ChurchWatch Version 5
is fully compatible with Windows Vista and
Windows 7. However, prior versions of
ChurchWatch were created before these operating
systems were invented and as such,
require some tweaking. This web page gives
a complete description of the issues and the
solutions for each.
General
To begin with, Vista and Windows 7 are much more complex
operating systems than Windows XP or Windows 98. The learning curve can be
steep, especially when considering the new security and networking issues.
Windows 7 is much better than Vista in this
regard. The problems you will encounter will almost certainly center either on the new
user interface or on the new security
features which are MUCH tighter. The
following sections address each of our programs:
ChurchWatch
The ChurchWatch installer MUST be run from an
adminstrator account or "run-as" an administrator. The default login in
Windows is the administrator account so if you are not using user account logins
to Vista/Windows 7, you are OK. If you are, you must login as an administrator
account or run the ChurchWatch SETUP.EXE file as an administrator. ChurchWatch
Version 4 is NOT Vista or Windows 7 compatible, but there are simple work-arounds for now so
you CAN run it OK. To solve the
problems easily, you can adjust the
"compatibility" settings. Right click on
the ChurchWatch4 shortcut icon. Choose
Properties from the menu that appears.
Next, select the "compatibility" tab. Run
the program in XP compatibility mode, check the
"Disable Visual Themes" checkbox and run the
program as an administrator as shown below.
ChurchWatch Help
The ChurchWatch help file does not initially work
on Vista or Windows 7. This is because Microsoft made the decision to remove 32 bit
help file support from Windows Vista. However, shortly after releasing
Vista, Microsoft also released a new 32 bit help file viewer (probably due to a lot of complaints). In order to
view the ChurchWatch help file, you will need to install the viewer onto your
Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC. The download file can be found at this website:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6EBCFAD9-D3F5-4365-8070-334CD175D4BB&displaylang=en
Click the CONTINUE button that you find there.
You may be prompted to install an ActiveX control into your browser to validate
your copy of windows. Allow this. Finally, you will be given the
choice of 2 download files. For most people, you will want the ...x86...
file unless you have a 64 bit PC. This download and installation must be performed on all Vista
or Windows 7 PC's
that will be running ChurchWatch.
ChurchWatch Online Update
Modify the properties of the shortcut as described above.
ChurchWatch Data Send Utility (Email tables to
customer support)
Modify the properties of the shortcut as described
above. You may get security prompts when ChurchWatch is attempted to email
the data. This is normal and you should allow it to proceed.
"Sticky Notes" program
Although this is now somewhat redundant with the new "gadgets" in
Windows Vista and "sticky notes" in Windows 7, this program works OK.
Modify the properties of the shortcut as described above.
Database Rescue Program
As installed, the Database Rescue program does not function in Windows Vista
or Windows 7. You will receive numerous
prompts for permission to overwrite database fields that already exist.
Fortunately, once again, there is a simple solution and its the same one that
was described above. Right click on the
Database Rescue Utility shortcut icon. Choose Properties from the menu
that appears. Next, select the "compatibility" tab. Adjust the
settings as shown below. Run the program in Windows XP Service Pack 2
mode, disable visual themes and run the program as an administrator. This
should solve all issues.
Networking and Firewalls
We encountered some difficulty in getting File
Sharing to work on a network with a mix of Windows Vista and Windows XP
computers. It's not impossible but it is difficult. If you have a
firewall such as Norton Internet Security you may have to disable the firewall
or setup firewall rules to allow computers on your network to access shared
Vista drives. None of our problems centered specifically on Windows Vista.
Once the firewall issues were resolved, Windows Vista is able to "see" Windows
XP computers on the network. Going the other way (Windows XP to Windows
VISTA) is more difficult. The same problems
likely apply to Windows 7. Keep reading...
Using a Windows VISTA or
Windows 7 PC as Your ChurchWatch Server
You can use a Windows VISTA or Windows 7 PC as your ChurchWatch
server. However, setup of file sharing is more difficult than when using a
Windows XP server. Windows XP can use "simple file sharing" to easily and
quickly setup a shared network folder. Windows VISTA
and Windows 7, on the other hand,
have much tighter security. In addition Microsoft has changed the way that file and printer
sharing works. We cannot give you a step-by-step approach since every
network is different and you may want to setup your file sharing permissions in
a different way. You can set the security as tight as you want. Here
are two knowledgebase articles that we found to be invaluable in understanding
how Windows VISTA file sharing works. There should be enough information
here to help you share your server's ChurchWatch folder on the network,
and it should apply equally well to Windows 7:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/e20e6875-7210-47bb-bf19-5c60e6ae86151033.mspx
Note: In our simple tests we setup
the file sharing permissions such that "everyone" had full access to the
ChurchWatch folder on the VISTA server. This works fine. However,
this is the lazy man's approach and in practice, you will likely want to give
specific users on your network full access to the ChurchWatch folder, while
locking out all other users completely.
Note:Another approach is simply installing ChurchWatch in the "PUBLIC" folder found in the
Windows Vista file system. This is a writable folder that anyone can use.
But this folder is intended for wide-open file
sharing without much protection. Take the time to setup a proper network
share directly to your server's ChurchWatch folder with appropriate access
permissions in place.
"My Data Is There, Then It Disappears!"
What's Going On?
Welcome to Vista. Vista uses a concept known
as "Virtualization". When programs are installed in the "Program Files"
folder, Vista does not allow you to write files under this folder.
ChurchWatch (and most other programs to date) do exactly that.
Virtualization is a method whereby each user who logs into the PC, gets their
own copy of writable data. Suppose user "X" logs into Vista, and then uses
ChurchWatch to enter some data. Then Vista user "Y" logs into the same PC
and accesses ChurchWatch. They see no data! The reason is that Vista
has given each user their own copy of the data. In a global database
system like ChurchWatch, this is not good. The work-around is what we have
already described above - place the program into XP compatibility mode and run
it as an administrator. You should seriously
consider an upgrade to ChurchWatch Version 5,
which disables virtualization correctly and is
fully compatible with Vista and Windows 7. Another
solution is to install ChurchWatch under the "PUBLIC" folder in Vista
or Windows 7.
Programs ARE allowed to write data under this folder.
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