How to install DNA Baser in ANY computer

We know that big organizations/corporations impose very strict rules over how a computer can be used and where the user can install software. In many cases the system administrator is so severe that the user cannot install software at all. The poor biologist has to beg the computer department to have particular software installed. If the user is lucky and receives a positive answer, it may take days until the job gets done.

Therefore, we have tried to make DNA Baser as flexible as possible. Any corporate user (private users should encounter no problems at all) should be able to install our software as long as it has write access to a folder (any folder).

DNA Baser can be installed by Guest users

During software installation, the installer tries to get access to critical areas such as Windows system folders, registry, etc. In certain conditions these operations can damage your computer or can be used by malicious users to install unwanted software. Therefore, only users with appropriate permissions/privileges can do that.

However, system-independent software does not need access to critical system areas. System-independent is not easy to achieve. We have made huge efforts to keep our software system-independent and the result is that it can be installed anywhere.

What is a system-independent software program?

A system-independent program is a program that does not need access critical system areas of your computer in order to work. It does not require Java or other 3rd party programs, libraries, DLL's, registry, plugins, etc. It doesn't install files in your system core. This is the best way possible to develop software. Since a system-independent program does not alter your system it can never harm it.

DNA Baser Assembler is system independent.

What is 'write permission'?

You have write permissions to a folder if you can create/save/delete files in it.

How do I know if I have write permissions to a folder?

Just open Windows Explorer, navigate to that folder and open it. Then try to create a new text file or folder in it. If it works, then you have write access. If it says "You don't have the permissions to do this" or it asks for the admin password, then obviously you don't write access to that folder.

Hint: You should have write access to all folders that you used before to save files (for example Word documents) to them and also to all folders that you have created.

Can you give me example of folders to which I have write permissions?

• My Documents, My music, My Videos, etc
• Desktop
• Any folder created by you
• Your user profile folder

Folders where you don't have DEFAULT write permissions:

• Program Files
• Windows
• etc

User's profile folder

For each user account in a computer, a special folder is automatically created. The applications installed in that computer (including DNA Baser) use this folder to store data and settings files. The user also uses this folder to store personal files such as Word documents, emails, music, pictures, etc.  Folders such as 'My documents' and 'Desktop' (the Desktop is actually a folder) are stored in user's profile folder.

We would like to tell you the exact location of this folder, but unfortunately, Microsoft was not very consistent about it: each Windows edition has a different location for this folder. You will have to find it by yourself; but this is an easy task. Please follow the guidelines below:

Windows 95/98/Me

There is no dedicated folder for this. The user has write access everywhere, including to system folders.

Windows 2K/XP

Under Win XP, this folder should be "c:\Documents and Settings\UserName", where UserName is your Windows user account (login) name.

Example: 'c:\Documents and Settings\John' or 'c:\Documents and Settings\Guest'

DNA Baser should store its settings in "c:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\DNA Baser\"

Windows Vista/7

Your profile folder should be "c:\Users\UserName", where UserName is your Windows user account name.

Example "c:\Users\John" or "c:\Users\Guest"

DNA Baser should store its settings in "c:\Users\UserName\Application Data\DNA Baser v3\"