Archived Forum PostQuestion:
HFW-4.91.1-PS3UPDAT.PUP, then, is more than a patch: it’s a mirror. It reflects our assumptions about control, our tolerance for opaque authority, and our readiness to let machines evolve without us. Every time we press “Accept,” we consent not only to a technical change but to a small shift in the balance between human intention and automated consequence. And every time we keep the old version, we claim the right to remain a deliberate steward of our digital past.
They called it a patch file: HFW-4.91.1-PS3UPDAT.PUP. On hard drives and torrent lists it looked like a sterile sequence of characters, a small creature of code meant to slither into silicon and change the behavior of a machine. But like any update, it was more than bytes and checksums — it was a decision crystallized into distribution. HFW-4.91.1-PS3UPDAT.PUP
There’s a peculiar intimacy in updates. Unlike a new console, which arrives with visible distinctions, a firmware file insinuates itself behind a screen, reshaping behavior without ceremony. The update doesn’t ask for applause; it requests trust. Accepting HFW-4.91.1 was a small surrender of agency — a nod that you trusted an opaque chain of engineers and servers to decide how your machine should behave next. Declining it was a different kind of assertion: a stubbornness to remain the curator of one’s own technology, to keep the artifacts as they were. And every time we keep the old version,
HFW-4.91.1 promised “improvements.” The phrase is neutral, mechanically reassuring — but improvements for whom? The system, yes, but also the platform’s architect, the company balancing user experience with long-term strategy. And the user: some would welcome faster boot times and patched vulnerabilities; others would fear changes that blurred the line between device as tool and device as persistent service. But like any update, it was more than
The problem is with the "dependency". The only dependency is the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012. The Chilkat .NET assembly is a mixed-mode assembly, where the inner core is written in C++ and compiles to native code. There is a dependency on the VC++ runtime libs. Given that Visual Studio 2012 is new, it won't be already on most computers. Therefore, it needs to be installed. It can be downloaded from Microsoft here:
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012
If using a .msi install for your app, it should also be possible to include the redist as a merge-module, so that it's automatically installed w/ your app if needed.
Note: Each version of Visual Studio corresponded to a new .NET Framework release:
VS2002 - .NET 1.0 2003 - .NET 1.1 2005 - .NET 2.0 2008 - .NET 3.5 2010 - .NET 4.0 2012 - .NET 4.5The ChilkatDotNet45.dll is for the .NET 4.5 Framework, and therefore needs the VC++ 2012 runtime to be present on the computer.
Likewise, the ChilkatDotNet4.dll is for the 4.0 Framework and needs the VC++ 2010 runtime.
The ChilkatDotNet2.dll is for the 2.0/3.5 Frameworks and requires the VC++ 2005 runtime. (It is unlikely you'll find a computer that doesn't already have the VC++ 2005 runtime already installed.)