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(CC: Hercules-390 list where the original post was made)
Laddie Hanus originally wrote:
Installed AWSbrowse and Hercprt from Fish's website to give
then try yesterday. This morning I started up my laptop and
opened up a command prompt and Hercules was not found. Check
my path statement and discover that it had been changed to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\SoftDevLabs\AWSBrowse> path
PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\SoftDevLabs\HercPrt;C:\Program Files (x86)\SoftDevLabs\FishLib
When I go to control panel, system, advanced system settings
environment variables the system path variable is set to the
above statement.
Is the original path variable backed up anywhere?
Laddie Hanus
Then later, Laddie followed up with:
I was able to recover the path from a registry backup. Still
not a good idea to overwrite the path variable.
Laddie
Hi Laddie!
First, this isn't a Hercules-390 emulator issue. It is a Software Development Laboratories product issue. Thus, technically, it should not have been posted to the Hercules-390 emulator support forum. Rather, you should have contacted Software Development Laboratories for help, not the Hercules-390 emulator community.
Second, if you had actually read the Pre-Installation README that every Software Development Laboratories product installer presents during installation:
(contents):
or had visited SoftDevLab's "Support" web page(http://www.softdevlabs.com/support#windows_path_bug), you could have saved yourself some grief.
The problem you describe is a known bug in Windows, not in any SoftDevLabs product or product installer.
It occurs when a program product (in this case the AWSBrowse and/or HercPrt installer) updates your Windows PATH variable when it is already very, very long, thereby triggering the bug in Windows Explorer:
Error messages after you change the 2047 character limit in an environment variable on a computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2685893)
This issue was also previously mentioned in an earlier August 2015 HerculesPlusPlus Yahoo group thread entitled "FYI: SoftDevLabs products and Windows PATH" (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/HerculesPlusPlus/conversations/topics/43).
I would highly recommend that you install the Microsoft HotFix mentioned in KB article 2685893. It technically won't fix the bug, but will at least forestall it from happening again for a good while.
To prove for yourself the accuracy of my claim that the problem is indeed a Windows Explorer bug and not a SoftDevLabs bug, simply uninstall both products followed by logging off Windows and then logging back on again (which should reset your path back to what it was before either product was installed), and then run both installers again just like you did before. The same problem with the same symptoms should occur again.
When it does occur, use regedit to examine your environment variable settings (specifically, your PATH variable) recorded at the following registry branches (which is where Windows saves all of your environment variable settings):
(user variables): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment
(system variables): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
You should see for yourself that your PATH variable is indeed correct and undamaged. That should hopefully prove to you that neither SoftDevLabs installer "overwrote the path variable".
Then, once you've proven to yourself the problem is indeed Microsoft's fault and not mine, to fix the problem, simply logoff and then back on again (or reboot you computer). Either will cause explorer.exe (the Windows Explorer shell) to start over again, bypassing the bug. (And again, to prove it to yourself, simply check your PATH again after logging back on).
I hope this helps you and others who fail to read the installers' Pre-Installation README installer page. It was specifically created and added to all SoftDevLabs installers in the hope that it might prevent and otherwise unpleasant installation experience.
Hope that helps!
--
"Fish" (David B. Trout)
Software Development Laboratories
<http://www.softdevlabs.com> http://www.softdevlabs.com
***@softdevlabs.com
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