Delphi 6 Update 2 installation workaround on Windows 8.1 x64? - delphi

I need to work with Delphi 6 Update 2 in Windows 8.1 x64 (in case you were wondering, it's about maintaining an old application, migrating to a newer version is not an option. I can't use a VM because I use the same machine to connect to some peripherals that don't work in a VM).
The problem is that Update 2 has a 32 bit installer with a 16 bit stub. So the current behaviour is that the installer starts, it extracts the files in a temp location, starts the setup then nothing appears on screen.
So far, I gathered that it is impossible to do it. But the same behaviour I 've seen for SQL Server 2000 (don't ask) but there I was able to use msetup.exe (DemoShield) to open a sqlservr.dbd that started the script. However, there is no such dbd file. I guess I was lucky on SQLServer 2000.
So far I've tried compatibility mode, DosBox, replacing the setup file with both Installshield 3 and 5, waiting for hours for the setup to start (sometimes, W8 does that), even comparing files and registries on an XP machine before and after update 2 but this might be a bit too risky to apply on a real machine.

Since Windows 8.1 86 includes Hyper-V for running VMs, most modern hardware supports Hyper-V, and Windows 8 x86 can still run 16-bit based apps:
Install a Windows 8.1 x86 VM under your host physical machine, then install it there.
The up-tick: it is easy to move your VM to a new host without needing to reinstall a full new VM.
See http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/get-started-with-windows-8-client-hyper-v-the-right-way/7893/ and http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/5-excellent-uses-of-windows-8-hyper-v-208436 to get started with Hyper-V.
Hyper-V can redirect quite a bit of hardware from the host to the VM nowadays. For "old" hardware like COM and LPT ports you often can buy USB adapters that can be redirected.
If installing on x86 Windows 8.1 works and x64 fails, I think you have proved the assumption that the 16-bit portion of the installer is the culprit.

Maybe my blog post from last year can solve your problem:
http://blog.dummzeuch.de/2013/11/11/delphi-6-on-windows-8-1/
excerpt:
I just deleted the registry entry
HKCU\Software\Borland\Delphi\6.0\LM
(I did not make a backup, what would have been the point?)
I started Delphi 6, ignored the warning about incompatibilities (which was talking about Delphi 7 anyway) and went through the registration/activation process again. This time it worked.
Maybe I should mention, that I did not install any of my Delphi versions to c:\program files but put them into c:\Delphi instead to avoid any problems with access rights to the installation directory.

Related

EXE and DLL files compiled with Delphi 10.2 (64 bit) work fine on certain machines and cannot be run on some other machines

This problem occurs on some virtual machines under Windows Server 2012 or 2016. I can only run the 32-bit version although it is 64-bit OS.
My DLL supposed to run on ISAPI-DLL mode (therefore called by IIS) also fails (Error 500).
I suspected msolebdsql.dll (SQL Server ODBC driver) to be only 32-bit compatible on these machines, but it seems unlikely.
I've been spending hours on looking for another feature that could be refused by Windows (invalid Windows API call ? There are very few, and it's very common ones). I failed.
Can someone help ?

how to run ruby on rails program in ubuntu installed in vmware?

I am trying to install ruby on rails on my windows. But after searching , I came to know that the best combination for ruby is either MAC or LINUX OS. But I m having laptop with windows 10. So can i install and run ruby and rails in UBUNTU inside VMware or which is the best option available?
Not sure what version of Windows 10 you have, but if you have the version that supports Hyper-V you have two good options.
http://vagrantup.com
Using either Oracle's Virtual Box or Hyper-V you can basically have a dedicated VM on your local box in the time it takes to download a pre-packaged box. I used this for a long time, though I now use http://c9.io as a cloud based IDE.
Step 1. Download the Oracle VM Virtual box from here.
Step 2. Download the Ubuntu ISO file. 64 bit Windows supports both 32 bit as
well as 64 bit guest OS. If your machine is a 64 bit machine then
download ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso.
Step 3. Enable Intel vt-x from the BIOS menu.
Step 4. Disable Hyper-V platform from Turn windows features on or off.
Step 5. Insert the ISO image into the virtual CD/DVD drive as instructed here.
Step 6. Once the Ubuntu is installed on your VM. Install virtual box guest additions and it will be mounted inside the /media folder and at the right hand corner there will be a button to install the software and you're done with your setup.

How to install Torch on windows 8.1?

Torch is a scientific computing framework with wide support for machine learning algorithms. It is easy to use and efficient, thanks to an easy and fast scripting language, LuaJIT, and an underlying C/CUDA implementation.
Q:
Is there a way to install torch on MS Windows 8.1?
I got it installed and running on Windows (although not 8.1, but I don't expect the process to be different) following instructions in this repository; it's now deprecated, but wasn't deprecated few months ago when I built it. The new instructions point to torch/torch7 repository, but it has a different structure and I haven't been able to build it on Windows yet.
There are instructions on how to install Torch7 from luarocks, but you may run into issues on windows as well; I haven't tried this process. It seems like there is no official support for Windows yet, but some work is being done by contributors (there is a link to a pull request in that thread).
Based on my experience, compiling that deprecated repo may be your best option on Windows at the moment.
Update (7/9/2015): I've recently submitted several changes that fix compilation issues with mingw, so you may try the most recent version of torch7 and follow the build instructions in the ticket. Note that the changes only apply to the core lib and additional libraries may need similar changes.
This webpage hosted by New York University recommends installing a Linux virtual machine in order to run Torch7 on Windows through Linux. Another option would off course be to install a Linux dist in parallel with Windows 8.
Otherwise, if you don't mind running an older version of Torch, there is a Windows installer for Torch5 at SourceForge.
I think to use a GPU from inside the virtual machine, the processor and the motherboard should not only support VT-x , but VT-d should be supported too.
But the question is, if I use a CPU with VT-d supported, do you think there will be a significant loss in PCIe connections efficiency?
From what I understand,
VT-d is important if I want to give the virtual machines direct access to my hardware components (like PCI Express cards). Like directly attach graphics card to vm instead of host machine. Isn't that mean that the PCIe connections efficiency will be the same just like if it was the host?

