"Faking" a desktop file: an application requires a registration file on the windows desktop

[David Nebauer]

Rein Klazes wrote:

>>I'm attempting to run an application (Reason!Able, from 
>>www.goreason.com) under wine that requires a registration file be placed 
>>on the Desktop.
>>
>A guess: the program searches the registry for the "Desktop" directory.
>On my system the registry key
>HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
>
>contains a subkey "Desktop" pointing to the desktop (eg. C:\Windows\Desktop).
>Try adding that to your registry.
>
>If that does not help, run wine like:
>WINEDEBUG=+reg wine ...
>
>and try to find the registry entries that your program queries.
>
>Rein.
>
Thanks for your suggestions, Rein.  The "Shell Folders" entry pointing 
to C:\Windows\Desktop was already present in my wine registry.

Your second suggestion was the most helpful.  I examined the WINEDEBUG 
output (all of it!) and managed to find a promising key: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ReasonAble101\Registration.  Obvious, 
really, in retrospect.

There were three keys in this registry 'directory': "1", "2" and "3", 
each having an associated encrypted value.

What I did was to copy the three values from a Windows install (which 
had the registration file on the desktop) into the corresponding wine 
registry keys.

When I subsequently ran the app with wine, it showed the relevant 
license details in the splash screen -> success!

It would seem the app checks the desktop on each launch.  The first time 
it finds a registration file there it writes the relevant registry 
keys.  After that, the registration file is no longer necessary.

So, what I did here was not adding a file to the desktop, but actually 
bypassing that step.  Many thanks to Rein for pointing the way to the 
solution.

Incidentally, the app still crashes after the splash screen, but this is 
unrelated to the registration file problem, which has been solved.

Thanks to all who made suggestions.

Regards,
David.