I wrote a simple program (I thought) for a friend. It allows users to put information in an Excel spreadsheet, then converts this to XML for storage and retrieval by unique identifier. I reference Excel, XML and IE in the project references to allow opening of the Excel spreadsheet to get the data and convert it to XML and to display the formatted data in IE.

All seemed to be going fine. I completed a prototype of the project and tested it on my machine (I am running XP Professional). I then used the package and deployment wizard to package it an put it on a CD. I removed all the test files from my machine and installed the program using the CD. It worked!!!

I took the CD to my friend to try on his Windows 98 machine. He put the CD in and clicked install. A window came up saying that some of his files needed to be updated and asked if he wanted to update them now. He clicked yes, the files updated and told him that he needed to restart. When he did, he received an error message saying that some dll's were missing or could not be opened. Now he can not get his machine to boot from C: or his Windows 98 CD. Fortunately, he had recently added a new hard drive and still had the Win 98 operating system on the old drive. After some replacing of files on the old drive with the ones from the Win 98 CD he was able to access his files. He is still unable to boot from the new hard drive. Seems that my program deleted, replaced or corrupted some of the files in the win32 folder on that drive.

Can anyone tell me what I did wrong and or how to fix it?

Thanks

: I wrote a simple program (I thought) for a friend. It allows users to put information in an Excel spreadsheet, then converts this to XML for storage and retrieval by unique identifier. I reference Excel, XML and IE in the project references to allow opening of the Excel spreadsheet to get the data and convert it to XML and to display the formatted data in IE.
:
: All seemed to be going fine. I completed a prototype of the project and tested it on my machine (I am running XP Professional). I then used the package and deployment wizard to package it an put it on a CD. I removed all the test files from my machine and installed the program using the CD. It worked!!!
:
: I took the CD to my friend to try on his Windows 98 machine. He put the CD in and clicked install. A window came up saying that some of his files needed to be updated and asked if he wanted to update them now. He clicked yes, the files updated and told him that he needed to restart. When he did, he received an error message saying that some dll's were missing or could not be opened. Now he can not get his machine to boot from C: or his Windows 98 CD. Fortunately, he had recently added a new hard drive and still had the Win 98 operating system on the old drive. After some replacing of files on the old drive with the ones from the Win 98 CD he was able to access his files. He is still unable to boot from the new hard drive. Seems that my program deleted, replaced or corrupted some of the files in the win32 folder on that drive.
:
: Can anyone tell me what I did wrong and or how to fix it?
:
: Thanks
:
:

I think you've overwriten the files of your friend's computer, since you have used windows xp to develop the program, it will capture all dlls files in your PC. When you have installed it in a windows 98 and updated the files, normally windows 98 will not recognize the updated files because it is primarily from the unknown source which is windows xp dlls.

To simplify, you may have overwriten or corrupted the windows 98 files. To resolve this, you need to re-install windows 98. Here are some tips

1. boot from the hard drive that you want to install windows using a startup disk

2. Install windows 98

3. After the installation, I think your friend's computer will operate again. If your program is still installed, and if you try to run it, it will not run abnormally, because of the dll files has been replaced.

I hope this could solve your problem.