Partition question / program problem.

[Guest]

Hello all,

I have a new Vista (Home Premium) laptop and Office 2007 -- and I just
discovered this incompatible with my important ACT! program. ACT runs well
enough, but (1) won't word process, as it doesn't recognize Word '07, and (2)
won't email, as it doesn't recognize Outlook '07 -- with an inability for me
to put in Outlook '02, or Outlook Express, as I believe these uses would step
on each other.

These two functions are the heart of my need for ACT, writing letters and
email to client database -- and this is probably the single most important
use of my computer; so I have a bit of a problem. Upgrading ACT is not an
option as (1) nothing yet is written for Vista, and worse (2) the reviews on
the new ACT program are devastating, and most everyone highly recommends
staying away from it.

My question concerns partitions -- and perhaps, simply enough, a separate
"user" under Vista. Might these things be a work-around? One possibility that
I wonder about is to do a partition on my hard disk (100 G, RAID for
stripe/speed).. Perhaps to put in an XP OS with Word and Outlook '02. All
this would work, although I think it would be a bit cumbersome to log out of
one OS into another, just to do these functions. (As a secondary question, as
I seem to read in the posts, is it possible to access a second partition
right from the one user? Perhaps simply as reading the programs off of D:
instead of C:?)

A second question as possible work-around is, can I simply define a second
user? I.e., is it possible to load Office and Word '02 on User2, such that it
doesn't step on C:'s '07, and then use it from there? I couldn't figure out a
way to have Office '07 show up in User1, but not User2 -- and frankly was
afraid to load '02 into User2 until I understood the implications/problem
areas.

Can anyone suggest for me a good workaround? And if both work, can you
suggest what you feel is best, in terms of not having to switch users, etc.,
every time I want to use that program.

My goal is (1) get the program working; and then (2) get it conveniently
working. More important for me to simply get functional.

Thanks so much,
Don

 

[NiBium]

Have you thought about virtualisation?
I'm not that familiar with Virtual PC, but it would make sense to start up a
new instance, running XP say with your previous versions of Office and
Outlook, from within a Vista environment if you're just going to use it for
something specific. I won't say I know much about the whole process. Virtual
PC 2005 is free, though I would anticipate that the licensing might be a bit
weird, but it seems like a viable alternative to all this partitioning and
user switching malarkey.
Hope this helps,
NiBium

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2007 3:09 AM
Subject: Partition question / program problem.

 

[Guest]

another work around might be to instigate a xp capability work around. I
don't have time to explain, but, are you aware that you can run it as an xp
program. Right click on Act, when the context menu opens choose properties,
under the capabilities tab tell it to run with the xp perameters.

good luck

 

[Jonathan M. \TacticalSniper\ Boyko]

Meaning right-click on the ACT! shortcut, go to Compatibility tap, click on
the checkbox of "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select
WindowsXP SP2.

 

[Guest]

Thanks RP and Jonathan. Yes, I have it set to run in XP mode. The problem
with this specific program is that it's not yet written with a hotfix to
recognize Office 07. So the ACT program runs great, but it's email and word
processing modules don't run, as every time it tries to turn on, it finds
Office 07 and gets 'confused.'

I believe I have no alternative but a solution where I can run Office 02
alongside 07. The problem is that both of them use the same file name, so I
can't install them on the same 'machine'. I am going to look into NiBium's
Virtual PC suggestion, as that seems to be a good shot for me to pursue at
this point. Thanks for the suggestions.

D

 

[Guest]

Wow; thanks NiBium. I had seen that download somewhere on MS's site, but
never thought about it for this situation. That's a great idea. I also don't
know much about it; but I am sure going to investigate it. I agree that it
would be a much more elegant solution -- especially if I can run it from
current user -- than partitioning, etc.

I just absolutely need to get this software running.

Thanks much.
-D

 

[Lang Murphy]

Wow; thanks NiBium. I had seen that download somewhere on MS's site, but
never thought about it for this situation. That's a great idea. I also
don't
know much about it; but I am sure going to investigate it. I agree that it
would be a much more elegant solution -- especially if I can run it from
current user -- than partitioning, etc.

I just absolutely need to get this software running.

Thanks much.
-D

You'll need to have a copy of XP to install in Virtual PC. And the downlevel
version of Office that works with ACT! but it sounds like you've got that
covered.

Lang

 

[Jonathan M. \TacticalSniper\ Boyko]

Why can't you install both Office 2002/3 and 2007 at the same time again?
What is the "same file name" you're referring to? I didn't do it for a
while, but some time back I had two Offices installed and it worked just
fine.... As long as you install them in different folders.

--

«Kono kuni wa mada, hontô no hero wo shiranai»

TacticalSniper
http://tacticalsniper.blogspot.com/