The t@b free license (Version 3, Nov 26, 2005) states among other items:

4. TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR DISTRIBUTING THIS PACKAGE:

you may by any means, re-distribute this software
package, if you a) distribute the un-altered package
file as it was originally obtained from the t@b
website and b) you only charge the recipient for
the service of distributing this package and c)
this package is not distributed as component of
a product which is itself subject to a license fee
or a purchase price.

t@b (on it's development site http://devel.zs4.org ) also distributes a zip version of zs4 for people who are afraid of *.exe installer files. That file can be legally distributed under the above mentionned terms, as long as it is not modified. The name of the executable file for zs4 is "zweistein.exe".

zs4 makes no registry entries except registering the tabdec.dll using the regsvr32.exe. This makes motion PNG and other compressors available to wmp and other programs via DirectShow....

Right - thanks for the quick responses! :)

I hadn't noticed that before - I'll see if it is basically portable natively.

Where does the tabdec.dll get registered?  HKU\software\??

Edit - just tried.  I get an application error that it isn't configured properly, and that a reinstall might fix the problem.

I noticed .desktop and .t@bsetup files.  The former seems pretty innocuous, but the latter appears to contain pathnames and such, which could be good for portable apps, since it looks like it uses relative paths.

Edit2 - I just read in another thread that zs4 may require the latest .net framework?  Does it also require Admin/Owner access on the local PC?

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Sic semper tyrannosauro.

tabdec.dll is a "COM" component, and as such implements the entry points DllRegisterServer() and DllUnregisterServer(). The microsoft executable called regsvr32.exe can be used to register the COM component.

Several Installer utilites (Inno for example) have options to simply script a DLL as RegisterServer() style COM object.

No Root priviledges required, unless the RegSvr32.exe requires that (not sure).

the .desktop and .t@bsetup files are files which our internal build process uses to generate installer scripts for multiple platforms (like the Inno setup program for windows, MAC bundles and a custom linux installer executable).

Ok, I'm reasonably familiar with NSIS.  I suspect there is a similar ability.

What about .net framework requirements?

Thanks for your help on this. :)
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Sic semper tyrannosauro.

Is there any chance of having the exe check the zweistein root or operating directory for the dll rather than actually registering it?  Or, for that matter, look to an ini (supportive of relative paths, ideally) for important locations?

TIA.
:)

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Sic semper tyrannosauro.

the tabdec.dll is mostly intended for 3rd party applications (not ZS4) so that they can read certain file types which zs4 can output. ZS4 will run without that file.

Also, since this file is meant as a COM style plugin for the Microsoft DirectShow architecture it makes no sense to make ZS4 load this DLL explicitly.

We have however a separate product, the t@b MPNG codec (encoder/decoder) for win32, which users can install separately, for using zs4 output files without using zs4.

Ok.

Here is the error I'm getting when I try to run it portably.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/TRexian/Error01.jpg

This is after using the "drop in" zip install method.

When I did a non-portable install, it appeared that it created a .tab folder within My Documents.  I didn't explore it much, but is such a folder required for zweistein to run?

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Sic semper tyrannosauro.

1. did the non portable install run without complaint?
2. which version was the non portable install, and
3. which version was the *.zip file of you portable install?

1.  Yes.  I even started a project to kinda see how it worked.  Seemed fine. :)

2.  t@b_zweistein_win32_686_0702181859.exe is the executable.  (There is a SMALL chance it was a version from January, but that would entail a BAD misreading of the version numbers on my part - which is possible.) :)

3.  t@b_zweistein_win32_686_0702181859.zip.

Sorry to be such a PITA with this. :)

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Sic semper tyrannosauro.