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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Problem with installer - insists on installing things I already have.
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9757 |
This one is interesting. New laptop, trying to install Wilcom TrueSizer application, which is used to translate between Janome and Brother sewing and embroiding machines data files. The installer keeps saying I need the C++ 2008 SP1 redistributable, but they are already installed. I suspect the installer is NOT checking that, it is just saying it is going to install them - which would be fine, but the links are no longer valid, and the installer DOES NOT give you any alternative - such as SKIP for example.   Does anyone know a way around this? I suspect that Microsoft have moved the location of the download, so the embedded link in the installer is now no longer valid, so the installer can't download what it wants to, and falls over at that point. Wilcom, who made the software, now only do a cloud-based tool, but we need the installed application one as it also allows File Explorer to show thumbnail images of the JEF files. (Janome Embroidery File) Windows knows nothing about JEF files, and none of the standard picture viewers can even OPEN the files - they all say the files are corrupted, but they are not, as you can open them all fine in the Janome software package. My friend REALLY needs that software, as it is how she converts between Janome and Brother file formats, and without it, she is pretty stuck. The old laptop she had, which has exactly the same Windows version on it(ten home 64-bit) DOES run this software, so someone at some point, has worked out how to get around this issue, but I have not been able to discover the key to this problem yet. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Plasmamac Guru  Joined: 31/01/2019 Location: GermanyPosts: 596 |
A: is where a pre or demoversion so install this at first. B: maybe you find the downloadlink in the installfile with a hexeditor C: export the registry keys from the running pc to your pc D: copy the programmfolder to your pc. Plasma |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8297 |
It might be worthwhile contacting the bloke that makes Irfanview. He's very interested in file formats and may be able to sort out a plugin that will do it, especially if you can provide a pic of a thumbnail and the thumbnail file that produces it. Have you tried renaming a JEF file to PNG, GIF, BMP or JPG before attempting to view it? How about File Magic? https://www.filemagic.com/en/data-files/jef-file-extension/how-to-open-a-strange-jef-file-on-your-computer/ This might be ideal: Sewiconz https://www.sandscomputing.com/products-shop/sewiconz-embroidery-iconizer-thumbnailer/ Edited 2021-06-29 18:58 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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SimpleSafeName Guru Joined: 28/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 351 |
Enough (possibly) of the file format to get the images out of it: https://community.kde.org/Projects/Liberty/File_Formats/Janome_Embroidery_Format https://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Embroidery_format_JEF And a converter written in Python: https://gitlab.com/dboddie/python-jef |
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| circuit Senior Member  Joined: 10/01/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 292 |
Macrium Reflect (full paid version) includes a function "Macrium Redeploy" which, I understand, allows the reinstallation of Windows 10 on a different machine - "bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware". If you have the old machine available then it may be worthwhile trying this approach because I think that it carries all installed and working programs with it. |
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lew247 Guru Joined: 23/12/2015 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1702 |
Try manually installing C++ 2008 SP1 from Microsoft then run the installer again I know you alreay have it installed but it can't do any harm to try |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9757 |
Thanks for that - first link will not open or work with JEF files unless you pay for the full version, so that one is out. Thanks for the link though! The second one DOES let me see thumbnails of all the JEF files just fine, so this is progress, and the full paid version is very reasonably priced, so that is currently an option. Still kinda need to get the application to run though, as she needs that to convert from Janome machine files to Brother ones and vise-versa. I will have a look on the net now for perhaps an alternative program to do it that works without having to fight it like I am having to do with the current one. EDIT: Got reply from IrfanView... "Hi, Sorry, I can't promise that ... there are too many special/proprietary formats ;-)" So, that's the end of that idea, but thanks for the recommendation. Edited 2021-06-30 18:56 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| andy_mac Newbie  Joined: 03/07/2021 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2 |
Don't know whether you're still trying to resolve this but you may be able to work around the problem using a webserver and some DNS tweaking... The basic approach is to force a redirect to the files no longer available from MS' public site to a local copy. There are many ways that this can be done but approaches that come to mind include: - for the webserver: + running a local webserver on the target machine listening on 127.0.0.1 (localhost) + running a webserver on a Linux box - for the DNS: + if Win10 still has the "hosts" file capability add an entry for www.microsoft.com pointing at 127.0.0.1 (or whatever IP address your webserver is on) + you may be able to use your router's DNS capability to add a record for www.microsoft.com to point to the webserver (which could be 127.0.0.1) + a much heavier weight solution would be to run a proxy server like Squid on a Linux box with the Linux box's /etc/hosts file containing the www.microsoft.com record (would need the Win10 box configured to use a proxy for the web browser internet connection) With a setup along these lines I'd be trying to run the installer on an isolated network to avoid complications with net access; if that's unavoidable the proxy server approach might be necessary. All approaches will need both setup and cleanup work, but given the installer is old enough not to know about SSL connections (and care that certificates are valid!) it should be workable. Good luck! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9757 |
Hi there.  Welcome to the forums!  I would be interested in more details on this - can you provide? I would need to be able to host the required files for the installer, somewhere locally, but how do you tell the installer to look for the LOCAL copy and NOT try to download from the MS copy - which no longer exists?   That is hard-coded as a link in the installer, so how do you get around that?  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4147 |
The basic idea is that if something has a link to e.g. somesite.com/path/file then you can make your own version of somesite.com (probably quite a simple version) and put it in the OS lookup system (DNS) so it's found instead of the non-existent one. If you have a DNS record (such as in /etc/hosts) along the lines of somesite.com 127.0.0.1 then the installer wanting somesite.com/path/file will get pointed to /path/file (on Windoze \path\file) (which better exist or the installer will get an error of course) In this example if file is such as file.html you could point your browser at somesite.com/path/file.html and it should work just as if browsing the net. John |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4147 |
Overall, you're not telling the installer anything because the OS implementation of DNS does it (and the installer doesn't know or care). (But you do need to have all the files in the right places to make the installer happy. So you need the files and to figure out what they are you may need to dump file names out of the installer - on Linux the strings program quite possibly with -el option may be useful.) John Edited 2021-07-08 18:18 by JohnS |
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| andy_mac Newbie Joined: 03/07/2021 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2 |
@JohnS has summarised the bare bones of it. In terms of more background you can research to help figure out how to implement this in your circumstances the process that you need to get a handle on is generally referred to as name resolution: how a host name is turned into an IP address. Nowadays this is normally by way of your machine's OS querying the Domain Name System (DNS) but before DNS all computers used a "hosts" file and in fact most OSes still support this older method of resolving names even though it isn't widely used. If you feed a phrase like "windows 10 hosts file" (without quotes) into your favourite search engine, you should find some useful articles which explain how to use this facility to remap host names to alternative IP addresses. It might also be useful to understand the structure of URLs (i.e. what the installer error message is saying it can't find) to setup up both the hostname remapping and the local file storage using a web server - I suggest searching for "windows local web server" or "linux local web server" for more info about this aspect. If I've understood correctly you have copies of the files the installer is trying to retrieve - if not the C++ redistributable files should be fairly easily come by even from Microsoft (just not in the place this installer is looking...). |
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