a question for the techies out there.
the PCs at my work run XP SP1 and we're not allowed to upgrade, patch or otherwise mess with them. any chance i could make the latest DF release run on such a machine?
From someone who is techy but otherwise not technically conversant with the internals of DF, I suspect that the apparently self-contained nature of the DF directory should work Ok as long as there isn't some sort of dependency in the redistributable that has had its compatibility with SP1 broken. (Or was never working, having been introduced since post-SP1 setups were being broadly assumed.)
Really, this is just a placeholder reply, as someone else will probably know for certain. Alternately, try it yourself. If it works, it works. Put it on a memory stick and see if it runs from that. Might be a bit slower than on the HDD, but if you've got the sort of lockdown on systems that (while allowing sticks) has a fit when any new executables are being copied to them this could still work. (A peculiarly mixed set of paranoia levels, I agree, but I've worked with (and at creating) locked-down systems made to stranger specifications, from either inexpert committees or BOFHs with an off-the-wall sense of humour, so as long as you've got
some access to run the thing I think I've covered the worst-case scenario.
)
But I would suggest that you look to the newest version (v0.31.17, as I type) and post on that thread, anyway. Unless you know for certain that there's a ServicePack requirement that changed in recent updates. (Not something I've noted being mentioned, but who knows...)