Doomsday has arrived

[DougSilver]

Well I am one of the last people in the office still running Win XP and I have been successfully running SKW2 on it (I have preferred this to SK98). So they finally decide to upgrade me to Win 7 and instead of doing an upgrade on my machine they give me a new machine with Win 7 64-bit and try migrating my programs to that machine. There is NO way that I have been able to get SKW2 to run on that machine and I guess it has to do with using the 64-bit version of Windows. Scanning through the forum here it looks like that SKW2 definitely does NOT run under 64-bit but it looks like folks have gotten SK98 to run in 64-bit so I guess I will try installing that.

It may come to the point that I just bring my old laptop in the office solely for using Sidekick but that would be the last resort.

Doug

 

[jimalex]

Hi Doug,
No response to your lament indicates how we are all resigned to the Bill Gates money making program and see no option.

I could for example say that 32bit must work but you can´t get it for Windows 7 and in any case we usually accept the OS that comes with the machine.

As your OS is a work installation, have a look at Start, right click Computer, click Properties. If it says you are running Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate there could be an option.

Microsoft offers Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode as a free download for these versions. So XP becomes available even inside Windows 7.

I could say a lot about Virtual Machines as they do enable you to use old software, even old hardware. However, like you, I stopped using easy-on-the-eye SKW2, and went over to SK98. What defeats me in doing a write up on Sidekick on Virtual Machines (in fact Virtual Box) is that SK98 is running well on Windows 7-64. So further hassle is not needed.

Additionally, whilst I have little knowledge of Windows 8.1 it appears to be just as good….. and 8.1 does not support Windows XP Mode. So you can see where we are being pointed. However, I really like SK98 on Windows 7-64 despite it´s drab look, and I would encourage you to stick with it as it has all the functions of SKW2.

 

[DougSilver]

Hey Jim--I did go ahead and install SK98 on the new machine as it just seemed the simpler route to go versus getting permission from the IT guys here to install XP Mode and Virtual PC software. In fact there are one or two other pieces of old software where I have had to do acrobatics. Some of these are dos and I have been able to run in DoxBox under Win 7 (thank heavens for DosBox). However the other program that I have NOT been able to run is Alpha 4 version 8. That was sort of dos and sort of Windows and it ran fine on XP. The problem is that the program looks for some pdf print driver that will NOT install under Win 7 64-bit so the problem closes since it cannot find the printer.

As to the look and feel of SK98--somehow if really looks archaic and ugly compared to even SKW2. It would have been nice if there were more customization options for the colors, fonts, etc. but at least it works.

Doug

 

[jimalex]

Hi Doug,
I too use DosBox (for DBase and Foxplus) and if you had asked me I would have said A4v8 will work in DosBox on Windows 7-64. There goes the limit of our knowledge. Having told you to forget Virtual PC with XP, I would now retract that as you know A4v8 works in XP

 

[DougSilver]

Hi Jim,

Funny thing that the moment I finished my last post I went back to the Alpha Four directory and tried again. The thing is I was using DosBox to run the A4.exe file and it was bombing there but I suddenly discovered the a4v8.exe file in the folder which is the actual Dos program. Apparently the A4.exe file is sort of like a Win front-loader that looks for a printer that does not exist (hence the crash) but the actual program is a4v8.exe which, I discovered, runs just fine under Win 7 64-bit. The funnier thing is that the head guy at Alpha software as well as his top tech were not able to help me with this simple workaround. So DosBox comes to the rescue again.

Doug