Installing Programs

[seeker]

I think that I may have asked about this before, but I don't remember. I have been having a problem installing programs, both download and from CD. The problem goes back to even before I made some major hardward changes and reinstalled Windows a couple of times.

I get error messages like:

Runtime Error (at-1:0):
Cannot import
DLL: C: Docume~1\wallwa~1\locals~temp[\is-9hosp.tmp\pwtp.dll

This was the error on a brand new program CD. I have gotten similar errors on other programs. I do not think that the problem is hardware related, and I tend to doubt that it is due to the installation of the OS.

When a file path is given, as above, where folder names are abbreviated and numbered, when the actual path is not like that, what does it mean?

[rewt]

The path appears to be using DOS 8 character limit for filenames. Perhaps you are trying to install applications with 16-bit loaders (installers). Have you modified the registry in any way? Because there are registry tweaks that are known to cause problems with 16-bit apps.

One setting that I can think of right off hand;

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:0

Make sure that is set to 0 and NOT 1.

Oh and just in case you are using Windows XP Pro x64 edition, I don't believe that supports 16-bit applications at all.

[seeker]

I think that you are right about it using DOS filenames, at least sometimes. I have noticed that while selecting the directory to install a program, that some will appear, at first, in this DOS format, but I always reselect the path to regular filenames.

I checked the registry key that you gave, and it does have a 0 value. I have also checked the settings for the environment variables and both the user and the system are set according to normal filenames.

I have not touched the registry, except via Fix-It (a system program), but this problem began before I ever installed it. In fact, I tried to install a browser that I am accustomed to, immediately after a fresh install of Windows, but it gave me a similar error. During past installations of Windows, I sometimes had the problem, but then it just seemed to vanish, but that is not happening now.