Forums Bug Reports mIRC 6.21 Requires Elevated User Privileges

$mircdir always points to the location where mIRC's settings files are stored, not the location of mirc.exe, this is the behaviour now and so logically will be the behaviour when mIRC supports user folders, so shared DLLs will still be shared between scripts, just not between users. It should also mean that most scripts should still work as expected.

there could be made two switches... the -p for portable, and maybe some other switch to use old non %appdata% behaviour. and -p would also imply the other switch already

Whatever the technical solution will be, I hope we can still have the functionality of having multiple "mIRC.ini's" (Example: have mIRC more than once in the start menu with different scripts)

The -portable switch will work as advertised :-) It will make mIRC avoid use of the registry. However that has nothing to do with folder locations.

In the next version, if you want to make mIRC avoid the registry and to use the executable folder for storage, you would specify the -portable and -r switches (I've modified the -r behaviour in the next version so that -r without a path will default to the executable folder).

If you don't specify -r, then mIRC will check if mirc.ini exists in the executable folder. If it does exist, it will use it. If it doesn't exist, mIRC will use your Application Data/mIRC folder for all storage.

That said, I may change -portable so that it 1) avoids the registry and 2) uses the executable folder. I would then need to add a new command line switch -noreg to avoid use of registry separately for users who want that.

Hello.

I just made another post about this subject. Whoops, didn't see this thread.

Anywho, Khaled and others, you don't have to force all users to separate their executables from their data files. You just have to provide the option, for those like me, who want to do that. =)

Here's a scenario: the installer prompts the user if this shall be a system-wide installation for all users, or a local installation for one user. System-wide installations will be the default, and support all the Windows standards and recommendations. A "local" installation will be just like the current default behavior, with the data files in the same directory as the executable.

The situation I just described is kind of similar to the solution Winamp found for this same problem. The winamp installer asks the user if she wants to have shared settings for all users (old default behavior) or separate settings for each user (new behavior).

Anyway, glad to see that you're working on it. Just be careful with the creation of shortcuts and such.. A .lnk in the All Users profile can't be deleted by a normal user... But if there isn't a .lnk in there, users created after the installation won't have a shortcut. So you have to add a .lnk in the Default User profile. It's a mess. Have fun.

Hope this helps.

--Dave Loyall
Conway, Arkansas, USA
The Good Guys Consulting

Not sure i agree with your logic there, the correct installer options in such programs are more along the lines of 'for this user only', 'for all users'. Where 'for this user only' uses the users application data folder, and 'for all users' uses the 'all users' application data folder.

I think mirc should have a little more flexibility than that however, the options should include...
- install and configure to use the users application data folder (default)
- install and configure to use the all users application data folder
- install and configure to use a self contained folder (all files in the mirc executable/installation folder
All corresponding shortcuts (if any) that are made should reflect this with use of the -r flag when neccersary.

When upgrading, mirc should not move your application data anywhere unless you specifically tell it to, have it selected by default if you want, but makes sure you are able to turn it off so that an upgrade leaves the files alone (apart from baking up to /backup/ if required of corse)

I personally prefer such programs as mirc to be self contained, it is often neccersary to larger programs for shared files and application data to be seperate from the binaries, but this is not the case with small programs, therefor it should not be forced during the installation. (i often backup mirc and other smaller utilities that are used on a daily basis, which as you can guess is partially why i prefer to use the self contained method)

I'd be happy with that method, Om3n.

i like where that is going, but it might help to release just the .exe/help in a zip for easy upgrade.

With multi-user mode, will you release identifiers to help script in multi-user mode, so scripts can store settings in their user specific settings.

Specificlly I could use $osuser(windows user name) and $osuserhomedir(user's home dir) $osusermircdir(where their mIRC settings are)

so many users can use the same script with diffrent configurations. This is a hot topic for me, because I am working on an encryption script. I can leave the script and DLLs in program files\mIRC, but user data like keys will be owned by invidual users.

Also, default settings files should be stored in program files\mirc as a template for when new users are created.

just a few ideas.

edit: I've been using mIRC since 4.5,

This should've been posted as a new topic, not as a reply,

Umm... if people didn't realize...

the log dir is user specific.
the download dir is user specific.
the sound dir is user specific
scripts are user specific

All of this will need to be stored in the users directory. There are already user folders for music, pictures, and downloads (vista). The AppData folder is hidden (+H) so that is not a good location to store things except config files. So how is this addressed.

If mIRC wanted to comply with Windows guidelines, it would store files in five different folders under XP:

Program Files\mIRC (exe, help, readme, versions)
All Users\Application Data\mIRC (shared/default ini files and data)
UserName\Application Data\mIRC (roaming ini files and data)
UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\mIRC (local ini files and data)
UserName\My Documents\mIRC (downloads, channels, logs, sounds, scripts, and so on)

The equivalent folders in Vista are:

Program Files\mIRC
ProgramData\mIRC
UserName\AppData\Roaming\mIRC
UserName\AppData\Local\mIRC
UserName\Documents\mIRC (although Vista has separate folders for sounds, pictures, etc.)

I have designed the new mIRC so that if it sees an mirc.ini in the same folder as mirc.exe, it will use that folder for all data. This makes it 100% portable for users who want it to work the way it always has.

I am still trying to decide how mIRC will work when it comes to the non-portable version. As you say, AppData is a hidden folder under Vista. Presumably, mirc.ini and all other .ini files (which we are assuming users will never need to access) would be stored in the "UserName\AppData\mIRC" folder, while everything else (scripts, logs, sounds, downloads) would be in the "UserName\Documents\mIRC" folder.

Anyone have any comments/recommendations? Does the above sound about right?

I just want to thank you for allowing mIRC to continue functioning the way it always has for those of us who don't want it spread across 5 different folders.

RusselB supports Riamus2's compliment whole-heartedly.