[tex-live] Tests with TLPM/TLPMGUI (1. Update)

[Wolfgang Fleischer]

I did enlarge my testbed somewhat: a brand new thinkpad r52 with 
xpsp2, my long running xpsp2, a fresh xpsp2 under vmware.
The behaviour was always the same and in some way unpredictable
and not to understand:

-On a clean machine TLPMGUI works as expected with one exception: the
function 'add packages'. 
-After using TLPMGUI the first time I could not
use 'inst' within TLPM but unist, list ... 
-When I changed the default
settings for the target path from c:\tex to somewhat other, say
c:\texlive, I could use TLPM even inst packages. I do not want to 
enlarge this list with all my tests and results.

May be finally I found the problem:

On a fresh XP the PATH is a string in the registry of type 
REG_EXPAND_SZ looking like
 %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;...

After using TLPMGUI on that system we get a String of type REG_SZ 
with content
c:\tex\bin\win32;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\Syste
m32\Wbem;... This is clearly wrong and as %SystemRoot% is no longer
expanded the whole system is working badly. After correcting the PATH 
via control panel (I put the tex path element to the end) I ended up 
with a string of type REG_EXPAND_SZ again of
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;...;c:\t
ex\bin\win32 Now TLPMGUI works fine. Adding packages is with no 
problems.

On some of systems (not clear why) the PATH is stored in a string of 
type
REG_SZ with correctly expanded %SystemRoot% like
c:\windows\system32;c:\windows\system32\wben;... On those systems 
TLPMGUI will not show the problems I run in.

With best regards

-- 
Wolfgang Fleischer
W.Fleischer at Erlenweg.De
Telefon/Fax: 03721 32517