Packaging Office 97

[CChong]

I am somewhat of an InstallShield newbie, so forgive me if I am making elementary errors...

Has anyone had any experience packaging Office 97 for an NT4 terminal server? I am getting some rather interesting errors whose solutions elude me!

For instance, it appears to be struggling to extract icons (this only applies to some icons, not all) the two files [fm20.dll and acme.exe - both are present] fail like:

** Error: -3204: Cannot extract icon with index 0 from file C:\blah\blah\SYSTEMFOLDER\FM20.DLL for icon _46E31370_3F7A_11CE_BED6_00AA00611080_

** Error: -3204: Cannot extract icon with index 0 from file C:\blah\blah\PROGRAMFILESFOLDER\Microsoft Office\Office\Setup\ACME.EXE for icon ACME.EXE

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
stillstuckinluton

[CChong]

OK, so I've just read couple of suggestions in other threads:

Have I checked using VC++ that the icon files actually do exist - No, as i don't have VC++, but the icons work fine in a standard install. How would I check the icon index without VC++ ?

Are they 16-bit executables (for which apparently issues are known) - I simply don't know... any ideas?

Would it be appropriate to extract these icons manually (using a freeware package) and include them? Rather a long-winded solution to a 'complete' package like this, methinks?

stillstuckinluton

[looeee]

How to test whether a file has icons:
Make a shortcut to the file.
View the shortcut properties.
Change Icon...
if the filename is the same as your file, and the file has icons, you will see them in that box

you could use a freeware icon extractor without any issues. not really such a longwinded solution since it only fails occasionally

looeee

[CChong]

Thanks loeee,

I already found a nice little freeware icon extractor at http://www.iconsucker.com. It certainly explains the errors - some of them simply don't have an .ico at index 0 (nothing we can do about 3rd party .dll's) and some have 'icons' which are actually bitmaps (so InstallShield can't find them - you will need something like C++ to see these). Neither fills me with happiness...

I wondered why it would try to to extract these icons when copying the file to the correct location, and having a registry entry to boot would serve the purpose - Yet another case of IS trying to be too clever methinks. Probably to do with the 'Advertising' features that 'might not be installed' - but quite frankly I can't be bothered to investigate this bug-ridden mess any longer!

stillstuckinluton

[looeee]

You are correct that the reason why InstallShield has to extract the icons is for advertising.

Icons live in the Icon Table and are directly streamed in there. They are required by the advertising and self-repair functionality of Windows Installer. If the file is not installed or missing, then the shortcut still looks fine because the icon is stored separately in c:\winnt\installer\{ProductCode} folder.

Stick with InstallShield, it is the best tool for the job. (Unfortunately 'best' is a relative word)

looeee