Maintaining a Microsoft Project 2000 Installation

Lesson 4: Maintaining a Microsoft Project 2000 Installation                                         79

Module 1.4

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Lesson 4: Maintaining a Microsoft Project 2000 Installation

Overview

Once Microsoft^® Project 2000 is installed, there are many potential issues that could cause the program to not work correctly. The new Windows Installer technology, however, provides solutions that address the most common of these issues.

What You Will Learn

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

n  Discuss resiliency and how Microsoft Project 2000 implements it

n  Describe how source lists are created and maintained

n  Detect and repair errors within Microsoft Project using two different methods

n  Add, remove, and update Microsoft Project 2000 components

n  Describe Microsoft Project 2000’s uninstall process.

n  List files removed and files left behind when Microsoft Project 2000 is uninstalled

Resiliency of Microsoft Project 2000

In previous versions of Microsoft Project, you would receive error messages whenever files were corrupt or missing. Usually the error message did not really tell you how to fix the problem. Microsoft Project 2000 addresses this problem by using Windows Installer to attempt to resolve the problem before telling you there is a problem.

Resiliency

Microsoft Project 2000 uses resiliency to resolve many problems before letting the user know a problem exists. The definition of a resilient application is as follows:

An application that is a self-maintaining, fault tolerant and that knows how to fix itself when files are missing or damaged. The application will know how to retrieve or provide all necessary information and files to maintain a functional state, with a minimal amount of effort by the user.

In the case of Microsoft Project 2000, it lets Windows Installer process error message as a first attempt to try to remedy the problem. In many cases, Windows Installer detects and fixes the problem without user intervention.

In some cases, Windows Installer is not able to detect errors. An example of Windows Installer not detecting an error is when a font used in a dialog box is damaged.

Registry Resiliency

All Microsoft Office 2000 applications use a single Office Application Programming Interface (API) to read and write settings between the Office applications and the Windows registry. This API is called the Office Registry API (ORAPI).

In earlier versions of Office, a missing registry key could bring an application to a halt. In Office 2000, if an entry is somehow deleted from the registry, ORAPI can find and use the default value without interruption.

Also, ORAPI reduces clutter in the registry by storing the default values and locations for Office 2000 registry entries within each application in either the executable file or in MSO9.DLL. In earlier versions of Office, values for default settings were spread out in the registry and in the application.