ClipArt Gallery: Cannot Create Index File

• Microsoft ClipArt Gallery
• Microsoft Fine Artist for Windows
• Microsoft Publisher versions 2.0 and 2.0a
• Microsoft Works for Windows, version 3.0
• Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to run Microsoft ClipArt Gallery from any program you may receive the following error message:

   The ClipArt Gallery cannot create an index file. You may not
   have permission to create files on this disk or you may be having
   hardware problems.

CAUSE

This error message occurs if Windows is installed and run from a root directory on a disk drive; that is if your Win.com file is located in a root directory, (virtual network connection or physical drive), as viewed from that user's workstation.

NOTE: To determine where Windows is running from, double-click the MS-DOS Prompt icon (usually found in the Main program group in Windows), type "set" (without the quotation marks) at the prompt and press ENTER. The SET command reports a list of settings including windir=, which provides your Windows location (for example, windir=C:\WINDOWS). If SET reports the Windows directory is a root directory of a disk drive (for example, windir=u:), you receive the error message described earlier.

Common causes of this error are Novell's MAP ROOT and MAP SEARCH functions, which create "virtual" drive letters. Most network software packages include similar utilities, which can cause similar errors with ClipArt Gallery.

RESOLUTION

To correct this problem, use the updated ClipArt Gallery that shipped first with PowerPoint version 4.0c for Windows. The updated ClipArt Gallery is also available as an Application Note titled "Correction to ClipArt Gallery When Running Shared Installation of Windows" (GE1031). To obtain this Application Note, the following file is available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:

 ~ Ge1031.exe (size: 124956 bytes) 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q119591
   TITLE     : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

1. If Windows was installed to a "physical" root drive, the only solution is to reinstall Windows to a directory such as Windows.

2. If Windows is run from a "virtual" root drive, change the virtual drive letter to represent the parent of that Windows directory. For example, if the root of your virtual drive Q is mapped to \\Network\Drive, Publisher Setup only sees the root designation.

   If this is the case, you must remap Q: to a directory off of the root of this drive, resulting in Q:\Drive.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in ClipArt Gallery. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Network Administrators may want to use Novell's MAP ROOT command for their user's Windows directory for security reasons. When this is done ClipArt Gallery will return the above error message.

In Novell 3.11, use the MAP ROOT command to map to a parent directory or use the MAP command to map directly to the Windows directory.

Example

For example, let's say you have a colleague named Tom Cat who has his Windows files on \\Server\Sys in \User\Cat. The following are possible mapping commands for U:

Correct:

   MAP U:=SYS:USER\CAT

    -or-

   MAP ROOT U:=SYS:USER  (NOTE: Without \CAT)

   MAP ROOT U:=SYS:USER\CAT

This is a problem with the way ClipArt Gallery interprets the result of a call to GetWindowsDir() in the Windows application programming interface (API).

NOTE: If you are using Microsoft Fine Artist and you select Word Tool, use the Shape Word tool and attempt to click "OK" you receive this message from Spike, "I’m not sure. I can’t remember my work file because I am confused." This error appears to be a reinterpretation of the Windows error message "The ClipArt Gallery cannot create an index file. You may not have permission to create files on this disk or you may be having hardware problems."