To install XLGRAPH: Previous versions of XLGRAPH were called XLAGraph, and were distributed and installed along with SVEDBERG. XLGRAPH is now distributed and installed separately. IF YOU ARE STILL USING THE OLD DOS VERSION OF THE BECKMAN XL-A DATA ACQUISTION SOFTWARE you may wish to retain a copy of the old XLAGRAPH program. XLGraph will no longer automatically detect and graph new data files generated by the old DOS program (although it will still load and graph the data manually). The "automatic graphing" feature of XLGraph only works with data files following the naming convention of the Windows versions of the Beckman data acquisition software. The program and other files are supplied as a self-extracting archive program, XLGRyynn.EXE, where yy and nn are the year and sequence (to indicate the versions). Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 must be running for installation. Executing the archive program will expand the compressed files into a temporary directory (as specified by the TEMP= environment variable on your computer). The archive program then executes the SETUP program to copy the program and support files to the appropriate places. At the conclusion of SETUP the archive program will delete all the temporary files. The SETUP program will ask if you want to create a Program Manager group (a folder under Programs in the TaskBar of Win95) for XLGRAPH and/or create a XLGRAPH icon in Program Manager (an icon under the Programs heading in the TaskBar under Win95). If you prefer you can place the icon into any existing group/folder (such as that for the Beckman software). If you are installing these files as an update to an earlier version, only the new/revised files will be installed. Also, your own default settings in the .ini files will be retained, unless the new version requires individual settings to be overwritten. Previous versions of XLGRAPH were usually installed in the C:\XLA directory. The current default is to put XLGRAPH into its own C:\XLGRAPH directory. Thus you may wish to un-install old versions from other directories prior to installing this new versions, in order to avoid having multiple versions present on your computer. (See the install.txt file from the older version.) If you are un-installing an older version you will NOT need to remove any files installed to the Windows\System directory, but you may wish to remove the xlagraph.ini file in the Windows directory, which will no longer be used. After the installation, you may delete XLGRyynn.EXE (but you may wish to retain a copy as a backup.) When it finishes, the SETUP program renames itself to uninstal.exe, which is left in the installation directory so that you may run it to remove this program. If during installation you get a message that one of the .VBX files cannot be installed because it is in use, or if when you start the program you get a message about one of the .VBX files being an older version, what this means is that an older version of that file exists on your computer, and that some program that is running is using that older version. The program that is using the older version is likely to be some program that is started automatically every time you start Windows, for example a utility that governs the settings of your video card (which commonly use an old version of SPIN.VBX or CSSPIN.VBX). If that program prevents installation of the newer version, you will have to exit that program prior to installing this one. If installation appears to proceed okay, but you get the message about an old version when you try to run this program, what that means is that the old .VBX version has been installed in some directory other than the Windows\System directory (where such files are supposed to be placed). In that case you need to use File Manager or Explorer to locate the older version of the file, and then delete the old version. These files are backward-compatible so the newer version should not create problems for whatever program installed the old version. If the installation fails and you cannot get things to work, contact me directly. E-mail is preferred, to jphilo@earthlink.net My fax # is 805-492-6413. Below is a list of the files installed and their locations. (in the Windows \System directory) vbrun300.dll (Visual Basic 3.0 runtine library) qpro200.dll (QuickPak Pro VB extensions library) cmdialog.vbx (VB common dialog custom control) csspin.vbx (Crescent Software spin button custom control) grid.vbx (VB grid custom control) vsvbx.vbx (Videosoft index tab custom control) (in the Windows directory) xlgraph.ini (stores program options, defaults) (usually in \XLGRAPH directory) xlgraph.exe (program) nllsqdll.dll (support dynamic link library) install.txt (these installation instructions) graphics.hlp (graphics features help file) uninstal.exe (uninstall program) xlgraph.lst (list of things to be uninstalled) To UNINSTALL the program: SETUP builds a list of files and icons/groups it installs in a file called xlgraph.lst, that it can then use to perform the UNINSTALL operation. If you chose to create Program Manager/TaskBar icons for XLGRAPH during installation, then SETUP will also create an UNINSTALL icon in the same group, and you can uninstall by simply double-clicking this icon. If there is no UNINSTALL icon you can (1) issue the command 'uninstal xlgraph.lst' using the Program Manager/TaskBar Run command, or (2) invoke uninstal.exe by double-clicking the file in File Manager/Explorer. With the latter option you will be asked which program to uninstall (answer=xlgraph). Since some of the Visual Basic related files may also be used by other programs, you will be cautioned about these before they are deleted. If the uninstall operation fails (e.g. if the file xlgraph.lst is absent or corrupted), you will have to manually delete the files noted above. However, you should probably NOT delete any of the files that were placed into the Windows/System directory, since these may be needed by other programs. John Philo Alliance Protein Laboratories jphilo@mailway.com