No need to write PIF files to windows directory

buzzlightyear · Post by *buzzlightyear » 2012-07-02, 08:23 UTC

During installation of TC, five PIF files are copied to the Windows directory. I often asked myself what this might be good for until I found this hint in KEYBOARD.TXT:

Code: Select all

SHIFT-ENTER	Like ENTER, but with preceding command /c. After the called DOS program is terminated, its window is not automatically closed. This will only work if the file noclose.pif is in your windows directory.

Christian, why do you not simply change cmd /c to cmd /k in your code? That will have the same effect and work for non-admin rights installations, too. No need to copy clumsy PIF files to %windir%.

MaxX · Post by *MaxX » 2012-07-02, 09:07 UTC

Agree!

Horst.Epp · Post by *Horst.Epp » 2012-07-02, 09:38 UTC

You are talking about old versions of TC.
Actual version does not contain or install noclose.pif

Time to update

MaxX · Post by *MaxX » 2012-07-02, 09:45 UTC

2Horst.Epp
tcm801x32_rc2.exe DOES contain files:

ARJ.PIF
LHA.PIF
PKUNZIP.PIF
PKZIP.PIF
RAR.PIF
UC.PIF

Horst.Epp · Post by *Horst.Epp » 2012-07-02, 10:07 UTC

MaxX wrote:2Horst.Epp
tcm801x32_rc2.exe DOES contain files:

ARJ.PIF
LHA.PIF
PKUNZIP.PIF
PKZIP.PIF
RAR.PIF
UC.PIF

None of this files are installed for me !
I use the the combind 32bit/x64 TC 8.01 RC2 installer under Windows 7 x64
There are noclose.exe and noclosex64.exe in TC dir.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2012-07-02, 13:29 UTC

These PIF files are for using external command line packers defined via Configuration - Options - Packer. They are only installed by the 32-bit only installer, because 16-bit programs do not run at all on 64-bit Windows.

MaxX · Post by *MaxX » 2012-07-02, 15:03 UTC

2ghisler(Author)
I have all the packers in 32-bit only (except UC2) and use TC 8.0.
So, can I just delete PIFs from my system?
(I don't use UC2, so there must be no problems with it).

buzzlightyear · Post by *buzzlightyear » 2012-07-05, 12:20 UTC

ghisler(Author) wrote:These PIF files are for using external command line packers defined via Configuration - Options - Packer. They are only installed by the 32-bit only installer, because 16-bit programs do not run at all on 64-bit Windows.

Do I understand you right that the x86 version tcm80x32.exe installs 16-bit programs on the user's computer (as of 2012 - 16+ years after the first 32-bit Windows was released)?

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2012-07-05, 14:01 UTC

No, it does not install any 16-bit programs. It only installs the PIF files (Program Information File). These have the option set to close the command window when the program has ended. If TC didn't install them, the _default.pif would be used, which is set to keep the window open. This would be very inconvenient when using external packers like arj.exe.