Windows Version of CKS

We have received a few reports of difficulties encountered while installing the CKS program package. While the specific error messages and symptoms vary, the problems that have arisen can be classified into three groups.

Zip file corruption during network transmission

The CKS ZIP files must be transferred over networks as binary files. The files should be automatically transferred as binary files from the CKS download site, but subsequent transfers of these files over computer networks also must use a binary transfer protocol.

Most unzipping utilities provide a mechanism for testing the integrity of a ZIP archive. For example, the INFO-ZIP "unzip" program, and the PKUNZIP program accept a "-t" option that provides this function. The Winzip program provides a "Test" function in its "Actions" menu. If you have difficulties during installation, first test the integrity of the downloaded files.

Problems with the use of unzipping utility programs

Some unzipping utilities appear to incorrectly unarchive the CKS ZIP files. Current versions of the INFO-ZIP unzip utility (Version 5.4), PKUNZIP (Version 2.7) and Winzip (7.0) correctly extract all files from the CKS ZIP files.

Note that CKS is supplied as two ZIP files, CKSWIN-1.ZIP and CKSWIN-2.ZIP. This is done purposely, so as to facilitate the preparation of a set of installation floppy diskettes. Both CKS ZIP files must be downloaded and both must be unzipped prior to starting the INSTALL.EXE installation program. If this is not done then some files required for installation of CKS will not be found at installation time and an error will result.

In this regard, some unzipping utility programs (for example Winzip) provide an "Install" feature that automates the installation of software distributed in ZIP archives. Do not use this feature to install CKS - the installation will fail because only one of the two required CKS ZIP files will be automatically unarchived. Instead, create a temporary directory, unzip the two CKS ZIP files in that directory, and start the INSTALL.EXE program found in that directory.

Limitation of Windows 3.x applications when run on Windows 9x and Windows NT

The Windows version of CKS and its installation utility are Windows 3.x compatible applications. As such they have restrictions characteristic of Windows 3.x programs. Specifically, both expect file and directory names conforming to the DOS/Windows 3.x conventions. The use of long file and directory names, names containing spaces, and networked drives may cause the CKS installation procedure to fail. To avoid this, restrict the names of the temporary directory (the one used for holding the unzipped installation files), the target directory (the directory where CKS is to be installed) and the names of all directories in the paths leading to them to eight characters or less, containing no spaces.