WinSXS (Side-by-Side) giving problems (I think)

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PRosenberg - 29 Dec 2005 21:30 GMT

Hi there
Having running a Windows program for several years, and it was ported from
Dos, over Win95 to WinXP Home Ed (2002 SP1), everything has worked fine until
a few months back (The program is Brothers Keeper, a genealogy program).
The problems started with an OCX seems missing (RICHT32.OCX). I found a
newer version, renamed the old one, and inserted the new one in the
%WIN%\system32\ folder. One way or another I came over this problem. The
another problem pop'd up:
"MSCOMCTL.OCX or one of its components not registered or file is missing"
Then I became suspicious, and ran the 'DLL Dependency Walker' utility and
profiled the program I used.
I found that there's a version of MS Common Controls DLL loaded from the
Windows Side-by-Side library deeep inside the folder %WIN%\WINSXS\
and it overuled the version of COMCTL32.DLL already loaded in memory (from
%WIN%\system32\).
I believe my problem is some WINDOWS Update (which I run regularly, haven't
dared to go to SP2 for this my primary PC, due to many problems appearing
when I did this with my secondary PC) has introduced a new set of Windows
Common Controls, that TAKES OVER over any application use of previous version
of the Common Controls.
I have no option to re-install my PC, there's simply to much work doing so
(it runs as an HTTP server too), and even worse:
The application I have bought (BK6W) do not work any more !
Is there a way out of this new version of 'DLL Hell' called WinSxS (
explained
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cp
conside-by-sideexecutionoverview.asp) ?

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Adam Leinss - 30 Dec 2005 04:40 GMT

"=?Utf-8?B?UFJvc2VuYmVyZw==?="

> I have no option to re-install my PC, there's simply to
> much work doing so (it runs as an HTTP server too), and even
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cp
> guide/html/cpconside-by-sideexecutionoverview.asp) ?

In spite of OS decay and OS upgrades over OS decay you blame Windows
WinSxS for creating "DLL Hell"? To quote Dr. Phil: "YOU ARE NUTS?"

The first thing you should do (if you haven't already) is check the
vendor's site for updates.

Then, use Filemon from
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html to watch what files
it is using.

Finally, check this link:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/faqshow.php?id=8

Adam

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PRosenberg - 30 Dec 2005 09:37 GMT

Thanks, I will try what you suggests.
Vendor has been contacted and approached for troubleshoooting this. Newest
version is installed and vendor is not aware of any similar problems.
I have, as mentioned, already used Depdendency Walker and now I have a
FileMon log, I will try to analyse it and perhaps approach vendor once more.
My comment on 'DLL hell' is purely my own expressed feeling of being left as
a user without anywhere to go, except for the Internet communities (which is
a good thing). I mean as a consumer having paid my Windows + Office +
Additional apps !

> "=?Utf-8?B?UFJvc2VuYmVyZw==?="
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Adam

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