Software Installation scripts

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I'm wondering if someone could direct me to a tutorial on software installation.
I'd like to learn how to make VB installer check whether some software or files that may be necessary to run an app exist on a target machine and then install them or update them if my supplied files are newer versions.
For instance, I made an app in VB6 that uses an Access database and connects using jet. I get a message stating that, for my app to work on a machine running Windows98, DCOM 98 must be installed.
Currently, I just include the file and tell users to install it if they meet the criteria. This doesn't seem professional and I'm reasonably sure there's a way to script an install sequence to take care of that for me. I'd like to learn a whole bunch of other things like manipulating registry entries etc., but for now just file installs is cool.
TIA
Tim Garrison

[iamien]

Hmm i dont know VB but i do know Delphi
The way i would do it is that i would have it read the registry and go to where Dcom is located, check if it exists and if so what version it is.
After that just take apropriate action

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Hence my need to learn the method for doing this
Thanks

[Kodo]

maybe this might help
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/WinUI/WindowsUserInterface/Resources/VersionInformation/VersionInformationReference/VersionInformationFunctions/GetFileVersionInfo.asp

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Somewhere I need to find an example using get version info to make an exe run when my installer runs based on the returned values. I searched the msdn the other day and didn't find that page so I really appreciate the link. :-)
Microsoft seems to assume that everyone reading through, is already knowledgeable on what to do. I suppose that's the correct thing to do.
For all I know, I might just need to include the exe in the project and write those code strings. Or just include the file and installer sdk will know what to do on it's own (but I doubt that last bit)
If I could only afford to build a machine with multiple OS to use as a target that would be cool.
Thanks again