Not sure if I'm in the right place, but here goes anyway...

Just purchased a new computer mainly for working with Poser. Machine is a i7 Quad-core running Windows 7 Home Premium. Poser itself works fine.

Problem is installing V4 base. I get the following error message:

There has been an error.

Error reading INI file C:program files(x86)common filesdazdzinstall.ini

The application will exit now

..And that is as far as I can get. The V4 - A4 - G4 - M4 files all installed on my laptop fine about a year ago - don't remember having this problem.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated very much.

Thanks for your time.

First of all are your settings allowing you access?  Like your User Account settings, how is that set?  Most of us install poser in the c drive so that we have full use of Poser including the Windows directory that Poser puts some of it's files like .dll etc.  Sharen

I've had this happen too during a system reinstall. From the error message I figured the installer was looking for Daz Studio. So I installed the latest free version. My problem file installed with no further trouble. I've never opened Daz Studio. It just sits in my proogram files folder and tells Daz's installer it's there.

This may not help but give you something to think about for the future.

I have upgraded computers 5 times since getting V4 and M4 and other Daz gear.

I have installed V4 exactly once - did it on my first one in an external runtime. Since then that runtime (and all my Poser content in all the other runtimes) has been backed up and kept on a 1 TB USB drive. When I get a new computer, I copy everything over.

I have never installed in Vista or Win 7, because I long ago installed those while I was still on XP.

First: is you installation English or do you have a non-English version of Windows? If you are using a non-English version you might need to look at the sticky in the Nuts n Bolts forum at DAZ on INI file problems. If you are using English WIndows, or if the sticky thread doesn't help, then try installing some older DAZ content (or simply create a blank DzInstall.ini file). I think the Aiko 3 installer has worked for some people. (By the way, if yu are running Poser 7 or later you don't need to install to the application folder, so choose DAZ Studio as the target application to skip the check for poser.exe if you want to use an external Runtime - which is a good idea with Windows 7, and the default location anyway in Poser 8 and later.)

Thanks for the information, everyone!

I also got a sitemail from Paradox1998 - like RHaseltine, he suggested just creating a daz folder in c:program files(x86)common files then creating a fake dzinstall.ini in the daz folder. Worked like a charm!

I'm trying to structure all the external runtimes in a somewhat logical manner... I like Bagginsbill's suggestion a lot. It's going to take a couple weeks to install all the content I've amassed in the last year as it is. Having all that backed up so I can just copy it over on a future new system, or on a re-install would save a lot of time! Most of my content on my laptop is already in external runtimes - just the base Daz stuff is installed in the Poser runtime.

I've created an external folder called 'DAZ People' for all the base Daz stuff - V4 installed into it beautifully. The ++morphs complained about needing to go into the same folder as the Poser executable, so I'm assuming I can stick a fake Poser.exe in that folder and all will be rosy.

Thanks again, everyone!

Just pick DAZ Studio as the target application and it won';t even look for poser.exe - though Morphs++ should be checking for V4, not Poser.

Well, everything is going along smoothly - thanks for the help and suggestions, everyone! Now, all I've got to do is spend the next couple weeks installing stuff :-P

Trust me - I'm taking bagginsbill's advice. Everything's going in external runtimes, and getting backed up! :-D It's amazing how much content I've accumulated in a little over a year since I started with Poser!

Choosing the "Daz" installer will allow installing anywhere, but it will also install files that are not useful to Poser users.

Better to fake it out and get the files you want, not the ones you don't.

Thanks, BB! That's exactly what I did - just created a fake poser.exe and stuck a copy in each runtime folder. No muss, no fuss!

Now, I'll be busy for the next couple of weeks installing all this stuff - for the last time! LOL!

For the final time!  Picking the DAZ Studio option does NOT change what files are installed.  Some products are now including Studio specific MAT poses, but those files would have been installed if you had chosen the Poser option.

That's not what I was told by other users. I don't buy tons of products, but people who do have pointed out DS files that they found laying around - hundreds of them.

The base V4 installer doesn't appear to, but it has no fancy DS shaders in it, either.

Have you actually installed all Daz products and verified that they all install the same either way? If not, then your data is not as valid as the data I got from users who have seen a difference in what is installed.

You can't justify that something doesn't happen by saying you've never seen it happen, especially when others have seen it.

In any case, why is this so upsetting?

Ok, these may be entirely different 'ds' files as 'ds' is also used for thumbnails generated by the operating system.