Spybotsd15.exe Does Not Install Correctly Under Windows 95.

I have repeatedly run the installer (Spybotsd15.exe). Each install has setup a directory and subdirectories in my system temp file (c:\windows\temp). IT APPEARS THAT THE INSTALLER IS FAULTY!

Directory of C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\Spybot - Search & Destroy

. <DIR> 10-10-07 3:00a .
.. <DIR> 10-10-07 3:00a ..
BACKUPS <DIR> 10-10-07 3:00a Backups
EXCLUDES <DIR> 10-10-07 3:04a Excludes
LOGS <DIR> 10-10-07 3:15a Logs
RECOVERY <DIR> 10-10-07 3:00a Recovery
DIR3 0 10-10-07 4:06a dir3
STATIS~1 INI 0 10-10-07 3:00a Statistics.ini
2 file(s) 0 bytes
6 dir(s) 184,778,752 bytes free

These same folders are also installed in another location:

Directory of C:\Spybot - Search & Destroy

. <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a .
.. <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a ..
BACKUPS <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a Backups
EXCLUDES <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a Excludes
LOGS <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a Logs
RECOVERY <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a Recovery
SNAPSH~1 <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a Snapshots
SNAPSH~2 <DIR> 10-10-07 2:36a Snapshots2
DIR2 0 10-10-07 4:05a dir2
1 file(s) 0 bytes
8 dir(s) 187,924,480 bytes free

All other Spybot program folders and files are installed in:

Directory of C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy

. <DIR> 10-10-07 2:21a .
.. <DIR> 10-10-07 2:21a ..
DUMMIES <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Dummies
HELP <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Help
INCLUDES <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Includes
LANGUA~1 <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Languages
PLUGINS <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Plugins
SKINS <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Skins
UPDATES <DIR> 10-10-07 2:22a Updates
ADVCHECK DLL 698,192 08-31-07 4:46p advcheck.dll
APORTS DLL 34,472 04-02-07 8:22p aports.dll
Truncated for brevity's sake.............
UNINS000 DAT 19,097 10-10-07 2:23a unins000.dat
UNINS000 EXE 690,353 10-10-07 2:21a unins000.exe
UPDATE EXE 464,720 08-31-07 4:46p Update.exe
17 file(s) 12,921,523 bytes
9 dir(s) 203,653,120 bytes free

THE PERMANENT PLACEMENT OF PROGRAM FOLDERS AND PROGRAM DATA FILES IN THE SYSTEM DIRECTORY IS CERTAINLY NOT CORRECT NOT TO MENTION THE DUPLICATION OF FOLDERS!

--Dennis--

(shock) Could you...verify...that you are using Windows 95...and didn't perhaps typo Windows 98? My initial shock is that I'm not sure I even have CD's for all 4 releases of 95 (95, a, b, and c) any more. The problem that comes to my mind is that I've archived all of my support tools for anything older than Windows 2000, not to mention anything in the 9x line / NT era. It's just...9x/Me was a horrific product line with regards to support and inherent stability...I'll try to help you, but it might be tricky.

That said, no matter what operating system it is, it's not at all surprising that files would exist in the TEMP folder. That's just how it's done, so if this is what you meant by "system folder" it's fine, unless it's RUNNING from there. Perhaps the easiest way to check that is to rename the folder, restart, and see if anything breaks. If it doesn't...it wasn't in use. If it does, rename it back. Do the same for the other two folders--and I suspect you'll find the one in the root of your hard drive is the active installation.

According to your post, it looks like S&D got installed to "Program Files" first, as is probably appropriate, then 15 minutes later, was installed to the root of the primary hard drive. Not knowing exactly what you chose during install, this could be anything from simply your choices during your multiple installs, to an installation fault. In either case, the thing to do may simply be to uninstall Spybot, restart, remove the extra folders, restart, then install--just once--again, and repost your results. If it's running at that point...ignoring TEMP, i.e., "temporary"...it's probably normal.

