Artifice, Inc.

Installation Tips for DesignWorkshop® on Windows

Known issues installing DW on Windows XP and 2000


For the vast majority of Windows users, DesignWorkshop installs by easy steps and runs correctly.

And for most users who encounter difficulty, a simple system restart after installation is usually the solution. Please also note that you may need to log in with administrator privileges in order to install software.

For the small minority of users who encounter difficulty, it's typically due to one of a handful of Windows system issues:


1).   When I double-click the setup.exe installer application nothing happens.
Restart your computer. A reboot resolves the issue, the great majority of the time.

For a minority of cases, the problem persists after a restart.

Certain configurations of Windows 2000 and XP can be sensitive to the location of the DesignWorkshop installer on your hard drive. In particular, users have reported difficulty running the "setup.exe" installer when the installer files are deeply nested within many folders.

To work around this issue, move the "DW Lite Installer" folder directly to the main level of your C: drive and rename the folder as "DWL".

Second, certain third-party software (such as virus protection software) may interfere with DesignWorkshop's installer. Although it may be possible to reconfigure the conflicting software, booting Windows in Safe Mode is usually the fastest and most reliable way to rule out interference from anti-virus software.

To boot your computer into Safe Mode, restart your computer and hold down the F8 key until a screen appears listing a series of boot options. Press the up or down arrows until the "Safe Mode" option is selected, then press the Return key.

Your computer will then boot into Safe Mode, with third-party software disabled.

As soon as Windows has completed starting up, run the DesignWorkshop setup.exe installer.

Once you have successfully installed DesignWorkshop, you should restart your computer into the standard mode, as soon as possible.


2).   When I double-click the setup.exe installer application, Windows reports the parameter is incorrect.
Certain configurations of Windows 2000 and XP can be sensitive to the location of the DesignWorkshop installer on your computer's hard drive. To work around this issue, move the "DW Lite Installer" folder directly to the main level of your C: drive and rename the folder as "DWL".


3).   Windows reports it can't find and run a 16-bit application.
The error message typically looks like this:
Cannot run 16-bit Windows program

Cannot find file C:[PATH TO FILE]\SETUP.EXE (or one of tis
components). Check to ensure the path and filename are correct and that all
required libraries are available.

Certain configurations of Windows 2000 and XP can be sensitive to the location of the DesignWorkshop installer on your computer's hard drive. To work around this issue, move the "DW Lite Installer" folder directly to the main level of your C: drive and rename the folder as "DWL".


4).   Windows reports that the system file is not suitable for DOS and Windows applications.
The error message typically looks like this:
The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Miscrosoft Windows applications.

We understand that in an update to Windows XP, Microsoft broke the class of installation routines used by the DesignWorkshop installer.


This seems to be an unintended side effect of other security changes in XP Service Pack 2, and possibly other newer editions of Windows. We are working on a new installer for DesignWorkshop which will use different installation routines.

In the meantime, below is a DesignWorkshop-specific work-around for the current issue, based on Microsoft's own recommendations. You can also find the general case instructions online at the Microsoft Support site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767

1. Insert the Windows XP installer CD into the CD drive or DVD drive.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
4. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command and replacing "[CD-ROM Drive Letter]" with the actual drive letter of your CD-ROM or DVD drive:

expand [CD-ROM Drive Letter]:\i386\config.nt_ c:\windows\system32\config.nt

expand [CD-ROM Drive Letter]:\i386\autoexec.nt_ c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt

expand [CD-ROM Drive Letter]:\i386\command.co_ c:\windows\system32\command.com

exit

5. Now try running the DesignWorkshop "setup.exe" installer program. If the issue is resolved, do not complete the remaining steps. If the issue is not resolved, go to the next step.

6. Note: The Command.com file is not edited or created in this in the following process. Because of this, you may have to expand it from your Windows XP CD-ROM.

Start the Notepad application (a simple text editor included as part of Windows).
7. In Notepad, type exactly the following text:

dos=high, umb device=%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\himem.sys files=40

8. On the File menu, click Save As.
9. In the File Name box, type Config.nt, and then click Save. Close this Config.nt file.
10. On the File menu, click New to create a new blank document.
11. In the new blank document, type exactly the following entries:

@echo off
lh %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\mscdexnt.exe
lh %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\redir
lh %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\dosx
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3

12. On the File menu, click Save As.
13. In the File Name box, type Autoexec.nt, and then click Save. Close this Autoexec.nt file.
14. Start Windows Explorer. Locate the Config.nt file, right-click the Config.nt file, and then click Copy.
15. Right-click the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder, and then click Paste.
16. Locate the Autoexec.nt file, right-click the Autoexec.nt file, and then click Copy.
17. Right-click the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder, and then click Paste.
18. Locate the Command.com file, right-click the expanded Command.com file, and then click Copy.
19. Right-click the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder, and then click Paste. Restart your computer.

20. Once your computer has restarted, run the DesignWorkshop "setup.exe" installer program.

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