Table of Contents for This Page

• Gregg Keyboarding
• Medisoft Patient Accounting
• Southwestern Publishing Keyboarding

Gregg Keyboarding

Observations

• Arrggh... it won't run in > 256 colors.
• Glencoe tech support claims this software is not tested under NT and therefore not supported.
• classes dir needs to be r/w for all, new files must be r/w for all.
• entire program directory needs to be r/w for faculty
• Sounds like a custom share situation to me. :-(
• Custom samba share doesn't work. Locking errors, program aborts, etc. Going to try parking it on an NT server

Final Solution

Launcher Script

$return = setconsole("hide")

if exist("J:\")
   use j: /del
endif

use j: "\\BRONX\DUMBAPPS"

if exist("J:\DRIVE.J")
   GO J:
   cd "\GDL"
   shell "gdl"
   use j: /del
else
   messagebox("Glencoe Keyboarding needs drive J: to access its files. You currently have that drive allocated for something else. Contact your Delaware Tech System's Administrator to have this problem corrected.",
	"Error", 16)
endif

Medisoft Patient Accounting

Reference Web Sites

• Medisoft web site

Observations

• Requires registration, else won't work in 90 days
• When first run, asks where to put data files (good)
• I tried to run appointment book, said I had to enter a provider and popped up that screen. When I clicked cancel, it kind of crashed (when into a loop beeping, couldn't get it to stop.)
• Registration seems to modify/add the following files:
  • c:\PDOXUSRS.NET
  • c:\mediwin\reg.*
  • c:\mediwin\data\MWLock.lok
• Program won't run in a restricted setup.
  • Error trying to access c:\pdoxusrs.net (must be r/w)
  • Error accessing c:\mediwin\pdoxusrs.lck
  • reg.*
  • mwdblist.db
• According to Jeff Ward of Medisoft, in their MediSoft Roundtable (posted 7jan99), he says "Windows 98 is fine. Windows NT server is fine. Windows NT workstation is not recommended with the 16 bit Borland Database Engine." (reference posting)
• On second install attempt, noted that only one reg.* file gets created (reg.dfs).
• When first running program, it forces you to create a dataset. If you create it to a share, quit, and sysdiff, it appears to add two files to c:\ (mwlock.lok and pdoxusrs.net) as well as c:\mediwin\whdblist.db as well as throwing omole16.vxd into %systemroot%\system
• Adding license data adds a lot of reg.* files into c:\mediwin and changes pdoxusrs.net in the root.
• Deleting mwdblist.db makes program prompt to create data. Perhaps after program exit, this file can be copied into user profile, then restored later on next program startup if found.
• If user takes default and tries to create to c:\mediwin\data it totally screws up and trashes the mwdblist.db file, so if we save and restore that file, it'll *keep* messing them up. :(

Second Install Attempt...

1. Copy floppies to server somewhere. (Installing from floppies over and over sucks).
2. Run Install program, take defaults, do NOT reboot
3. sysdiff /diff
4. sysdiff /snap snapshot2
5. Run mw.exe
6. Create practice name, cancel first dialog box. Exit program
7. sysdiff /diff snapshot2 dummy.sd
8. sysdiff /snap snapshot3
9. Run mw.exe and enter license data, quit
10. sysdiff /diff snapshot3 msoftlic.sd

Third Install Step (using stuff from above)

1. sysdiff /apply /m medisoft.sd
2. copy omole16.vxd %systemroot%\system
3. sysdiff /apply /m msoftlic.sd
4. cacls c:\mediwin\reg.* /e /g everyone:c
5. cacls c:\mediwin /e /g everyone:c
6. cacls c:\pdoxusrs.net /e /g everyone:c
7. (Forgot to install the icon...)
8. Arrggh, it *claims* that another user is running the app. Yeah, right...
   (it runs OK as administrator, must be a permissions problem...)
9. open up *.tmp and *.dfs to change
10. That worked, and first user got to create and save data to f:. However, the second user's attempt failed to open f:\mediwin and then said that the file was in use by another.

Fourth Install Attempt

1. Install using above methods, open up files as found out in third attempt
2. mkdir C:\mediwin\data
3. cacls c:\mediwin\data /e /r everyone
4. sysdiff /snap snapshot (to see what changes when user runs it...)
5. Joy, still won't run. Says another user is using it. I opened the entire mediwin directory and all files, same thing. It took changing the root directory to C to "fix" it. :-(
6. sysdiff reveals C:\mwlock.lok of zero bytes. Guess that'll have to be created manually and given C writes for everyone. Also changed during the first user run was MWDBLIST.DB and PDOXUSRS.NET. Hopefully restoring mwdblist.db before a run will bring things back to normal. (NOTE: mwdblist.db is *created* on first run, therefore should probably be removed on subsequent user runs)
7. Now we have to try an install again using what we've learned to see if it works. :(

Fifth Install Attempt :(

sysdiff /apply /m medisoft.sd
copy omole16.vxd %systemroot%\system
sysdiff /apply /m msoftlic.sd
copy nul %systemdrive%\mwlock.lok
cacls %systemdrive%\mwlock.lok /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\pdoxusrs.net /e /g everyone:c
mkdir %systemdrive%\mediwin\data
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\data /e /r everyone
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\reg.* /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\*.dfs /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\*.tmp /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin /e /g everyone:c

Distribution Point Preperation

1. Copy floppies to server somewhere. (Installing from floppies over and over sucks).
2. sysdiff /snapshot snapshot
3. Run Install program, take defaults
4. sysdiff /diff /c:"Medisoft Program Install" snapshot medisoft.sd
5. Let it reboot (however, it just does a logout, so I reboot to be safe)
6. Log back in as Administrator
   
7. Run main program
8. Choose "Create New Set of Data"
   1. Dr. No
   2. F:\MEDIWIN
   3. Answer "YES" to "Create Path"
9. Cancel first form
10. Quit
11. Take a new snapshot with sysdiff
12. Run Medisoft again
13. HELP | REGISTER PROGRAM (and fill out information)
14. Quit
15. sysdiff /diff /c:"Medisoft License Info" snapshot msoftlic.sd
16. Create launcher kixtart file as runmed.kix
17. Create icon to run runmed.kix as medisoft.lnk
18. Create a distribution point (...\setupnt\unattend\medisoft)
19. copy omole16.vxd from c:\mediwin directory to dist point
20. copy two sysdiff files created above to dist. point
21. copy kixtart script and shortcut to dist. point

Unattended Install Script

pushd n:\unattend\medisoft
sysdiff /apply /m medisoft.sd
sysdiff /apply /m msoftlic.sd
copy omole16.vxd %systemroot%\system
copy nul %systemdrive%\mwlock.lok
cacls %systemdrive%\mwlock.lok /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\pdoxusrs.net /e /g everyone:c
mkdir %systemdrive%\mediwin\data
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\data /e /r everyone
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\reg.* /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\*.dfs /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin\*.tmp /e /g everyone:c
cacls %systemdrive%\mediwin /e /g everyone:c
copy *.lnk "%systemroot%\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\"
copy *.kix "%systemdrive%\mediwin
popd

Southwestern Publishing Keyboarding

User run instructions