2 replies to this topic

[JustinCase1089]

Hi

If you have a company that has a series of different products that share some binaries. Is there a purpose in using the common files folder at all? Why not just dump everything in the same folder in program files saving me a path variable when dll's need to be used by the applications in the program files folder? Does it say anywhere anything about best practice for the use of common files?

Best Regards
Justin Case

[KathyMorey]

We have several products that we put in the same Program Files folder, including the files in common among them. We also have a product or two that gets installed elsewhere, but shares one or two files with the majority. Those shared files we put in a Program Files\Common Files subfolder.

In my opinion, it depends on the usage of the files, and in the scenario you outline, I see nothing wrong in putting the common dlls with the other executables, so long as those files are always compatible with all the applications that may be installed there.

[Stefan Krueger]

Scenarios where you may want only one copy of the file on the machine might be:
- the file is very large or used by many products (to reduce disk space)
- it's a COM server that gets registered (to avoid that registry might point to an older version in another folder)