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Reference
The minimum TRIM requirements for SDK based applications
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Summary
You’ve finished your application, it uses the TRIM SDK to do some things, now what parts of TRIM should you distribute with it?
The answer is simple but the reasons are a little more complex. Every PC that has your SDK based application installed must also install TRIM Context.
Why you should install TRIM
TRIM can appear simple at a glance and some developers imagine that a few dll’s should provide what they require, they’re wrong. TRIM is a complex multi-user system, it caches data, it synchronises clients using a workgroup server, it provides tight data security, as well as complex searching and archiving. All of these things are also required by your TRIM SDK based applications.
The TrimSDK.dll is just an interface to TRIM Context. When a TRIM based application runs it is using the same code as TRIM Context. It’s worth repeating, if TRIM Context is not installed then the code that a TRIM based application uses is not there! If your using .Net then the TrimSDKPIA.dll will satisfy your TRIM references, but it’s just a .Net wrapper for COM, if you don’t have TRIM installed its COM calls have nothing to connect to.
On a second front, just say that the SDK was just a dll. Would it be fair to charge a user for its use and then deny them the ability to use the value delivered by TRIM?
The installation doesn’t just copy dll’s and exe’s onto the client machine, it also sets up TRIM’s config and creates important registry entries.
A minimum install can be obtained by doing a custom install and turning off all of the options, the .EXE’s can then be deleted. But once again, if they have TRIM why not do a full install and let them use all of it, to their and their companies advantage.