Using Avantext technical manuals over the network, part 2

In my last award-winning post, I mentioned that it's possible to coerce Avantext into accessing files over the network and deploying silently -- a feat their technical support swears is impossible (and I'm pretty sure voids any support contract). Further investigation indicates that you need to do a few more things to make this work right.

1. First, for each CD, you need to edit the .ini file to which you point in the registry so that it uses the UNC path of that directory instead of a drive letter. For instance, for disc PR0101 (Piper Dakota), you'd want to replace all references to a drive letter (say, "D:") in the ini file to the UNC path to that network folder (\\Server\AvantextShareName\PR0101). Be sure to change the entries in both the [Path] section and the [Volume] section. Because we're changing a file that comes from the stock installation, I would highly recommend making a copy and changing the copy. You can always change the .reg file to point to any .ini file you want.
2. Make sure that the Users group has Modify access to the AVViewer\dat directory in your Avantext install directory. Avantext really likes to write to that directory, in flagrant violation of the Windows development guidelines. Likewise, if your users want to use the Order functionality in Avantext, you'll need to ensure they have Modify rights to the TechPubs\Orders directory, or that your .ini files from above point to a location to which they do have access.
3. You may need two .reg files, one for 32-bit systems and one for 64-bit systems, as Avantext is a 32-bit application. Its registry keys will show up in the Wow6432Node key on a 64-bit machine.
4. When you update Avantext, make sure you don't clobber the .ini file from above, or you'll be sorry.

One interesting note is that, at least on Windows 7 x64, you get an error about a file being used by another process when you exit the Avantext viewer. You can inform your users to just respond with "Cancel" to that dialog box.