TaxAct 2005 file problem

James E. LaBarre jamesl at bestweb.net
Tue Jan 17 12:53:55 CST 2006


As usual, this year's version of TaxAct has the same defect (or programming
screw-up) it's had for years now that prevents it from being usable under
Wine.  The app installs fine, and will start to run as if it was
sufficiently compatible with Wine.

The problem with TA is that it *always* tries to first load a default data
file (even if you give it a different filename as a command parameter), and
the default filename is "2005 Tax Return File.ta5".  It seems they are
using a faulty or non-standard method of calling the default data file, as
it will put up an error dialogue that it was unable to find it's default
file, after which it exits.

The specific message, captured by running a +msgbox debug switch is:
==================================
1729146:0009:Call kernel32.lstrlenA(7e0a2ea0 "Unable to open \"2005 Tax
Return File.ta5\".\n\nPlease verify that C:\\Apps\\TaxACT2005\\2005 Tax
Return File.ta5 exists on your hard drive, if it does not you will need to
reinstall TaxACT.") 
==================================

I have a full "WINEDEBUG=+relay,+msgbox" capture of the programme run till
failure & exit, but it's 117M uncompressed (1.4M bz2 file).  The app is
also available as a free "standard" version (in fact, that's what I'm
working with); the Deluxe version is merely an unlock code for the free
download. 
https://www.taxact.com/s_taxact/free_taxact.asp?where=Register&product_id=0
5STDW&ad=0&s=Y&sc=051200003

I had tried doing a WINEDLLOVERRIDE for shlwapi, ntdll & kernel32 (various
combinations) as these seemed to be the major dlls being loaded.  But no
success there.

Please email me if you'd like more info from the debug file, or the file
itself.  Not being a developer, I don't frequent this list (just the
wine-users list).




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