[Virtualacorn-list] Incompatible host

[David J. Ruck]

On 01/03/2019 21:12, T.O.M.S. via Virtualacorn-list wrote:
> In brief, there was a significant change to the 'official' location of
> VirtualRPC in the 2014 update (when the silver discs were replaced by white
> discs). This is covered in detail in Support Article No. 133 on
> http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/support/articles/133/index.htm
> 
> Most importantly, please note that, at the bottom (under
> 'Change to VirtualRPC default installation path'), the article specifies that
> VirtualRPC should no longer be installed in the 'old' C:\Program
> Files\VirtualAcorn\VirtualRPC-xxx  folder but in the 'new' location at
> C:\VirtualAcorn\VirtualRPC-xxx

Yes, and the amount of grief that caused everyone, by choosing to fight 
Windows instead of doing things the 'correct' way for that platform. And 
it's only got worse with each version of Windows, as it attempts to bolt 
on security (UAC etc).

> That was and still is the 'official' line from VirtualAcorn. Aaron asked us to
> stress this as
> it's clear he is having to spend considerable time and effort helping punters sort out problems due to the location of their *working* installation not being as specified, for example putting it in the root of drive C:  At least some of these later problems arise from the way Window 10 does things.

Most of the problems are from the way VA does things.

Programs should be in Programs Files or Program Files (x86), data should 
be under the users home directory. Making you own directory under C: 
hasn't been the way things are done since Windows 95 or earlier.

> Another point of concern to Aaron is that several punters have run into major problems by separating the main 'HardDisc4' folder from the rest of their VirtualRPC installation folder and putting it elsewhere. It took a while to suss out why they felt the need to do this but certainly in 2 cases (there may be more) this was a simple misunderstanding between Megabytes and Gigabytes. Specifically, their host PCs contained a 128/256 *GB* SSD as drive C;: - and they didn't
> want the drive to be swamped by RISC OS user-documents etc. When it was pointed
> out that even a very busy VirtualRPC installation was unlikely to exceed 10-20
> GB, the penny dropped.

However, it also causes problems for people who want to put their 
Windows installation and user data on separate partitions or discs.

> So to summarise: To avoid problems, DO NOT SEPARATE the main HardDisc4 folder
> from the main VirtualRPC folder.

This could so easily be fixed, the Windows registry is ideal for storing 
user choices over the location of files.

---druck
-- 
Email: druck at druck.org.uk
Phone: +44-(0)7974 108301