Installation internal error, failed on _shfoldr.dll

[D. Wahr Mei]

While running the Audacity audacity-win-1.2.6 setup/installation file, I get
Internal error: Failed to get version numbers of: _shfoldr.dll

The computer is an Acer Travelmate 261XC Mobile Intel Pentium III with 256MB RAM running Windows XP SP2 and SP3.
There is indeed no _shfoldr.dll (or shfoldr.dll) present, but file search shows two files named shfolder.dll,
both are of size 25 088 bytes with File version 6.0.2900.5512,
in C:WINDOWSsystem32 and C:WINDOWSServicePackFilesi386, respectively.

Any clues?

[steve]

Try Audacity 1.3.x from the main Audacity website: http://audacityteam.org/download/windows

(Audacity 1.2 is very old now, and 1.3 has many enhanced features)

[Gale Andrews]

shfoldr.dll is a Windows system file to do with the Shell Folder service, copies of which are created in temporary folders when programs are installed. This dll is sometimes detected as a virus by anti-virus products, but it is safe. I think the problem may be something to do with the Inno installer we use and the way in which it retrieves shell folder information. If so, you'll probably have the same issue installing the Beta. Does the Audacity install actually fail?

I would suggest you download the Audacity zip distribution (under "Optional Downloads" on either the stable or beta download pages). Then just extract the contents to Program FilesAudacity or where you want and double-click audacity.exe to launch it.

Gale

[D. Wahr Mei]

Thanks for explanations and suggestions.
I tried installing the beta-version last night.

Took me some time because Windows insisted on checking SourceForge against phishing and temporarily had problems with getting in contact with its online facilities - both during automatic downloading and on the direct link. Irritating, but it can be a good safety precaution.

After downloading using the direct link, i.e. not the .zip, the installation went smoothly and the Audacity 1.3.5 seems to work fine. I expect to install that on my desktop as well, alongside my present 1.2.6. Any installation problems will be reported.

Thanks again!

[Gale Andrews]

Thanks. The version of the Inno installer used for 1.3.5 is more recent, so that may be the difference. I gather we do update the installer version with every release of Audacity. If you find you prefer 1.2.6 for any reason, there is still the zip distribution. Note the Beta is not fully documented, but you can get help here.

Gale