To use Pathways without installing it, you must first prepare a folder on your hard drive to put the Pathways files. Then download the "Pathways Direct" self-decompressing zip file, called "PathwaysDirectV3R3.exe". Put this file in the folder you created and run it. (You can run it by viewing the contents of the folder and double-clicking it.)
This window will appear:
Fill in the folder where you want the files put, and click "UnZip".
The files will be copied into the folder, and finally a message will be displayed telling you that the files were unzipped. Click O.K. to acknowledge the message.
One of the files copied into the folder is "Pathways.EXE". That is the main Pathways program, and it will start automatically when the files are unzipped. This window will be displayed:
Because Pathways is initially set up to run from a read-only device such as a CD, it doesn't know where you want to put your Pathways configuration files. If you want to run Pathways right now, you may choose any empty folder to put those files in, and click O.K. Otherwise just close Pathways by clicking the "X" in the upper-right corner of the window.
Later you can run Pathways by running Pathways.EXE in the folder where you put it. You can do that by viewing the folder using Windows Explorer or My Computer and double-clicking Pathways.EXE.
Pathways will always ask for the location of the configuration files whenever it starts, and you should always respond with the same location. There are ways to skip this first step, as explained below. However, you can use it "as-is" without any further setup.
If you want to take Pathways with you to use on another computer, you can copy the Pathways files to a CD-R disk. You must decompress the files from the PathwaysDirectV3R3.EXE as explained above, and then copy the contents of the folder to the CD-R. In order that you can run Pathways from the CD, it is important to use all of the original files, including the original Pathways.INI file.
To run Pathways on the other computer, insert the CD and run Pathways.EXE on the CD. To run it, you can view the contents of the CD and double-click Pathways.EXE. Or you can click the START button in Windows, choose RUN, and fill in the name of the file to run. For example, if the CD drive is drive "D", you would run "D:\Pathways.EXE".
A CD is a read-only device, so you cannot use Pathways to save plan files to it. Therefore, when you use Pathways, you must put your Pathways configuration and plan files somewhere else. For example, if the PC has a diskette drive, you could put them on a diskette. That would be a handy way transport your files from one PC to another.
Every time you start Pathways from the CD, it will ask you where it should look for your files. The startup window will appear as illustrated above, and you must choose the location. Once you have made your selection, Pathways will continue operation in the usual fashion.
NOTE: Be sure to leave the CD in the drive while you are using Pathways. Various Pathways functions will need to access the CD. If you take the CD out when it is still needed, you will see the CD drive light come on, and also you may notice that your computer may not respond to your key clicks or mouse movements. In that case, the computer still needs the CD so you should put it back in.
Pathways uses Visual Basic V5 Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) that are on the CD. If you start Pathways and subsequently start any other Visual Basic V5 program, those programs will share the same DLLs. Therefore, before removing the disk you will need to close those programs too. (You will discover this situation if you remove the disk and the CD light comes on afterward. In that case, you will have to put the CD back before closing those programs.)
This is one reason why most modern software gets installed on the hard drive--the disk never gets removed by accident! Also the hard drive is much faster, so the software performs better. Nevertheless, you may occassionally find it convenient to leave the software on the CD (for temporary use, or in situations where your hard disk is almost full).
With a little bit of understanding about how Pathways works, you can set things up in a more convenient fashion. IN particular, you can set it up to skip the "where is my configuration" question at startup.
Pathways comes with the main program, Pathways.EXE plus various other EXEs, DLLs, templates, and help files that Pathways uses. To find these files, Pathways ALWAYS looks in the same folder where Pathways.EXE is located.
In addition, Pathways will create a file called Pathways.INI in the default directory (also known as the "working directory" or "working folder"). Normally the working directory is the same location in which Pathways.EXE is located, but you can change it to any place you want if you create a shortcut for Pathways.
In addition to the Pathways.INI, other INI files may get created to hold more configuration information. These are kept in the same folder as Pathways.INI.
Finally, when you use Pathways you will create plan files and address files. You can put these anywhere you want.
