WinDVD 8 - is this stuff necessary?

[willfence]

WinDVD Platinum 8.0.6.111 is VERY slow to install, partly because it wants to throw in (so you gotta be online) "Microsoft DirectX Feb2006 Runtime Web Installer" and "Microsoft VisualC++ 2005 Redistributable Package (X86)"

My questions:
1. Wouldn't these files already be in place in an average XP installation?
2. If not, couldn't they be downloaded and installed prior to WinDVD? That's assuming that WinDVD actually looks for previous versions of these files before it jumps online to get them.

[admin]

The average XP install does not come with DirectX (although if you've played any games, you should have it, but maybe not the latest version) and I think the Visual C++ 2005 redis. is not standard either.

I can't remember how the WinDVD installer works (other than it's very fussy), but I did download the Visual C++ redis. separately because my install did not work initially. You can download these "additional" packages separately from Microsoft:

Visual C++:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=32bc1bee-a3f9-4c13-9c99-220b62a191ee

DirectX:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3

[Chewy]

welcome to the forum

I never did like windvd that much but both of those updates would be considered XP hot patchs or critical updates, unfortunately change is inevitable, that's one of the reasons I stick with older versions of a lot of programs.

You have to consider an operating system, windows, mac linux or whatever, is always a "work in progress", never a finished product.

XP sp2 has directx 9.0c

[admin]

Many people have gone back to using WinDVD 7 because 8 isn't the most stable (a lot of people fail to even install the thing). I personally prefer PowerDVD, it's easy to install, quick to load (relatively), and I never have any problems with stability. The PowerDVD Ultra version that plays Blu-ray/HD DVD is nice, but unfortunately, it doesn't always work due to incompatibilities with video cards (thanks to HDCP requirements).

[willfence]

Thanks guys, good tips.

Admin, any idea how to tell if the VisualC++2005 thing is already on a computer? Like, it seems to me that this extra files install business could be bypassed if one knew that the files were already there. OK, it's simple enough to tell which version of DirectX is in place by opening C drive, hitting F3 to get a search box, typing 'dxdiag' then clicking the dxdiag file when it's found.

But how to tell if VisualC++ is there? And is there a later version of VisualC++ than 2005?

[Chewy]

Will, what OS are you running? what service pack?

[willfence]

The last time it was on an XPPro SP2 pc. Prior to that the behavior was the same on an XPPro SP1 pc.

[Chewy]

install net framework 2, that should take care of any c++

stay away from net 3

[willfence]

Thanks Chewy, that's worth knowing.

Didn't know about NetFrame 3, so I'll watch that also.

Re NetFrame generally, it was interesting to discover that installing the first version, (#1 was it?), caused an additional user to appear in XP systems, so that when it was installed in single-user systems, the user would suddenly be required to logon. Fortunately NetFrame Service Pack 1.1 fixed that problem, but, judging by the number of computer users reporting a sudden logon prob of this type, not too many folk are aware of the connection.

[Chewy]

I saw the same problem with net 1, seems to have disappeared with net 2, skipped both till recently but resistance was futile.