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Using RainMeter on Windows 2k Professional

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CyberUser
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Joined: August 23rd, 2010, 8:20 pm

Using RainMeter on Windows 2k Professional

Post by CyberUser »

Hello,

I've been following Rainmeter for some time now, and I utilize it on almost all of the PCs I have under my scope. The exceptions are the W2k machines that I have. Jokes aside about the age of the OS, I'm running into heavy problems getting Rainmeter functional on the boxes despite the fact that I know it should work. A fundamental problem is that there is little to no documentation on W2K installations. The best I could find is that it requires the GDIPLUS.DLL on these forums, which is also subsequently listed in the original Rainmeter manual.

I understand that I am missing files; but what I don't understand is where these files are to be placed or where they are to be obtained from. Some files, like GDIPLUS, are easily acquirable from MS while others are seemingly much more difficult to find because they are part of something else that I am not familiar with.

Here are the issues I am receiving. On a new installation of W2K and running Rainmeter 1.3 r515 (32b), I get the following:

Pre-GDIPLUS.DLL added to rainmeter.exe folder.

The dynamic link library gdipluss.dll could not be found in the specified path C:\Program Files\Rainmeter;.;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT\system;C:\WINNT;C:Program Files\Mozilla Firefox;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX.

Post-GDIPLUS.DLL added to rainmeter.exe folder.

The dynamic link library MSVCP90.dll could not be found in the specified path C:\Program Files\Rainmeter;.;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT\system;C:\WINNT;C:Program Files\Mozilla Firefox;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX.

At this point, I've found the MSVCP90.DLL and I've placed it into C:\WINNT\system32. The issue is that it tells me that it still isn't found. What am I missing in order to make this function?
CyberUser
Posts: 3
Joined: August 23rd, 2010, 8:20 pm

Re: Using RainMeter on Windows 2k Professional

Post by CyberUser »

Rainmeter comes with vcredist_x86.exe (4.02 MB) already in the folder upon download. The one from microsoft is 1.73 MB.

None the less, I installed the Microsoft download into the rainmeter file and it still gives me the following error:

The dynamic link library MSVCP90.dll could not be found in the specified path C:\Program Files\Rainmeter;.;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT\system;C:\WINNT;C:Program Files\Mozilla Firefox;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX.

I've also placed the vcredist_x86.exe in the C:\WINNT\system32 folder. That also results in the same error. Additionally, I've tried both versions of the file in the rainmeter folder and the system32 folder.

Attempts to run the executeable result in:

The procedure entry point HeapSetInformation could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.DLL.

I did find a download of the MSVCP90.DLL, and I've installed it into both the rainmeter folder and system32, but it continues to give me the error listed above.
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kenz0
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Re: Using RainMeter on Windows 2k Professional

Post by kenz0 »

If you use installer version, the required libraries should be installed in an appropriate directory automatically.
Then you only need to put gdiplus.dll into Rainmeter's dir manually.

As far as I've tested in Win2K sp4, Rainmeter(r515) was installed without any problem with the installer.

(By the way, the libraries should be installed to C:\WINNT\WinSxS\)
CyberUser
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Joined: August 23rd, 2010, 8:20 pm

Re: Using RainMeter on Windows 2k Professional

Post by CyberUser »

That is just the oddest thing Kenz0. I'm using the installer, and have even went with v1.2 to make sure I was utilizing it correctly and I still have errors.

The WinSxS folder was not in my WINNT tree initially. I assume because nothing is causing it to be created as this is a brand new W2K Professional installation with almost no software on it. The only conflict that I can remotely think of, and this is very remote, is that Avast! 4.8 Professional or Advanced SystemCare Pro v3.7.0 are causing something to not be processed after they are installed and brought up. After creating the WinSxS folder manually, I placed the vcredlst_x86.exe file into it. Trying rainmeter from there, I now get a new, but similar, error.

The dynamic link library MSVCR90.dll could not be found in the specified path C:\Program Files\Rainmeter;.;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT\system;C:\WINNT;C:Program Files\Mozilla Firefox;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX.

So now it is MSVCR90 instead of MSVCP.

My question is, when is your WINNT\WinSxS folder being created, and what does it populate it with? If this is something being created early on, I can just wipe the PC and start anew.
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kenz0
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Re: Using RainMeter on Windows 2k Professional

Post by kenz0 »

WinSxS is the directory for shared assemblies created by the installer.

To be honest, I don't recommend you manual installation. But DLLs which is required on W2K is just "msvcp90", "msvcr90" and "gdiplus". So, you only put these three DLLs into Rainmeter's folder or system32, it would be worked with no problem.

If you still fail in execution of Rainmeter, I guess your environment of OS or something is the cause. If so, I have no idea how to solve your problem.
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