Fw: [Dxbase] Vista and DXB Help

Sat Jan 12 12:38:34 EST 2008

Rick,

Not sure I've done anything that could be considered "break-away" for 
installing DXB under Vista.  Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good! 
And, my install is DXB2006, not 2007.  However I'm sure 2007 would work as 
well.  OK, here's the drill I followed:

1.  First back up everything!  All mdb files, ref files, CO files, etc.  I 
copied the whole DXBase program folder and all it's subdirectories to a USB 
flash drive.  If you have made any modifications to Labels or Reports since 
installing the program be sure to get those folders otherwise you may lose 
your updates in the transition.
2.  Locate your DXBase2006/2007 installation package.  In my case I 
apparently downloaded the program over the Internet as I couldn't find a CD, 
but did find a dxb2006.zip file in my DXBase folder.  This is the file 
containing the setup.exe needed to install DXB.
3.  Also locate your registration file.  Again, mine was in my DXBase folder 
as al9a.zip.  It contains a single file, al9a.reg.  If your install program 
is on a CD the reg file is probably there.
4.  If you connect to a DX cluster in DXB you need to find your Hosts file 
and copy it to your flash drive.  My old laptop was running under XP SP2 and 
the Hosts file was in the C:\Windows folder.
5.  Create an Administrator account in Vista.  This is essential to get full 
access to all tasks needed under Vista, such as install, copy, etc.
6.  When I purchased my new PC I also bought Belkin's Easy Transfer Cable 
for Windows Vista.  The cable came with a CD to install on an XP SP2 machine 
to do file transfers from old to new.  If you have a local network you may 
be able to transfer files via that method.  Otherwise, you'll have to burn a 
lot of CD's or do a lot of flash drive transfers.
7.  Shut down all open programs.  Unzip the registration file and double 
click to run it.  It will install your registration code in the registry. 
Actually you can run this file either before or after the DXB program 
install.  If you don't install the reg file DXB will only run in demo mode - 
no print capability.
8.  Unzip and run the DXB setup.exe file.  I experienced no glitches or 
warnings at all during the install process.
Restart the computer.
9.  Use Explorer to examine the program folder at C:\Program 
Files\Scientific Solutions\DXB2006 (or 2007).  Check to see if things look 
"OK".
10.  Transfer all your files from the other machine or your data CD or flash 
drive.  In my case I used the Windows Easy Transfer with the Belkin cable, 
but not all files made the trip for some reason.  I then copied all the 
files from the flash drive to the program folder.  I chose to step through 
the files one by one instead of doing a global replace.  This allowed my to 
verify that the files I was replacing were newer versions.
11.  Use Explorer to Check C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc to see if your 
Hosts file is there.  Mine wasn't!  Instead I found a file named 
Hosts.dxb26.bak.  This was an original Hosts file in Vista that the DXB 
install renamed instead of over writing the file.  Problem was the install 
did not put the replacement Hosts file in this location.  I suspect the 
DXB2006 install tried to put it in the C:\Windows folder and Vista wouldn't 
let it.  I then copied my Hosts file from the flash drive to the right 
location.
12.  Go to the DXB program group under the Start menu and run the DXB Driver 
Setup utility.  This program is supposed to configure your ports and install 
two drivers needed to run CW from DXB.  Due the the age of my program the 
various Windows program choices stopped at XP.  I used that one in the hope 
that it would work.
13.  Cross your fingers and start up DXB.  It started without a hitch, but 
the windows layouts were all messed up and I had to reposition everything 
the way I had it set up before.  I think DXB stores the window positions and 
sizes in the reg file so there is no way to get around this on initial start 
up.
14.  Go to the Options menu and work your way through all the index tabs. 
You will need to set up your parameters for latitude and longitude so the 
beam heading calculations will work properly.  Also if you have your 
radio(s) interfaced to the computer you will need to specify the make, 
model, comm port, baud rates, etc., to get the communication going.  Check 
the Internet tab to be sure your Hosts file is recognized.  It had been a 
long time since I fooled with many of these options so it took a bit of 
searching through the Help file to refresh my memory about various settings. 
That's what prompted me to download and install the WinHlp32.exe file as 
noted below.

I haven't had a chance to check out everything yet, particularly the CW 
interface.  It never worked for me before unless I had a program like CW 
Type or MMTTY running in the background.  I hope Vista will have the proper 
drivers in the right place.  If not, I'm no worse off than before!

I'm still working at getting other things installed and going, but so far 
I've only managed to verify the following as running under Vista:
Audacity (audio wave file editor), CC Cluster User, CwGet, CwType, DX Atlas, 
DXBase2006, Morse Runner and RAC2007.

Still to go:
MMTTY, OMISS Net Logger, WriteLog, MMTTY Plug In for WriteLog and others I'm 
probably forgetting at the moment.

Boy is this ever fun!!!  Hope all this helps.

73,
Gary AL9A

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Kourey (K4KL)" <rkourey at carolina.rr.com>
To: "Gary AL9A" <al9a at mtaonline.net>
Sent: January 11, 2008 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Dxbase] Vista and DXB Help

> So Gary, have you developed a step by step procedure for installing DXBase
> 2007 on Vista that you can share with us.  It sounds like you have done 
> some
> break-away work that is worth sharing.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Gary AL9A" <al9a at mtaonline.net>
> To: "DXbase Reflector" <dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 9:13 PM
> Subject: [Dxbase] Vista and DXB Help
>
>
>> I'm still flailing away with my new Vista machine, but just discovered
>> something interesting today that I thought I'd pass along.  This may have
>> been on the reflector before and I just missed it - if so I apologize for
>> the bandwidth.
>>
>> I've seen posts before about the DXB help files not working under Vista.
>> Info about this can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607.
>> The problem is because Microsoft has decided to stop distributing the
>> WinHlp32.exe file within Windows with Vista.  It is possible to download
>> and install this missing program in Vista at the above link.  Just follow
>> the instructions.
>>
>> I gave it a try and darned if it doesn't work!  The only problem seems to
>> be a Windows Help error window that pops up whenever you open the Help
>> file that says "There was a problem running the macro. (1037)".  I don't
>> know what this macro is, but the only thing I find that doesn't work is
>> the Help Topics button at the top of the screen.  The forward and back
>> arrows and the Back button work ok.  You might need to bail out and
>> restart Help to get to a new topic, but at least you can get there.
>>
>> 73,
>> Gary AL9A
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Dxbase mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Dxbase at mailman.qth.net
>>
>
> 