003 application) installed on their computer if I include the .NET Framework 1.1 redistributable among the files in the InnoScript list will the install program that Visual Studio created look for it and use it? Is Innoscript creating an install program that uses the install program that was created by Visual Studio or not? I'm thinking that it does use it but I'm not clear on this. I'd like for the cd version of my program to install the .NET Framework without anyone having to hook up to the internet. I'd create a separate install program for the version of my program I sell over the internet and that would of course download the .NET Framework either directly from wherever my program is beig downloaded or it would connect them to the microsoft site and download it.  
 
I have much to learn but I just keep going until I figure it out.

Thanks for your help. I saw where you can choose to have the Updater or not after I posted.  
 
In the instructions for InnoScript it says :
AppName, AppVersion and AppPublisher are not included on the screen but are added to the script and are
taken from the VBP project file from the following areas: Project->Project Properties->Make
 
Is that for a VB.NET project? The script that InnoScript is creating for my project has those fields blank but I have filled in the things that I would think it would be using. I don't see any entries called Project, Project Properties and Make. There's a list of entries for Deployment Project Properties. I have filled in Manufacturer, Product Name and Version as well as some other things. I can always just fill those things in manually but it would be good if I learned how InnoScript can do it for me. I'm attaching a screen shot of part of a Visual Studio screen that shows Deployment Project Properties. You can tell me if InnoScript is looking somewhere else to get the information for AppName, AppPublisher and AppVersion.