dpcjsr,
It is pretty easy to get the vbd to run. All I did was open the cab file and edited the inf so it would be sure to load everything in the order i wanted. next i zipped the file using the bat file that vbstudio places in the support folder. i uploaded the cab and all of my vbd's to my server,keeping them in samedirectory to save work, then i just but a link to the first vbd on a page. When msie begins to load the first vbd it calls on the cab. when msie downloads the cab it looks for the inf file first then loads and installs everything that it needs, sets up the dependencies and fires the program.
if you are working with just a document or two it seems to work fine. but i have been having a problem with my dependancies, since my app has a bit of pascal in it, and one of the pascal files has a dependency which i can't figure out how to map. the inf file allows you to place all of the background programs wherever you want to, but they seem to run somewhere else. i know this because i place my pascal exe in the same folder as its dependancy, but when the pascal fires, it looks for the dependancy and can't find it. Yet, when i look through my file system and fire the pascal exe by itself,(while not online)it runs just fine. then i go read from microsoft's knowledge base, (a true labyrinth of information), pull out some more hair, rewrite my inf, load it up again .. and wonder where do these things run?
vlier