Program developed in Visual Studio 2005 is not working in Windows 7?

Question

4.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

Hi I had developed a program in Visual Studio 2005 (VB) and it worked fine in XP. The same program is showing error when installed on Windows 7. I have changed Advanced Compile Options to x86, Can some one throw light on this?

I get the following error:
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: Could not find file 'C:\Windows\system32\evqed.mdb'.

In my program the database file "evqed.mdb" is placed in application folder with following code:

VB

ctrdirPath = System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory
ctrdirPath = ctrdirPath & "\evqed.mdb"

This works fine in my development PC and gets installed and runs as well,. Only in other PCs I get this error.

(The program uses Speech 5.0.0.0 DLL and Microsoft Accesss 2003)

Thanks in advance
V L Patil

Posted 13-Oct-12 21:24pm

PatilVL

Updated 17-Oct-12 3:48am

Akinmade Bond

v3

Add a Solution

Comments

[no name] 14-Oct-12 10:11am

"System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory" does not always mean the directory that your program is running in.

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Dave Kreskowiak · Answer 1 · 2012-10-14T04:07:00

Solution 2

First, it was a stupid idea to put a datbase file in System32. That folder is Read Only for normal users, so they can't use that database at all.

The same is true for any folder path under Program Files.

The solution comes in two parts. The first is to find a more appropriate place to put your database files, or any other file the user is going to need to modify. You can look at the documentation on the Environment.GetFolderPath() method and the enum it uses, Environment.SpecialFolder.

The second part is where you read up on Windows 7 security.

Posted 14-Oct-12 4:07am

Dave Kreskowiak

Comments

PatilVL 15-Oct-12 1:25am

Thanks for your reply. when I developed this code and deployed in XP OS the following code executed properly
ctrdirPath = System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory
ctrdirPath = ctrdirPath & "\evqed.mdb"
I placed all database files and other files through Deployment Project. But when this is run on Windows 7 I get the path to be C:\Windows\system32\!
Regards
V L PATIL

Dave Kreskowiak 15-Oct-12 7:42am

NEVER use GetCurrentDirectory unless you're writing an app that has to manipulations from a command prompt window.

Use the well-known paths you find in the SpecialFolder path enumeration and GetFolderPath, as I've already said.

I don't care if it worked on XP. You were using a bad practice to begin with.

PatilVL 15-Oct-12 8:30am

Hello
I had placed all database files and other resources in Application Folder in
Deployment / SET UP Project and expected to access these files from the application folder where exe will be available. Only way to access these files was from getdirectory method.Do you think that this is wrong practice?

Are you suggesting that these resource files must NOT be placed in application folder in Deployment Project? I will be thankful for your reply...

Dave Kreskowiak 15-Oct-12 10:10am

That's NOT the only way to access those files. Using CurrentDirectory is bad because the CurrentDirectory can change during the course of your application if you're not very careful.

Using well-known path roots, like ProgramFiles is far better because those paths never change.

You cannot put files that will be opened read/write (like your database) in any path under Windows or Program Files because those paths, and their subfolders, are ReadOnly to users!

A normal place to put those kinds of files in under CommonAppData or something similarly appropriate, based on your application requirements.

Again, I direct you to GetFolderPath and the SpecialFolder enumeration. READ IT!

PatilVL 15-Oct-12 10:37am

Thanks a lot for your help
VLPatil

**Zoltán Zörgő** · Answer 2 · 2012-10-13T21:41:00

Solution 1

I suppose, you need the executing assambly's folder. Look around here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa457089.aspx[^]. In many cases location property is enough: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.reflection.assembly.location.aspx[^].
Be aware, that there are huge differences between XP and Win7 regarding default file access security, even with administrator (UAC[^]).

Posted 13-Oct-12 21:41pm

Zoltán Zörgő

Updated 13-Oct-12 21:46pm

v2

Comments

PatilVL 14-Oct-12 4:36am

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I get error in file name as the path string returns a value
"file:\D:\VBHProjs\QED\QED\QED\bin\Release"
I think that because of "file:\" in the string I am not getting access to file.
Any idea?
V.L.Patil

Zoltán Zörgő 14-Oct-12 8:11am

Well, just strip the "file" from the beginning. :)