Active Studio and Vista.

I'm acting as tech support for my teacher wife and downloaded Active Studio 3 for her. After about 4 hours of downloading I tried to install and found that Vista won't install some of the units. A call to Promethean resulted in being told that A.S. is not compatible with Vista but that some people had been able to get it running though he (the support guy) wasn't allowed to tell me how even if he knew. They're "working on the problem" and the solution should be released soon but no release date has been set.

Anyone any ideas? I can't install it on her old computer as that's Win 98SE and can't handle new software.... which is why I bought her this nice new laptop for her birthday!! :axe: Right now, if I had any hair left I'd be pulling it out!!

As a last resort have you tried downgrading the laptop to XP pro SP2 which will be a short term solution until the release of the Vista compatible activstudio 3.
I know this sounds drastic but if it gets you up and running what the heck.

Apparently Promethean will know more by tomorrow. Their CEO has been getting a bit uppity about the situation.

Now there's a thought.... if only I had the XP Pro disc(s)!

If all else fails I'll have to re-download it onto my laptop (XP home) and swap laptops with her 'till the upgrade arrives though I'm not sure that my laptop will have the speed to handle it..... either that or she'll have to stay with AS1 on her dinosaur.

Promethean must hate Bill Gates!

------------------------------------------

Thanks for that S. So there may be light at the end of the tunnel after all?
Not surprised their CEO is getting uppity... this must be costing them sales!

Or you could virtualPC (its free) a xp client? ;)
You have tried marking all the activstudio exe's for admin rights execution?
If that dont work try leaving admin execution on and turn sp2 compatibilty mode on.

Just a thought, have you got UAC (User Access Control) turned on. It is the prompt that you get when you want to do anything remotely administrative. It is also the bit that will only allow you to write to specific directories and registry area.

If you have it turned on, it might be worth trying to disable it and see if it will install after that. UAC might be causing Vista to get mardy!

{UPDATE: Originally, in this post, I published a work around to the Vista - ActivStudio problem. However, Promethean asked me to remove it. I have done this.

However, I do still know of a workaround. It isn't supported by Promethean in any way, and thus I and they can not be held responsible if anything was to go wrong as a result of trying the solution.

I don't think I can get away with publishing in the public domain; however, if you can think of a way of sending some sort of private message to me, then maybe I might be able to send you some private, wholly unsupported, message back. Sorry for the inconvenience}

well done sqdge :)

Wow! What service!!! I'll do my best with that tomorrow afternoon when I have some free time to explore learning curves. :lol:

This old dog CAN learn new tricks!

GOT IT!!! :lol:

I installed Activdriver4, turned off the User Access Control (both as suggested) and tried again following the Promethean install help guide that came with the download.
No luck! I kept getting a Windows request for instructions on what program to use to open the files (these are the as3a files, the ones the install help tells you to open 2nd).

After tearing out some more hair (I'm not the crispest cookie in the box) I figured that A) the install help guide probably didn't apply and B) something was missing. On looking at my download file I noticed that there was not just ONE setup file (the one referred to by the install help) but FOUR. Figuring I had nothing to lose I opened and ran them all... and Hey Presto! Thereafter the other files opened and installed like a dream, the ActivStudio icon appeared on my desktop and my Good Lady opened it up and it worked!

Fingers crossed... accepting that Promethean won't offer support and doesn't acknowledge this, Yes, you CAN run ActivStudio on VISTA!

Note: Not sure if installing Activedriver4 was needed, after all, I have no Active board connected and this laptop will only be used for creating flipcharts at home. Also not sure if turning off the User Access Control was needed.... Must remember to turn it on again!

P.S. Wife now thinks I'm wonderful. :wink: