B
Brendan Reynolds
As far as I can remember, I don't think it makes any difference - the
patched files don't get included in the runtime package, the user still has
to install the service pack separately on the target PC. But only one of our
apps ever actually needed SP1 anyway. All but one of our apps will run quite
happily with an unpatched version of Access 2000, and none of them ever
needed SP2.
The reason for creating the runtime on a clean install of the earliest
version of Windows you intend to support is to avoid having the package
include versions of system files that are newer than the versions already
installed on the target PC. If they are not newer, the installer won't
attempt to replace them. If it does attempt to replace system files, various
problems can arise, as the files may be in use, or the user may not have
permission to replace them. So the best policy is probably not to install
anything on that PC that you don't have to.
patched files don't get included in the runtime package, the user still has
to install the service pack separately on the target PC. But only one of our
apps ever actually needed SP1 anyway. All but one of our apps will run quite
happily with an unpatched version of Access 2000, and none of them ever
needed SP2.
The reason for creating the runtime on a clean install of the earliest
version of Windows you intend to support is to avoid having the package
include versions of system files that are newer than the versions already
installed on the target PC. If they are not newer, the installer won't
attempt to replace them. If it does attempt to replace system files, various
problems can arise, as the files may be in use, or the user may not have
permission to replace them. So the best policy is probably not to install
anything on that PC that you don't have to.