Standalones, externals, file paths in 2.7

[Jon Seymour]

Hi,

I decided to make the leap to 2.7 and have found it a little  
depressing. Thanks to Jacqueline for the answer on the image library  
2.6 --> 2.7, but I'm curious as to how in the world I was going to  
figure that out? Why didn't the installer just move or copy the  
library to its new home? On a similar note:

I'm using OS X to build standalones for Mac and Win32. I use a small  
"splash screen" stack as the app as recommended by many. I've been  
really careful to handle all the nuances/differences in x-platform  
filepath structure in scripts, and the process has been working for  
months through countless new builds. Now, first, when I save as  
standalone for Win32 under 2.7, out of nowhere comes an "Externals"  
folder in the same directory as the exe. It's empty, but...I do use  
the altBrowser plugin and have carefully assigned the location of its  
externals in another location.  When I launch the exe, the splash  
screen shows and then fails to go anywhere. Two possible problems, I  
think: first, there is a change in the methodology used to construct  
filepaths for Win in 2.7, or...this Externals folder wants to house  
altBrowser and that is somehow causing a problem. Any thoughts? I do  
not develop on Win so I'm a little stuck.

Can someone point me in the direction of any documentation on changes  
in the standalone settings or file path construction? I'm a little  
frazzled with my app breaking at this point!

Thanks,

Jon