Windows XP

[tech at paynesparkman.com]

>I have a commercial product written in MetaCard which consists of the .exe 
>program and support files.  A problem we are having with Windows XP is that 
>when the support files and folders are loaded onto the user's computer, 
>Windows XP apparantly sets the attributes to "Read Only" and the user cannot 
>write to the files.  Does anyone know why it does this?  and is there a way 
>to reset the file attributes from MC?

I've seen this problem but it seems to have only happened when the files were copied from a CD to the users computer.  I assumed that because a CD is read only it 
automatically converts files on it to read only.  It appears that if the files are zipped before being placed on a CD the problem is averted but, I haven't thoroughly tested this 
yet.  Once the files are on the user's conmputer you can have them right-click on the file, select properties, then deselect the read-only check box.  If you want to do it with 
MC use its shell command to execute the DOS attrib command described below with the -r switch.


Attrib
Displays or changes file attributes. 

This command displays, sets, or removes the read-only, archive, system, and hidden attributes assigned to files or directories. 

attrib [+r|-r] [+a|-a] [+s|-s] [+h|-h] [[drive:][path] filename] [/s[/d]] 



Parameters

+r 

Sets the read-only file attribute. 

-r 

Clears the read-only file attribute. 

+a 

Sets the archive file attribute. 

-a 

Clears the archive file attribute. 

+s 

Sets the file as a system file. 

-s 

Clears the system file attribute. 

+h 

Sets the file as a hidden file. 

-h 

Clears the hidden file attribute. 

[[drive:][path] filename]

Specifies the location and name of the directory, file, or set of files you want to process. You can use wildcard characters (? and *) in the filename parameter to display or 
change the attributes for a group of files.

/s 

Processes matching files in the current directory and all of its subdirectories. 

/d

Processes directories.

Rich Mooney
Payne Sparkman Mfg.
http:\\www.paynesparkman.com