Greetings Workshop and Vista

[ColTom2]

Hi:

I have used Greetings Workshop (1996 version) since I have had it with no
prior problems with Microsoft Operating Systems, including XP Home Edition.

I installed it on my new computer which has Windows Vista and now I am
getting an error that indicates I am having trouble accessing the data base.

Apparently Greetings Workshop has been replaced with Picture It and now I
have all these cards (files) that I have created through the years that I no
longer can access. I have untold number of hours creating these files.

Does anyone have a solution to my problem with Vista where I can access my
prior files etc?

Thanks

 

[Andrew McLaren]

I have used Greetings Workshop (1996 version) since I have had it with no
prior problems with Microsoft Operating Systems, including XP Home
Edition.
I installed it on my new computer which has Windows Vista and now I am
getting an error that indicates I am having trouble accessing the data
base.

You may be able to get Greeting Workshop running, by setting the
Compatibility for the program.

Right-click the "Greetings Workshop" icon in Start Menu.
Choose Properties, from the context menu.
Select the Compatibility tab.
Under Comptibility Mode, check the checkbox, and select Windows 95 from the
Drop-down list.
Click OK.
Now run it and see it it works.

If it continues to fail, you may need to run it "as Administrator". Likely
the database is stored under the "C:\Program Files" directory, instead of
under the User's own profile. This was permissible back in 1996 (although,
not a good practice even then); but in Vista, reading and writing to files
under C:\Program Files is prohibited for Standard users. But an
Administrator can usually do it.

To enable administrative access, go back to the Comptability tab above, and
check the checkbox marked "Run as Administrator". Hit OK. You will need to
give teh Administrator's consent, every time you run the app - but, at least
it will run.

Other folks might have extra ideas for you; hope this helps a bit.

 

[ColTom2]

Hi Andrew:

Thanks so much for your reply and I have passed it on to the friend of
mine that has this problem. Hopefully your instructions will resolve his
problem. (I made the posting for him.)

I will advise accordingly.

ColTom2

 

[John Inzer]

Hi:

I have used Greetings Workshop (1996 version) since I have had it
with no prior problems with Microsoft Operating Systems, including XP
Home Edition.
I installed it on my new computer which has Windows Vista and now I
am getting an error that indicates I am having trouble accessing the
data base.
Apparently Greetings Workshop has been replaced with Picture It and
now I have all these cards (files) that I have created through the
years that I no longer can access. I have untold number of hours
creating these files.
Does anyone have a solution to my problem with Vista where I can
access my prior files etc?

Thanks

========================================
There's a slim possibility that you may be able
to run Greetings if you right click the executable
(desktop shortcut) and from the menu...choose...
Properties / Compatibility tab.

Check the box..."Run As Administrator" /
Apply / OK.

Try to open the program.....good luck...

In case you cannot run Greetings on your Vista
machine...maybe the following info will be useful.

Greetings 2000 is the oldest version I have but
it saves projects in the .php format...I suspect the
older version does the same.

The latest version of Microsoft Digital Image will
open and allow the editing of .php files. If you
would like to experiment...there's a 60 day trial
version available for download:

Microsoft Digital Image
Starter Edition 2006
http://tinyurl.com/28loxr
(this product line has been
discontinued but you can still
down-load the Starter Version
and run it for 60 days)

The last version of Digital Image is called:
"Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Anniversary
Edition" and it is optimized for Vista. Even though
the product line has been discontinued...you
may find some retailers who still have copies in
stock. Amazon and/or eBay might be possible
sources.

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[ColTom2]

Hi Andrew:

My friend tried your recommendations and could not get Greetings Workshop
to work. Thanks for you input.

ColTom2

Hi Andrew:

Thanks so much for your reply and I have passed it on to the friend of
mine that has this problem. Hopefully your instructions will resolve his
problem. (I made the posting for him.)

I will advise accordingly.

ColTom2

 

[ColTom2]

Hi John:

Thanks so much for your input or "slim possibility" as you put it, but it
did not work.

ColTom2

 

[Andrew McLaren]

My friend tried your recommendations and could not get Greetings Workshop
to work. Thanks for you input.

Hi ColTom2,

Sorry those suggestions didn't help :-(

Looking around for info on Greetings Workshop, it seems many people had
problems running it on XP, let alone Vista. So your friend was kind of
lucky, to keep it running this long.

I have a few ideas which might, or might not, be useful:

1) The error message may be related to the Greeting Workshop Reminders. This
is a feature of Greetings Workshop which displays reminder messages about
birthdays etc. It's a very non-essential feature of the program and can be
disabled. With Reminders not running, the rest of the app might run okay.
There may be some way to disable Reminders during setup, I'm not sure. But
it is run from a shortcut in the Public Startup folder of the Start menu:

Greetings Workshop Reminders.lnk = C:\Program Files\Greetings
Workshop\GWREMIND.EXE

Look for a file called "Greetings Workshop Reminders" in the Start menu and
move it to another location eg the Desktop. This will stop it from being
automatically launched when you log in.

2) You could try asking in the newsgroup "microsoft.public.pictureit".
Because Greetings Workshop and PictureIt are closely related, there may be
many more users there with experience of Greetings Workshop (it's a pretty
little-known application, in the scheme of things).

3) If you are totally stuck, you can keep an XP or Windows 95 machine
running in "Virtual PC". This is a free add-on for Vista which you can
download from Microsoft.com. It lets you run a whole, "virtual" PC in
software, in a window, on your Vista desktop. You can install an earlier
version of Windows into the Virtual PC, so that you would have a complete
Windows 95 (for example) running in a Window, on your Vista machine. You can
then install Greetings Workshop into the Windows 95 Virtual PC, and run it
there. As far as Greeting Workshop knows, it's running on a plain, ordinary
Windows 95 machine! So it should have no problems. You can print from the
Virtual PC to a printer attached to your Vista machine, etc. This would at
least allow you to access your existing data and migrate it across to a
current application (or just run it in a Virtual machine, in perpetuity).
Virtual PC 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

Virtual PC isn't too difficult to use;, may be slightly uphill for the basic
home user but not insurmountable, by any stretch. Note that the Virtual PC
download only gives you virtual PC hardware - you still need a Windows 95,
98, Me, 2000, or XP CD-ROM to install an operating system into the VM.

Good luck with it,

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Oh I forgot to add (not that it helps any, but ...) Microsoft ended formal
support for Greetings Workshop back in 2002:

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=1933
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=1934

so there's no avenue for support from Microsoft. Sorry.

 

[ColTom2]

Hi Andrew:

Thanks again for all your input and I will pass your latest on to my
friend. He wrote Microsoft about this problem and of course got back the
"Catch 22" reply.

Apparently Microsoft or any other software company does not really realize
the work associated when they phase out software that so many people have
hours and hours of related time spent with their prior programs.

I think in the end of course it's all about the dollar and selling newer
applications....

Thanks again,

ColTom2