Loading updates on Windows returns “Cannot access history file…”

Installing Reality from a local file structure is known to cause this problem, although it doesn’t always fail.

When loading updates you may see this issue and get [ pdshist: ERROR Cannot access history file for Reality 15.1: Open failed ]

As per the Reality installation instructions installing Reality from a local file structure is unreliable. It should always be installed from a mounted .iso or a physical DVD. Installing from a local file structure can cause this problem.

To resolve this, from command prompt run the following commands:

pdshist

If the pdshist version is 15.0 (or if the pdshist record is not present) run this command (use cut and paste to make sure it’s correct) adding your initials as shown.

pdshist -a I -p "PDS History Tool" -v V15.1.0.0 -t PR -n name_of_updater

Now run the command

pdshist -a I -p Reality -v V15.1.0.0 -t PR -n name_of_updater

This will resolve the problem installing fixes.

The actual problem seems to be caused by InstallAnywhere losing the path to the installation folder, hence the final part of the install does not work properly.

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