If you respond to this post with further problems, I'll dig up an old 95 CD and set up a virtual machine, but our versions may not match and so I have to be practical: I really don't want to do this unless we're talking about some serious problems here.

Hello Dennis,

Please don't choose to open the file as a download option because you cannot install it through the Internet.
Further please do not save it as a temp file - put it in a permanent folder.

Please try this direct download link:
http://www.spybotupdates.com/files/spybotsd15.exe

Best regards
Sandra
TEam Spybot

I am running S&D 1.5 on an ancient machine running Windows 95, and I can confirm that the program is installing and running correctly. My computer is so old that I would suspect I would have them if there were any real problems running under Windows 95. I would suggest that he uninstall the program first and manually delete all the directories that have been created to avoid future confusion.

If he will download and *save* the installer on his desktop and run it from there, a dialog box will ask him where to install the program. For most computers, the default directory that is shown will be most adequate. After the installation is complete, he should cut and paste the installer to the folder where the program resides in case he should need to reinstall again later.

It is true that S&D will create some other directories, but this is normal and should cause no concern on the user's part. Don't delete these, but just leave them alone. It is also true that S&D will create a sub-folder in the Windows\Temp folder. This too is normal and should be no cause for alarm.

Both C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ and C:\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ contain the data usually goes to the application data folder.

The setup itself knows (should know) how to remove these folders during uninstallation, but they're created by the main application only, so the first point would be that it's not the installer, but Spybot-S&D itself that creates these folders.

As to why it does, I can only imagine one thing: Spybot-S&D uses the official way to determine the application data folder - using the shell functions.

If the library containing this functions is very outdated, it might not yet know where the common application data folder should be. Please have a look at our FAQ, entry #11 - the Common Controls update listed, this update might contain a newer version of the library in question (at least that's the only one I could imagine right now - it works on Win95c installations with all the updates there, not sure about Win95a or Win95b...).

Thank you for your reply.

Since your reply I have done another complete uninstall and ran the registry fix which I found referenced by you in another forum. I also made sure that I had 50comupd.exe (Common Controls Update) installed. I also obtained a fresh download of spybotsd15.exe and saved it to, and ran it from the Desktop. Unfortunately, the results were the same with the installation of program folders and files in wrong locations. Unless you have anymore sugestions or this problem is addressed in future upgrades, I will have to abandon the use of Spybot. It appears that SpybotS&D is not compatible with Windows 95(a).

--Dennis--

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PepiMK

Both C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ and C:\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ contain the data usually goes to the application data folder.

The setup itself knows (should know) how to remove these folders during uninstallation, but they're created by the main application only, so the first point would be that it's not the installer, but Spybot-S&D itself that creates these folders.

As to why it does, I can only imagine one thing: Spybot-S&D uses the official way to determine the application data folder - using the shell functions.

If the library containing this functions is very outdated, it might not yet know where the common application data folder should be. Please have a look at our FAQ, entry #11 - the Common Controls update listed, this update might contain a newer version of the library in question (at least that's the only one I could imagine right now - it works on Win95c installations with all the updates there, not sure about Win95a or Win95b...).

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It's Windows 95a?
Well, I have to admit that we assured Win95 compatibility with Win 95c mostly. Is there anything out there at all that is still a compatible? ;)

Spybot-S&D should alternatively be able to manage more folders in the main program files folder (e.g. for USB sticks). I just checked - the Temp folder is actually a fallback for such a situation if neither application data folder can be found (e.g. when you're running Spybot-S&D from a bootable CD, the Temp folder might be the only one you're allowed to write to).

I did some more research. Take a look here (Microsoft on CSIDLs): CSIDL_APPDATA is available only since version 4.71, CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA only since version 5.0. Seems I named the wrong update; to quote this:

Quote:

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This CSIDL is supported by the redistributable Shfolder.dll for systems that do not have the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 integrated Shell installed.

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So the incompatibilty is more with IE 3.0 than with Win95a I guess. This Shfolder.dll update that Microsoft mentions can be found here. I'll forward this so that it'll get mentioned in our FAQ!