How to transfer a Delphi Profile from One PC to another

Assuming that Delphi and the other VCLs are is installed in the same folder at the new PC, then the migration is fairly easy if you are comfortable working with regedit.

The information is stored in the Registry under  a key called HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5.0 or something like that. You'll find all the registration information under that key, including a list of installed packages.

Just export the keys to a registry file, copy it to the new computer and install it by double-clicking on it

How to Migrate Delphi 5 from 1 PC to Another

What do you do when your PC crashes and you have to migrate your Delphi 5 + all installed VCL components to another PC ?

One possible solution is to restore all your folders to the replacement PC and then reinstall Delphi 5 + all the updates. Tedious but definitely workable but what if you have misplaced your original Delphi Install Disk ?

This is what I attempted to do :-

1. Copy the Delphi 5 folder to the new PC (for Win7 PCs, administrator rights must be given to this folder)

2. Copy  VCL*50.bpl from WINSYS32 folder to the BIN folder on the target PC.

3. Launch D5 and all you will see is the Standard Tab with only the Frames Icon visible.

4. Click Component/Install Packages and manually add applet50.bpl and you will see that the Borland Control Applet has been installed. By doing so, you will still no additional tabs on icons but when you click File/New..., all the tabbed dialog box will now be complete :-)

5. Then add dcl3150.bpl (D1 compatibilty components) and voila dclstd50.bpl (Borland Standard Componets) is also automatically installed.

6. Repeat for all dcl*.bpl

More to come...

Installing Delphi 5 in Windows 7

Reinstall it in it's own directory that's not under Program Files. Writing there for non-admin users has been a no-no since WinXP (although not enforced there), and has been forbidden since the introduction of Vista.

DevExpress: How to Manually Install Developers Express into Delphi 5 ?

In an earlier article, I had written about Developers Express's decision NOT to support D5 anymore. So what happens when you install the latest DevExpress into D7. Simple, it kills off your existing installation of DevExpress  in D5.

So what to do ?

No worries, here is how you can manually install any prior verion of DevExpress into D5. Use File/Open to open  & recompile in the suggested order as below :-

1) XP Theme Manager - dxThemed5.dpk (RTL)
2) Xpress Common - dxComnd5.dpk (RTL)
3) Express GSI + Lib (dxGDIPlusD5.apk)
4) CxLibrary - cxLibmyclD5.dpk (RTL)
5) As for dxComnD5.dpk (need also to click Intall)
4) ExpressBars (need to recompile and install 2+2 dpk)

Update on 3rd October 2012 

Another way to have the latest version (#59) Developer Express components updated in D7 without killing off the version installed in D5 is really simple. Just create another User Name in Win7 and installed the latest version :-)

Delphi 5 to Delphi 7 : Variants.pas

If you use functions such as VarOfArrayOf() or constants such as null, reminder to add variants to the uses clause of your *.pas and your problem will go away

DevExpress Components : Installing D5 & D7 (or later) on the same PC

Issue :

The DevExpress Team announced in 2007 that wef from v28, the Delphi IDE will no longer be supported.

Of course, you can continue using Build 27, however, DevExpress cannot guarantee that this will be able to apply code fixes designed for newer builds of our components to the libraries from this build. From DevExpress point of view, it is best to migrate to a newer version of Delphi if you wish to use the latest versions of their components.

The Solution

Although you can't use the latest  DevExpress setup for this purpose, you can do the following to have both versions installed:-

1. Install v27 under the required IDE. Backup all the binary (and other necessary files). It's easy, since our setup copies files only under the product's root folder.

2. Install latest version #46 as at 7th Sept 2009

3. Restore backed up file to a folder, and install the required components from v27 manually, by registering packages via the IDE.

Delphi Basics : What is the meaning of *.dsk, *.ddp,*.cfg, *.dof, *.res etc ?

Looking at your Project Folder, have you ever wondered what the following extensions mean ?

*.dpr
Delphi Project files, one per project

*.res
Delphi Resource files, one per project

*.pas
Delphi Source files before compiling

*.dfm
Delphi Forms

*.dcu
Delphi Compiled Units, after compiling *.pas

*.exe
Windows executable resulting after linking of *.dcu