How do I back up and restore my Delphi settings? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
How to migrate Delphi or clone Delphi registry settings?
I need to format my PC soon, but I have the IDE and environment settings perfectly set up to just how I want them, along with some components I have installed.
Obviously formatting and reinstalling Windows will wipe all settings and registry entries, so when I do install Delphi again I will have to tweak it all to get it to how it originally was, which will take quite a bit of time that I would rather not use up.
What is the best way to retain Delphi IDE and environment settings and installed components?
Is it just a case of backing up registry entries and user data folders?
How to make a complete backup of delphi XE manually:
backup complete installation folder.
(tip: install your components under the delphi folder so they also get backed up).
export & backup HKLM\Software\Embarcadero registry key
in case of 64 bit os it will be HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Embarcadero
export & backup HKCU\Software\Embarcadero registry key
Some components may write BPL files to your system folder (check C:\Windows\System32 or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder)
after OS reinstallation:
reinstall Delphi to the SAME folder and apply same updates
overwrite installation with your backup
reimport registry keys from backup
if you have Delphi plugins/experts, reinstall them
some tips:
install Delphi under the root of your drive (eg c:\DelphiXE), this to prevent troubles with UAC under vista/W7.
Keep your projects under the delphi folder, is very handy if you have to cope with different delphi versions (eg c:\delphi5\projects, c:\delphixe\projects, ...)
make an automated daily backup of your delphi folder (via windows backup or other tool)
You can try CnWizard Backup/Restore tool. If you keep same path for components and delphi install, just make backup, install delphi and cnwizard, copy all components folders and make restore.
I only have problem when migrate from XP to W764b, must to manualy change path in registry for Program Files folder.
Yes, I agree with #Martin, VMWare is great for this VMWare. Not only for Delphi and its settings and component, but the whole O/S, including SPs, KBs, drivers, settings, applications & their settings, Anti virus, Firewalls.
This is what I do with VMWare ver 5 (other/newwer version might be different)
Install VMWare on the Host O/S. The host can be a Windows O/S or a Linux O/S variant. I personally like to use Linux as the host O/S, because, for me, the security is better towards virus, malware etc.
Install a guest O/S. This can be any supported O/S of choice, including any SPs, drivers needed.
Install Delphi and all components you need.
You can backup the guest O/S to a media, DVD-R, for example. If anything major happened, you can just restore it for less than 30 minutes. This is a huge benefit.
You can have as many as guest O/Ses you want (If you have the space). This is great for testing purposes. How many times you hear that your app is breaking on a particular O/S, with a specific SPs/KBs, dll or other specific settings on client PCs? With multiple guest O/Ses, you can test your app with different O/S and/or settings without having to have multiple PCs or multiple partitions with different O/Ses.
Of course VMWare has many other usages, but for me, the above usage scenario is enough.
Other Virtual Machine is from Oracle (Oracle VM) which is free Oracle VM. They claimed to be better than VMWare, but I myself have not tested it.

Who loads the code in BIOS during booting?

I am studying the boot process in Linux. I am looking through this html page http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/x88.html. The first line under the section 3.1 "The boot process" says that "All PC systems start the boot process by executing code in ROM (specifically, the BIOS)".
My doubts are
Who loads the code in BIOS ?
Where is this code in BIOS located ?
To where is the code in BIOS loaded and executed ?
Kindly tell me references where i can get more information
Thanks,
LinuxPenseur
The code is already there in memory when the computer is powered on. It is in non volatile memory, meaning it doesn't disappear when the computer is turned off.
So the code is already there in a specific memory address, and the processor starts by running it.
More info here
A good question! Actually you do not need to reformat the HDD or even reinstall the OS on it unless the new PC is unable to run the existing OS on the drive.
Commonly, if you did a simple install of a Linux distribution, you would have no trouble moving the HDD to a new system and just running it. But if the OS is a version of Windows, the chances of this being the case are nearly zero: hardware vendors nearly always tune their device drivers for Windows so you cannot even use the same driver for two versions of Windows on the same machine (upgrading from XP to Windows 7 for example, often requires that you redownload at least a few hardware drivers).
And the problem often arises even with Linux if you have installed any high performance drivers. Sometimes you can perform a "recovery boot" from GRUB or LILO and get into a text mode screen with internet access, though. And if you can do that, often you can install the drivers for the new PC on the Linux HDD without doing a complete reinstall of Linux.
In fact, this is actually what that install CD or DVD is actually doing. It boots to a very vanilla flavor of the OS (Windows or Linux), then installs drivers for the hardware it detects, reboots (hopefully with functioning drivers) and wraps up the install process.

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