Addsum Btrieve 6.15 setup utility

Background

Since 2004, we have provided a Btrieve 6.15 setup configuration utility to end users of an accounting software package and and also to developers of a programming language both of whom received the Btrieve 6.15 engine from a master licensee that we informally partnered with for many years. The purpose of the utility was to better support these users and provided them with a better and simpler way to make the required settings.

As of the end of January 2015, we added some new features (as well as maintenance updates in October of 2023 and in April of 2024) that will be of interest to anyone needing to migrate older systems to newer operating systems and want to continue to use this record manager engine. (Note: the updated utility will be made available at no charge to users of our accounting software products, so they do not need to purchase this utility.)

Features

The setup utility makes many registry changes automatically but some of these changes require user input in terms of the number of potential concurrent users. In addition to these existing capabilities, we have now added the ability to specify certain folders that the engine insists on having access to in a way that meets Windows 7 and Windows 8 requirements. While higher level users rights are still needed, this means users do not have to be given full admin rights.

The utility will "remember" the number of users that it has previously been established as along as it is run from the same shared folder (which normally should be the shared application folder where the Btrieve 6.15 engine components themselves reside).

The utility has been tested on XP Pro, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, 2008 Server and 2012 Server. And it is a utility that has in general been extensively field tested and in active use for over 13 years.

Technical information

Note: we are not provided any Btrieve 6.15 components with this utility; the end user should have received these from the master licensee of a Btrieve 6.15 unlimited distribution license. The Btrieve 6.15 engine has not been updated by its publisher since 1999 and neither this utility nor Btrieve 6.15 itself is supported by the original software publisher.

You should be logged in administrator on the PC where the utility is run and under Vista/Win 7/Win 8 and equivalent, the executable file needs to be "run as administrator" (from a folder or search list, right click and choose run as administrator).

Do not input more concurrent users as needed and in any event more than eight to ten users (ten is probably too many - this is a workgroup engine, normally used for five or fewer users although there is no specific limit).

The registry will need to be shared; further, because the Btrieve 6.15 engine accesses HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, the user when logged in must be placed into a power user group on the local PC (if this is unacceptable, then the only solution is to update to a Pervasive engine).

If a new user or new workstation is being added to a network: if no prior setup for Btrieve 6.15 has ever been made, then the default path will be as indicated above attached and normally you will want to accept that default; but you will need to click on "Make directory" when running it for the very first time. If you try to click on "Make changes" and you have not done that, the program will indicate that the directory does not exist. One of the other two radio buttons can be similarly selected if you do not want to use what is recommended or you can enter in any available path (although that would then not be following normal Windows protocol/standards).

An existing user who is running BtrSetup.exe (the name of the utility we provided) for a second time because of a migration of some kind or who is running it because it was not run in administrator mode the first time around may see:

C:\Windows

since that was the older Btrieve 6.15 default.

If a user tries to click on "Make changes" and the path is blank or is C:\ or C:\WINDOWS, the program will not allow the user to continue requiring that the path be changed. If so, make sure the first radio buttin is checked (it is by default i.e. AppData All User) and then click on the "Set" button. Then click on the "Create directory" button. If you wish to first choose one of the other two Windows standard folders, then that is also an option (there are many others, but these are the three best candidates and are what make this more technically compliant and will reduce problems with Win 7 and Win 8 especially when using Btrieve 6.15 rather than the Pervasive engine). The default will change depending on the operating system being run. You can also input some other desired folder to which the user has appropriate rights.

Note that the path that is input here has nothing to do with the application/program's path, but is a local drive path (and not where the application is installed if installed locally).

If for some reason the path that is specified is renamed or becomes unavailable (unlikely) then the Btrieve microkernel engine is going to error probably with a status code 20. Run the utility again to Set to establish new settings that will work.

If the user selects the AppData (current user) option, then the BtrSetup.exe must be run for each user logged into the SAME PC that will be using the Btrieve 6.15 engine. This option makes sense for some type of applications, but doesn't so much in this instance because Btrieve 6.15 is writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE not to HKEY_CURRENT_USER (but that flexibility is provided nonetheless). "Common documents" is another place that some recommend for temporary non-roaming data so we have included it. The user can also use the folder lookup to find an existing path as well and use that. The "roaming" AppData path could be used but is not technically the correct path to use and therefore is not offered as a standard option.

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