Of particular interest for Pathways setup are the INI files, and expecially Pathways.INI. Pathways.INI is the place where Pathways will keep:
In the same folder as Pathways.EXE, you will find a file called Pathways.INI that contains these lines:
PATHWAYS V3.3 INI
[REDIRECT]
ASK=YES
When Pathways starts, it reads this file for the configuration information. The above text tells Pathways that it ought to look for its configuration information somewhere else. Therefore it will present the window illustrated above to ask you where it should be. When you tell it the location, Pathways will create a new Pathways.INI in that folder. THAT is the Pathways.INI that will contain your serial number, configuration settings, etc.
This method is used so that you can put Pathways on a CD-R or other "read-only" device, where Pathways cannot write to its own folder.
On the other hand, if you have Pathways on a writable device, you can permit Pathways to write its INI files to that same folder. To do that, all you have to do is delete the original Pathways.INI file, and a new Pathways.INI configuration file will be created there the next time you run Pathways. Henceforth Pathways won't have to ask you where to look for its configuration information.
Although you can run Pathways directly from a read-only device such as a CD, it is more convenient if you copy the files to a hard disk. Here is what we suggest:
If you follow the above method, you will find that Pathways is just as convenient to use as if you had installed it.
One way to deploy Pathways to users on a network is simply to copy Pathways to each user's PC, following the method listed above. Alternately, you can keep just one copy of the Pathways files on the file server, and let each user share it. (The latter method is suitable only if you have a very fast and reliable network.)
If you wish to share the Pathways files, it is best if each user has a shortcut on their PC's desktop to start Pathways. Each user should also have their own folder, typically on their hard drive, to serve as the "working directory" for Pathways. The user's Shortcut should specify this folder, so that Pathways will put the user's own preferences file, Pathways.INI, in that location.
By this method, each user will have their own configuration files and their own license serial number. The first time the user starts Pathways, a window will be presented where they accept the license, and henceforth the user will have his own licese and configuration preferences.
The same result can be achieved by using the REDIRECT feature within Pathways.INI, but in that case the INI file location would have to be the same on each user's PC. For example, you might simply specify "C:\", to use the root directory on each user's hard drive.
These methods give you flexibility so that everyone in a university computer lab can use Pathways, or so that everyone in your business can use it. If you have an I.T. department responsible for deploying software to groups of PCs, pass these instructions to them. That way they can do it by whatever means is most convenient.
If you are running Pathways from a CD, then all you need to do to "remove" Pathways is exit the program and eject the CD.
IF you are running Pathways from a hard drive, to remove Pathways simply delete the folder containing the files that you put there. Also, if you created a short-cut, right click it and choose "delete" from the pop-up list.
NOTE that because you never installed Pathways, you won't be able to remove it using the "Add or Remove Programs" in the Control Panel. As far as Windows is concerned, Pathways is just another file--not an installed program.
Pathways does not alter the Windows registry, so you have nothing to clean up there. (If you had installed Pathways, the installer uses the registry; however, Pathways itself does not.)
Most software packages write to the registry as part of the install procedure--and writing to the registry of a Windows XP computer requires that you have Admin rights on your computer. IN many large corporations, only the I.T. department has access to do that; individual users do not. That's because the registry is critical to Windows operation, and the corporation doesn't want to take any risk of it being updated improperly. Using Pathways uninstalled doesn't alter the registry, which makes things easier for both you and your I.T. department.
The design of Pathways intentionally minimizes reliance on external components in order to improve the reliability of Pathways. Pathways does not install any ActiveX controls or other such components. In the direct run version, the run-time DLLs are kept in the same folder as Pathways.EXE, so when you erase the folder it is all removed.
If you were to use the automatic installer that is available with Pathways (Setup.EXE), it would check to see if the Visual Basic V5 DLLs are already in your Windows\System folder, and if not it would copy them there. It would create a folder for the Pathways files, decompresss the distribution files, and put them there. It would create a startup ICON for Pathways. Finally, it would record the install information so that Pathways can be removed using "Add or Remove programs" in your control panel.
You can achieve pretty much the same results by following the instructions above, with the exception that the above manual method doesn't register Pathways. The Pathways software itself is the same regardless of the method you use to put it on your computer.