[Etoys] Quick testing of Etoys on Windows7

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Wednesday 25 Mar 2009 8:01:39 pm Korakurider wrote:
>     Until Windows XP/ME, one universal installation layout worked, but
> Vista broke it. We designed installation file layout specific to Vista,
> Installer just wanted to know whether target machine is Vista or not and
> switch layout.
>     (see http://languagegame.org:8080/Korakurider/2)
Now I see the reason:
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It seldom makes problem, because "admin user" is used in typical usage.
....
     Until Windows XP/ME, one universal installation layout worked, but Vista
    broke it. We designed installation file layout specific to Vista,
    Installer just wanted to know whether target machine is Vista or
not and switch layout.
-------
Blaming the breakage on Vista is unfair, IMHO. Putting user config along with 
executables is a bad idea on multi-user systems, regardless of whether the 
user has admin privileges or not.

I bumped into a similar issue when I assisted school children to run Etoys off 
USB flash memory on shared PCs. The chip could be plugged into any PC, so 
admin privilege cannot be assumed. I modified etoys.ini to:
 SecureDirectory=%SQUEAK_SECUREDIR%
 UserDirectory=%SQUEAK_USERDIR%
and launched etoys with an autorun.bat:
 set SQUEAK_USERDIR=\Toys
 set SQUEAK_SECUREDIR=\secure
 \etoys\etoys.app\etoys.exe

Now the entire \etoys subtree could be made read-only while each school could 
change the path for saving projects by editing autorun.bat (if needed).

FYI .. Subbu