> I assume they are paying for your services? Either as a consultant or as an employee of the same company? If so, then surely it is you (or your staff) who will carry out the install.

I can see that I did not give an adequate picture of my situation (and product). I'm so sorry to have made you guess, and I'm just as thankful that you had the courtesy to give such an elegant answer in spite of my poor question.

My customers are insurance agents who are independent business owners. They typically do not have an IT department, although some hire a local tech as needed. When agents buy my product, they either download the installation program or install from a CD that we ship (we ship one even if they download). Since many of our customers are located thousands of miles from us, it would be a very rare occasion where our company would actually install the software for them. Naturally, we have had to create a pretty smart installation program that, based on user interaction, will install 1: the program and Access database (stand-alone or peer-to-peer server), or 2: the program only, and then prompt for the data path via a separate app we distribute. We've been doing this for 15+ years, and it is rare for us to do anything beyond answering an occasional question. Of course, we do have a detailed user manual with step-by-step instructions, including screen images.

> Access is desktop and almost a database. Firebird can be desktop, but is usually client/server. There is a huge difference.

Viva la difference (sorry French is not my language). Actually, we've used the Access back-end for over 15 years. I'm very familiar with its strengths and weaknesses. At first our users were small offices with few users. In the past few years that has changed, and our customers are becoming larger offices, some who have remote satellite offices. Access has been very good to us, but we've simply outgrown it.

> Simple, do not allow any inexperienced users anywhere near the
> installation!

Obviously, I was unclear about this as well. I really mean simple for the end user, not simple for me to create.

> Ok, there are two scenarios, client/server and desktop (or mbedded).

Embedded is not suitable for my app. Multiple users must have simultaneous access to the same data.

> Assuming client/server then all bets are off and you most certainly should not allow inexperienced IT users to install and configure the system. This is your job.
>
> Your installer would install the application and the FB client files on the desktops. On the server where the database is to reside, you will install and configure it. You will be responsible for setting up security procedures and backups, maintenance slots etc.

You make MS SQL (express) sound pretty attractive:-) Seriously, I envision the installation program asking enough questions so that the setup program can supply the necessary command-line arguments when it launches the Firebird install. I think the real meat of my question is, can that be done, or do I need to create my own Firebird install instead of using the Firebird setup out-of-the-box.

>None of the end users should be allowed anywhere near this database except via your application.

I suppose my original question was so that I can make my application do all of what you describe, above, and not have the end user execute the "stock" Firebird install. BTW, I consider the installation to be part of my application. As such, it should be just as intuitive as the application itself.

I fancy myself as being pretty good at designing user interfaces that can minimize user errors. I've been programming since the 60's and have adopted the position that computer should work for people, people should not have to work for computers. The people I'm talking about are the end users. Naturally, that means the guy programming the computer (in this case, me) needs to expend a good deal of effort so that the end user doesn't need to. I guess that's the real stimulus for my original question.

Norman, I'm so glad to have your input because it tells me that I really need to be on my toes as I design. Clearly you have more experience with Firebird than I do, so your cautions are greatly appreciated.