Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I couldn't see it.
I'm trying to export Directory Opus as an application to my U3 drive using the x64 version (9.1) on Vista x64. This worked in previous versions without issue.
However, when I export to USB drive now, instead of getting two drives (one being the U3 system drive) with a U3 icon, I now don't get the U3 drive in the list of export locations. I can export it fine to the data partition of the U3 stick, but that's not really what I want. I want it as an auto-run program on the U3 system as it was before.
There's no x64 version of the U3 system as far as I know, which means the x64 bit version of Opus won't be able to load the DLLs it needs to query the U3 device. I don't think there's any way around this unless Sandisk come out with a 64 bit version which seems unlikely as they are supposedly killing it off.
I don't know how hard this would be, but is it not possible to load the 32-bit DLLs in compatability mode (WOW64)?
I've been waiting months for the x64 Opus (they wouldn't let me beta test), now it's finally here I find I can't use it if I want to take it to work on my U3 USB stick. Which basically makes the whole x64 thing useless to me.
There's nothing stopping you installing the 32 bit version of Opus to create your U3 export, then reverting to 64 on your desktop pc. [Update 2009: You can't install the 32-bit version on a 64-bit Windows machine so this would have to be done from a 32-bit machine or virtual machine.]
Alternatively, the normal USB export should work fine from the 64 bit (or 32 bit) version.
As tanis said, you can just use the standard USB export. U3 isn't really that different anyway.
64 bit processes can't load 32 bit DLLs, the WOW system lets 32 bit processes run on a 64 bit OS but that's all, there's no intermixing within the same process. We could theoretically support it using a COM proxy as we have done for ZIP/RAR - I'll add this to the list but given that the U3 system is apparently being killed off I'm not sure how useful an investment of time it would be.
Tanis: I don't think I can install the x64 and x86 versions side by side on the same machine, can I? I like to have the latest versions of things, and I always install the patches when they come out. So to do it that way everytime there's a new version I'd have to uninstall x64, re-install x86, export to U3, uninstall x86 and re-install x64. Okay, it's do-able, but its a major headache I'm sure you'll agree?
The standard USB export isn't as good for me, because it doesn't launch Opus automatically when I put the USB stick in. Which means I have to open Explorer to go find it to launch it. Shortcuts don't work either, as I can't be sure of what drive letters are going to be assigned ahead of time.
The "old" U3 way was just beautiful. Slap your U3 stick in, and everything is just there automatically. Why on earth are they "killing it off"?
[One thought that has just occurred though - since the normal USB export basically just exports all the files, I could perhaps package them in a U3P and install it that way... hmmm.... thinks....]
jon: fair enough. I realise I'm probably one of the few who really likes this feature, but for me, the U3 export function was a major selling point of V9. I'd been using version 8 and was quite happy with it. Thanks for adding it to the list.
SanDisk and Microsoft are involved in some kind of joint effort to replace U3 with something better.
I don't think many details of how it differs have been announced but my guess is that it won't require the hack which U3 uses where each USB stick appears as two drive letters, one of which pretends to be a CD. With Microsoft on-board they can modify Windows so that the bootable-CD stuff isn't needed, which will be nicer in the long run.
Thanks for the links. Seems a way off yet, and U3 is still current & will be for the forseeable future. One paragraph caught my eye, I'll quote it here:
So the investment in time wouldn't be wasted, eh jon?
So the investment in time wouldn't be wasted, eh jon? [/quote]
That quote means that when they release the new U3 they will provide information to developers on everything they will need to do to support the new version - it doesn't mean current U3 packages will work without significant effort.
So it could be argued that there's little point doing the work to support the current version when it will all change...
[quote="tanis"]That quote means that when they release the new U3 they will provide information to developers on everything they will need to do to support the new version - it doesn't mean current U3 packages will work without significant effort.
So it could be argued that there's little point doing the work to support the current version when it will all change...[/quote]
Fair point, and I don't know how it's been written or how easy it would be to add the COM proxy into the existing DOpus.
But it could also be argued that there is a sizeable existing U3 userbase, the first new devices are not expected until mid-2008 (that's a Microsoft timeline... and we all know how accurate they can be), and experience shows that it may take up to a year after that before U3 version 2 becomes the standard. We also don't know if that quote may mean that there will be in-built backwards compatability or not.
