The VakantieBlaadjes application will not run properly under XP or Vista

The issue
You start the applicaton but are unable to enter the name of the child.

The startup screen appears as follows:

 instead of  

Cause
The application has a hard coded link to the file c:\spelers.dat, if it cannot write this file then the application starts but you cannot enter the name of children (see picture above). This is an issue on XP/Vista if you are not running the program with administrator rights (which is a bad idea).

Solutions
A number of solutions present themselves:

1. Change the filename embedded in the application .exe from c:\spelers.dat to .\spelers.dat
2. Or, run the program with administrator privileges (bad idea).

Here are the changes to make the VakantieBlaadjes application work under a non-admin account on Windows XP or Vista.

1. Copy the contents of the VakantieBlaadjes CD to a directory like My Documents\VakantieBlaadjes
2. Edit the .exe file as follows, using winhex (www.winhex.com) or any other hex editor.
   
   

• vbb3naar4.exe: change the unicode string starting at offset 0001ca54 (hex) from:
  
  

  0001ca54h: 63 00 3A 00 5C 00 73 00 70 00 65 00 6C 00 65 00 ; c.:.\.s.p.e.l.e.
  0001ca54h: 72 00 73 00 2E 00 64 00 61 00 74 00 00 00       ; r.s...d.a.t...
  

  to:

  0001ca54h: 2E 00 5C 00 73 00 70 00 65 00 6C 00 65 00 72 00 ; ..\.s.p.e.l.e.r.
  0001ca54h: 73 00 2E 00 64 00 61 00 74 00 00 00 00 00       ; s...d.a.t.....
  

  and then save the file.
  
  The changes can be seen in the picture below, the hexdump on the left is the changed version, the one on the right is the original:
  
  
  
• For VB4naar5.exe: change the unicode string starting at offset 00021574 (hex)from:
  
  

  00021574h: 63 00 3A 00 5C 00 73 00 70 00 65 00 6C 00 65 00 ; c.:.\.s.p.e.l.e.
  00021584h: 72 00 73 00 2E 00 64 00 61 00 74 00 00 00       ; r.s...d.a.t...
  

  to:

  00021574h: 2E 00 5C 00 73 00 70 00 65 00 6C 00 65 00 72 00 ; ..\.s.p.e.l.e.r.
  00021584h: 73 00 2E 00 64 00 61 00 74 00 00 00 00 00       ; s...d.a.t.....
  

  and then save the file.
  
  The changes can be seen in the picture below, the hexdump on the left is the changed version, the one on the right is the original:
  
  
  
• For other versions of the VakantieBlaadjes the same principle applies, only the offset will differ.
  If you do not want to make this change yourself then ZIP the .exe file from the CD and send it to vakantieblaadjes [at] eazimail.com
  

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