Brand new to Vista

[Mike E]

Hello,

I have been given really super Sony VAIO notebook
for Christmas by my friends!
I have used Windows 98 se till now, on a miserably
slow dialup; but they also gave me a year's wireless!

So, this is Vista Home premium. I have tried installing
a couple graphics programs from Windows 98.
When I run them, Vista is telling me:

"System error accessing registry. Make sure you have
registry modification privileges on this computer."

I am and will be the sole user of this computer.
I'm supposing that I need to change something about
my status, from a user to administrator. I don't yet
know how to do this. The system comes up and I
proceed, but apparently in a guest capacity.

Can anyone advise me?

Thank you,
Mike

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hello,

I have been given really super Sony VAIO notebook
for Christmas by my friends!
I have used Windows 98 se till now, on a miserably
slow dialup; but they also gave me a year's wireless!

So, this is Vista Home premium. I have tried installing
a couple graphics programs from Windows 98.
When I run them, Vista is telling me:

"System error accessing registry. Make sure you have
registry modification privileges on this computer."

I am and will be the sole user of this computer.
I'm supposing that I need to change something about
my status, from a user to administrator. I don't yet
know how to do this. The system comes up and I
proceed, but apparently in a guest capacity.

Can anyone advise me?

Thank you,
Mike

A hint at the name of the graphics programs would be good..

 

[John Barnett MVP]

The applications you are using on Windows 98 may not be compatible with
Vista, after all Windows 98 is a rather ancient operating system by today's
standards. I'd check to see if the software manufacture has a Vista
compatible version of the software you are using. Even running in
compatibility mode may not help the situation if the graphics software is
that old. Vista, as you will find out soon enough, I a whole new all game
compared to Windows 98.

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[John Waller]

So, this is Vista Home premium. I have tried installing

a couple graphics programs from Windows 98.

Which programs?

Do they support Vista?

 

[Richard in AZ]

First go to the Control Panel, Users, and check if you have Administrative privileges with your
logon.
Sony was most likely setup with a "user" or "owner" account and a "guest" account.
Let us know what your status is for more help.

 

[David Sanders]

Hello,

I have been given really super Sony VAIO notebook
for Christmas by my friends!
I have used Windows 98 se till now, on a miserably
slow dialup; but they also gave me a year's wireless!

So, this is Vista Home premium. I have tried installing
a couple graphics programs from Windows 98.
When I run them, Vista is telling me:

"System error accessing registry. Make sure you have
registry modification privileges on this computer."

I am and will be the sole user of this computer.
I'm supposing that I need to change something about
my status, from a user to administrator. I don't yet
know how to do this. The system comes up and I
proceed, but apparently in a guest capacity.

Can anyone advise me?

Thank you,
Mike

Did you install these programs from the original CDs using a setup.exe

 

[Mike E]

Hello,

I have been given really super Sony VAIO notebook
for Christmas by my friends!
I have used Windows 98 se till now, on a miserably
slow dialup; but they also gave me a year's wireless!

So, this is Vista Home premium. I have tried installing
a couple graphics programs from Windows 98.
When I run them, Vista is telling me:

"System error accessing registry. Make sure you have
registry modification privileges on this computer."

I am and will be the sole user of this computer.
I'm supposing that I need to change something about
my status, from a user to administrator. I don't yet
know how to do this. The system comes up and I
proceed, but apparently in a guest capacity.

Can anyone advise me?

Thank you,
Mike

Thank you all.
The two programs are Paint Shop Pro 4.12 (ancient shareware)
and one I registered and bought, Firehand Ember - a thumbnail
viewer and editor.
Apparently these put values into the registry, and I admit that the
registry is a very technical issue. It just seems that the same action
should be possible in Vista. I will check my status as you advised,
and come back.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Thank you all.
The two programs are Paint Shop Pro 4.12 (ancient shareware)
and one I registered and bought, Firehand Ember - a thumbnail
viewer and editor.
Apparently these put values into the registry, and I admit that the
registry is a very technical issue. It just seems that the same action
should be possible in Vista. I will check my status as you advised,
and come back.

Mike

PSP is up to version X2 (12) now. Version 4.12 was originally released for
Win 95 and it most likely won't work at all. Consider trying the trial
version of X2.

In place of Firehand Ember, you could try Faststone Image Viewer 4.3 which
is free for personal use and it works in Vista.. http://www.faststone.org/

 

[Lang Murphy]

Hello,

I have been given really super Sony VAIO notebook
for Christmas by my friends!
I have used Windows 98 se till now, on a miserably
slow dialup; but they also gave me a year's wireless!

So, this is Vista Home premium. I have tried installing
a couple graphics programs from Windows 98.
When I run them, Vista is telling me:

"System error accessing registry. Make sure you have
registry modification privileges on this computer."

I am and will be the sole user of this computer.
I'm supposing that I need to change something about
my status, from a user to administrator. I don't yet
know how to do this. The system comes up and I
proceed, but apparently in a guest capacity.

Can anyone advise me?

Thank you,
Mike

Have you tried running them as administrator? Right click on the app's icon
and select Run as administrator. If that doesn't work, you might try
uninstalling them and reinstalling them by right-clicking on the install exe
icon and run -the install- as administrator. This assumes that your acct is
already an administrator or you've added yourself to the admin group and the
apps still don't work. Sometimes one must invoke the Run as administrator
command even if one is in the admin group... because the admin group's
priviledges are limited.

I've installed a few Win95 era apps and they all worked. One would error
when I quit it, but it would create and save it's documents before it blew
up. That's not to say your Win95 era apps could or can work... just that
there -are- apps from that era that run on Vista without issue.

Lang

Lang

 

[Mike E]

Have you tried running them as administrator? Right click on the app's icon
and select Run as administrator. If that doesn't work, you might try
uninstalling them and reinstalling them by right-clicking on the install exe
icon and run -the install- as administrator. This assumes that your acct is
already an administrator or you've added yourself to the admin group and the
apps still don't work. Sometimes one must invoke the Run as administrator
command even if one is in the admin group... because the admin group's
priviledges are limited.

I've installed a few Win95 era apps and they all worked. One would error
when I quit it, but it would create and save it's documents before it blew
up. That's not to say your Win95 era apps could or can work... just that
there -are- apps from that era that run on Vista without issue.

Lang

Lang

Thank you very much, to all, and to you, Lang. It worked! The apps
start up normally without a system error now, and run fine. I'm always
glad to find the one with the "magic words"! Many blessings to you.
Mike

 

[Steve Thackery]

To be honest, though, Mike, you are always treading on thin ice when you run
software which is not Vista-compatible. For security reasons, Vista is MUCH
more fussy about what it will let run. Lots of earlier software was badly
written (i.e. it ignored the Microsoft guidelines) but the operating systems
up to and including XP were pretty tolerant and ran them anyway.

After the massive hoo-hah about how insecure XP and its predecessors were,
Microsoft decided to enforce the programming guidelines much more
rigorously.

In fact I applaud this approach, and if you use Vista-compatible software
there are really no problems.

There are plenty of Vista-compatible programs which would be suitable
replacements for the ones you are currently using, as pointed out in this
thread.

Welcome to the world of Vista! I, and many others here, think it's great.
Don't be put off by the trolls with loud voices, tiny intellects and
self-esteem issues who loiter around this place.

SteveT

 

[Lang Murphy]

Thank you very much, to all, and to you, Lang. It worked! The apps
start up normally without a system error now, and run fine. I'm always
glad to find the one with the "magic words"! Many blessings to you.
Mike

Mike,

Glad to help!

Lang