Knowledgebase

20110406-1 -  What Error 193 Means and How to Recover from it
April 06, 2011

Error 193 is a fairly generic error code defined by Microsoft which means "attempting to run invalid program."

In rare circumstances, this might mean that a program file got corrupted, or a virus checker somehow intervened in the execution of program.

However, in the context of installing ERDAS Desktop Products, the problem almost always happens because the chosen installation path did not meet the 8dot3 requirement. Once you encounter this Error 193, you must:

1. search and remove choke files, which were the "invalid programs" that the installer tried to run, and
2. choose a strategy to comply with the 8dot3 requirement

Where to Look for Choke Files

To test for choke files, you will need to examine every folder in your installation that contains a space.  Choke files don't actually live in these folders, but instead get created as siblings to them (see examples below). Using the default installation paths suggested by the installers, choke files can appear in up to three places.

• "C:\Program Files" (for 32-bit Operating Systems only),
• "Leica Geosystems" (for versions 9.2 and before), and
• "ERDAS Desktop 201x" or "Geospatial Imaging 9.x"

Test for Choke File for "C:\Program Files"

To check for choke file correlated to "c:\Program Files", run the following command:

dir /x c:\Program*

Favorable result

If the output is as follows, the "Program Files" folder is clear

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>dir /x c:\Program*

 Volume in drive C has no label.

 Volume Serial Number is F0A4-DADA

 Directory of c:\

03/29/2011  11:33 AM    <DIR>          PROGRA~1     Program Files

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

               1 Dir(s)  76,963,344,384 bytes free

Unfavorable result and correction

If instead, you see this output:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>dir /x c:\Program*

 Volume in drive C has no label.

 Volume Serial Number is F0A4-DADA

 Directory of c:\

04/01/2011  08:54 AM                 0              Program

03/29/2011  11:33 AM    <DIR>                       Program Files

               1 File(s)              0 bytes

               1 Dir(s)  76,963,401,728 bytes free

You can see that there is a choke file called C:\Program, and that the "Program Files" folder has no suitable shortcut like "PROGRA~1". This is the most undesirable scenario, because "C:\Program Files" will never be suitable for installing ERDAS applications – it does not have the required 8dot3 alternative. To resolve this Error 193, you will need to:

1. Delete the choke file C:\Program
2. Search other folders for choke files
3. Install into an alternative path with no spaces at all, such as "C:\ERDAS\ERDAS_Desktop_2010"

Test for Choke File for "ERDAS Desktop 2011" folder

To see if a choke file was created for this folder, you need to run one of these commands:

On a 32-bit system:

dir /x "c:\Program Files\ERDAS\ERDAS*"

On a 64-bit system:

dir /x "c:\ERDAS\ERDAS*"

Favorable result (32-bit OS)

If the output is as follows, the "ERDAS Desktop 2011" folder is clear

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>dir /x "c:\Program Files\ERDAS\ERDAS*"

 Volume in drive C has no label.

 Volume Serial Number is F0A4-DADA

 Directory of c:\Program Files\ERDAS

03/29/2011  12:07 PM    <DIR>          ERDASD~1     ERDAS Desktop 2011

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

               1 Dir(s)  76,963,336,192 bytes free

No choke file exists, and the "ERDASD~1" alternative name is available.

Unfavorable result (32-bit OS)

If instead, you see output like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>dir /x "c:\Program Files\ERDAS\ERDAS*"

 Volume in drive C has no label.

 Volume Serial Number is F0A4-DADA

 Directory of c:\Program Files\ERDAS

04/01/2011  09:15 AM                 0              ERDAS

07/04/2010  08:10 AM    <DIR>          ERDASD~1     ERDAS Desktop 2010

03/29/2011  12:07 PM    <DIR>                       ERDAS Desktop 2011

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

               2 Dir(s)  76,963,336,192 bytes free

You can see that there is a choke file called "C:\Program Files\ERDAS\ERDAS", and that while the "ERDAS Desktop 2010" folder has the necessary 8dot3 shortcut, there is no "ERDASD~2" alternative name for "ERDAS Desktop 2011". This would happen if the 8dot3 security setting had been set sometime after you had installed the 2010 products.

1. Delete the choke file "C:\Program Files\ERDAS\ERDAS"
2. Select a Resolution Strategy to address the 8dot3 problem which caused the choke file to be created.

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