I am writing a PC program that makes a sort of Poser model. That program will create the model's .OBJ and .CR2 files. Please how could that program, by looking in the registry, or in some other way, find what folder that computer's user has put his Poser installation in? (I put my Poser installation in c:Poser4 )

You could ask the user to point to the file the first time your program is run, and then save that info in a .ini file. Several programs do just this.

Or just search through all directories (with FindFirst) for poser.exe; if you find more than one, ask the user which one to use for this purpose.

Don't forget that some people have multiple installations of Poser (Poser 3, Poser 4, Poser 5) for testing and such. You may not be able to determine which is the correct one to install to without asking the user. Perhaps you need something like the DAZ installers that list all your Poser installations, and ask which one you want to install to. I suspect they do this by scanning your directories for "Poser.exe"; I think that's why they take so long sometimes. I suspect Jcleaver's approach of just asking once would be fine. You might need an option, though, that says "Ask me again," in case you want to install to another directory. Lynn Grant Castle Development Group

Browse your own registry, find the key .pz3 under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. It's "Default" data points to some other key. That is the key you need to use to identify which program will open up when clicking on a pz3 file. Find it (probably called poserFile or something like that) It should have a few sub-keys Shell->Open->Command . Command has, as it's default value, the fully qualified program and any default arguments that are called. As stated above, there are those who have multiple installations. This solution only finds that one that opens up when you double click a 'Poser File'. One additional word of concern. Thanks to user levels (something I actually agree with windows 2000 & XP), you might not have permission to do much with these keys (though you should be able to read them....I would hope). Visual C++ should enable you to get there, but I have never stepped outside of a programs own allocated registry space in VB, so I can't guarantee anything for VB.) Does this make any sense? (I tend to ramble :) eric

ummm the proper question to ask before one can answer yours is: what language are you writing your program in? BT

If you search for poser.exe, do not forget to check all drives. Most programs just check C: drive. Always allow the user to make the final choice by using a dialog with results and a browse button.

Yes...very important for those of us whose primary drive is not C:. The DAZ installers seem to check all the drives. The down side is that they take forever to do so if you have large drives. An option that says "Use the same path you used last time" or "Let me just tell you what path to use" would be nice. And I agree...letting the user OK the final choice is a must.

Yes...very important for those of us whose primary drive is not C:. The DAZ installers seem to check all the drives. The down side is that they take forever to do so if you have large drives. An option that says "Use the same path you used last time" or "Let me just tell you what path to use" would be nice. And I agree...letting the user OK the final choice is a must.

I am still using my good old faithful Borland C++ 4.52 .

You should be able to get it using win32 API calls. I Don't have access to sdk info at the moment (I'm home now), ut I imagine borland offers some documentation on how to access those dlls. By the way, the registry key in question is: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTpz3file It will reflect the installation which is invoked when a user opens (via dbl click or context menu) a pz3 file. I've often wondered why all the tools require you to show them where it is installed (even vue4 does this). I guess it has to do with multiple installations. If you do use the registry for this info, you probably should allow the user to over-ride that location, in case they do use different runtime directories for different projects. eric

I dont use borland, so a step by step I cant provide..however, I can offer you some tips poser does not require itself to be in the registry for it to run. I have it on my e drive, and have many times reformatted the c drive. Poser still runs flawlessly, even tho its not registered. my suggestion would be to allow the user the options: let the program search for poser (by looking at the registry) if it fails to find it..ask the user about a recursive search of the entire computer, or give them the option to find poser themselves and give them the 'find it themselves' option right up front. This would cover all bases. as for a good way to find info, when I write code..I use the internet and simply search for what Im interested in. There is so much info on programming on the web that you can do anything. Perhaps a search for "borland programming and reading the windows registry" or something similar. luck BT

ASK the user where to put the files. Under Poser5 my "Runtime" isn;t even int he same folder as poser.exe... and in Poser4 I at times have had multiple installations. I have 3 local drives and 6 network connected shares.... if you try and "search" them for Poser I will end your task and never touch it again... I promise :) If you want to "search" to help people who don;t know, make sure you ask me first.

Daz searches and it gives me two options, one for my p4 and one for my p5 directory. The search is slow, but accurate because it does correctly identify my two installations and gives a check box for a choice.

My suggestion would be (aren't you tired of all of these ideas :) Poll the registry (a quick and easy solution. Brycetech is correct. Look especially in the VB sections of the web. Lots of shared code there, even though you will have to modify it for C++) Also provide the option to search or let the user make the selection via text box and directory search (like the common dialogs allow) this should be available even if you find the entry in the registry. For a few months, I had installed poser on an ntfs partition, to see if it would perform better. The registry pointed to that section, but I was too lazy to move all the other stuff, so I eventually changed it and deleted the other installation. I have 5 or 6 partitions (more if you count 3-4 linux ones, but windows can't see those :)), and a DAZ installation takes many (5-10?) minutes to scoure my machine's contents. I much prefer telling the installation where to put stuff (though I prefer them to make a suggestion in order to minimize my typing) eric

Eric (and others) You know..if you click cancel when the DAZ installer is searching, it comes up with a blank field in wich you can browse to your Poser directory. Easy and much faster than having it searching a huge drive. It takes forever to search thru a couple of 80Gb drives, trust me... :o)

The quick solution is to ask. I have 3 versions of Poser on my machine, and actually use them all. You can check the registry, but that can give an error on a multple registration, or you could search the drives for "poser.exe", but that's darn time consuming. If you use ernyoka1's idea, tell then up front you can cancel and do a manual search. With most software, checking the registry is the best idea, but with so many people running multiple versions of Poser, I'd do the manual method. Besides, it cuts down on your programming time.

Attached Link: http://www.wotsit.org/search.asp?page=2&s=windows

For an offbeat method, assuming Poser in in the programs menu: 1. Grab the Windows drive using the api GetWindowsDirectory. 2. Search in Documents and SettingsAll UsersStart MenuProgramsCurious labsPoser 4 for Poser 4.lnk Or the Poser 5 equivalents 3. Use the IShellLink (see "lnk" in link provided) interface to get the location of Poser.exe from the shortcut. Only takes a second, but I'm not sure of the location of the programs shortcuts in Win98 or XP, I'm using Win2K. This assumes, of course that they installed in the standard Curious LabsPoser... directory structure.

My Poser 4 is in c:Poser4 , and the pointer to it is in C:WINDOWSStart MenuPrograms3D graphicsPoser 4 .

Yeah, I was afraid the locations would vary, though I imagine most folks use the standard CL folder. The SHGetSpecialFolderLocation api call will get you the programs folder but you'd have to search from there to find the Poser shortcut(s) - still faster than searching the entire system. Ultimately, manual location is the only "foolproof" way of getting the correct reference but a fast way to present the most likely candidates is nice to have. Of course, someone won't have it on the menu, someone else will have the shortcut renamed for some perverse reason, etc. Makes life interesting :-)

Anthony, the findfirst idea sounds good to me - have it search for the Poser* directory instead of the poser .exe file. use findnext to get a complete list of directories. confirm that poser.exe exists in each directory after you have your list. - TJ