Installation and Setup

Packages (precompiled binary programs) are deprecated in favor of building the programs from source. If you have access to packages, they can be installed per the instructions in this section.

The packages come in self-extracting .exe files. Simply run the files to do the installation. The programs can later be uninstalled, either with the Windows software manager or by clicking the Uninstall icons in the XicTools program group in the Start menu.

The same process can be used to install updated releases - it is not necessary to uninstall first. A more convenient way to keep current is to use the updating feature of the help system (see 6.1.1). (Package updating is not currently available).

WARNING
The programs use an entry in the Windows Registry to find their startup files, etc. This entry is created by the installer program. Thus

1. The correct way to move an existing installation to another location is to uninstall the program, and reinstall to the new location using the standard distribution file. If you just move the files to a new location, the Registry won't be updated and the program won't run correctly.

2. You can not simply copy files from another machine when creating a new installation. The files must be installed through the distribution files, or the Registry entry won't be set.

The Registry entry used (by the inno installer program) is (for example)

HKLM \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \ Xic-4is1

The Windows regedit utility can be used to repair the Registry if necessary. The Windows reg utility can also be used to query and modify the Registry from the command line.

The programs are installed by default under C: \ usr \ local, which can be specified to the program installer. The installation directories will be created if necessary. All of the programs will install under a directory named ``xictools'' under the prefix, (for example, Xic files would be installed by default in C: \ usr \ local \ xictools \ xic). The structure of the tree is exactly that as under Linux, which simplifies compatibility. It is recommended that the default installation location be used, if possible.