Installer Guidelines

Applications using the RealPlayer Component must install the RealPlayer system properly. Third parties should incorporate the following installer checklist items into their product's installer. Your product's installer should perform the following functions:

Installer Checklist

Note: Improper installation can result in failure of the application.

Your installer should perform the following functions:

  1. If your installer detects that a DLL file is currently in use by another application, then a dialog box should open asking the user to shut down all applications on the desktop. Right-click the RealPlayer icon and select Close.
By closing RealPlayer, these DLLs are no longer in use. Any other application that attempts to overwrite these DLLs will now be able to install.

Users may think that they have closed RealPlayer 5.0 by clicking on the “X” in the upper right-hand corner of the player. However, RealPlayer is still running when the “Real Bubble” icon is present in the System Tray (to the right of the Task Bar).

Note: When the “Real Bubble” icon is present in the System Tray, RealPlayer will not appear in the ALT-TAB dialog as an open application.

    An installer should check the version number in each RealNetworks-distributed DLL before replacing it. If a DLL found on the user's computer is newer than the corresponding DLL to be installed, then a dialog box should open informing the user that a newer DLL was found, and asking whether the newer DLL should be replaced with the older DLL. We recommend keeping the newer version.
Real Developers can install older RealNetworks DLLs on a user's system and therefore break newer versions of RealNetworks-based products, and vice versa. For example, our Sipro DLL for 5.0 contains two new flavors, 5 and 16 kbps. The 4.0 Sipro DLL does not have these flavors. It is possible for a installer to replace the newer 5.0 Sipro DLL with a 4.0 Sipro DLL. The result is that the RealPlayer will not be able to play 5 and 16 kbps content.
  1. An installer should let the user choose the directory in which to install files. Install RealPlayer Component DLLs in
    C:\Windows\System directory.
  2. In the Windows registry you must increment the reference count of the DLLs that your application depends on. Otherwise, an uninstaller will inadvertently remove the DLLs your application needs.

Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows
/CurrentVersion/SharedDLLs
Conversely, the uninstaller must decrement this.

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