Access 2000 Package & Deployment Wizard questions

D

David Anderson

In my first attempt to package and deploy an Access 2000 MDE application, I
used the Access 2000 Package & Deployment Wizard (PDW) to create the
package, having checked the box for Include Access Runtime. The resulting
files were then placed into a self-extracting Zip file, using WinZip
Self-Extractor. This self-extracting Zip file, which was 1.8MB in size, was
then uploaded to a website for subsequent download by the users.

This all appeared to work well and all of my four users were able to run the
app on their PCs. To the best of my knowledge, none of these users have a
full copy of Access (but I am not yet certain on that key point).

The problem is that I have just started to repeat this process for the next
version of my app, and this time the self-extracting Zip file has ballooned
to 117MB. Rather stupidly, I never documented my original process (a mistake
I am now correcting) but it is obvious that I have done something different
the second time around.

I note that PDW created Runtime and Support subfolders in my package folder.
I included these in my latest self-extracting Zip file, but strongly suspect
that I must have omitted them in my first version. I have two questions. Are
these subfolders a vital part of the installation process? If yes, why did
it work for my users the first time?

David
 
D

David Anderson

Update:
Three of my users did indeed have Access 2000 on their PCs (not sure why
they never told me this before, but I guess they never normally use it). I
made the original installation of the app myself on the fourth user's
machine using a CD with all the runtime files, rather than him downloading
the website version.

The bottom line, therefore, is that no one got Access runtime via my
original website download. I'm still guessing that both the Support and
Runtime folders would have been required for this to work, but it would be
helpful if someone could confirm this, please.

For my future application updates, therefore, I can uncheck the Include
Access Runtime box in PDW.

If including the runtime does indeed add 115MB to a zipped PDW package then
it suggests that the best approach in future would be to only include the
runtime in the initial deployment of an app, and exclude it from the
deployment of all future application updates.

David
 

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