btw, what is the directory here that its trying to write to?

I don��t know�� I ask the student to send me the stack.

I won��t see them until 2 weeks. But I will then try with some to make this stuff work more reliably and give/ask feedback here.

Anyway, I still have the solution to launch the old way. So there is an alternative.

But I really like the launcher. It really helps organizing (for me :)). For students, in a first approcach it��s not that important.

Now I notice...
the Linux PharoLauncher download is a ZIP file
and the Mac PharoLauncher download is a ZIP file
so... can we make the Windows PharoLauncher download a ZIP file?

Doing that, at least as an interim measure, would *immediately* make PharoLauncher
usable to students on locked-down Windows machines in University student labs.
I'd expect this will improve the success with this experiment
to use PharoLauncher as the main user entry point.

The problem with using an "Installer" for the Windows PharoLauncher is the large amount
of testing required to work *reliably* with *all* the "different ways people work"
under several different versions of Windows introduced different layers of user security intricacies.

Oh yeah�� I can see that�� and since I don��t use windows since XP, I can tell you it��s a pain to just use it again. I (sadly) need a windows box to test.

I��m thinking also to prepare a linux virtual box image which is also interesting. But still, to get adoption (even for A or 2 student), its important that it works well on windows.

I��ll give feedback (but in 2/3 weeks).

Cheers,

C��drick

Lets move forward in small steps. A ZIP download/extract is simple, and consistent with other platforms.

In the meantime while waiting for that to happen, you can...

1. Download/extract  http://files.pharo.org/platform/Pharo6.1-win.zip

2. Rename Pharo6.1 folder to PharoLauncher
Rename Pharo6.1.* files to PharoLauncher1.1.*

3. Metacello new
smalltalkhubUser: 'Pharo'
project: 'PharoLauncher';
configuration: 'PharoLauncher';
load.
PhLDeploymentScript doAll.
PharoLauncher open.
Smalltalk snapshot: true andQuit: true.

4. Zip up the parent folder, test on another machine and provide a link to your students.

cheers -ben

P.S. I was going to suggest also renaming Pharo.exe to PharoLauncher.exe
but with an empty Documents\Pharo\vms
I get... "Error: Cannot detect Pharo executable in C:\Temp\MyPharoLauncher\PharoLauncher"
in PhLVirtualMachine>>initializeOn: "File @ C:\Temp\MyPharoLauncher\PharoLauncher"
since "executables := aFolder allChildrenMatching: self class executableName."
is empty since "self class executableName" ==> "Pharo.exe"

It would be nice for that to not be hard coded. I tried digging further but ran out of time.
I am curious it mattered since using "Pharo.exe" the Launcher went on to download a VM anyway.

P.S.2.
I believe the best path forward for system-wide PharoLauncher installed under "C:\Program Files"
would be to install there only...
* the VM
* PharoLauncher.ZIP
* a tiny non-Pharo wrapper program as the shortcut linked from AllUsers > Start Menu > PharoLauncher
that extracts PharoLauncher.ZIP to the user's data area and then starts that user specific PharoLauncher.

Then regardless whether:
* they individually download/extract  PharoLauncher.ZIP
* the system-wide-wrapper extracts  PharoLauncher.ZIP
its a similar experience for users which should aid reliability by reducing the number of "different " use cases.