I was concerned the Procomm Plus would not work with Windows 7 and I would not be able to use the scripts that I run daily to help automate my work.
After trying several things, such as a WinXP virtual machine with Windows 7, that did not work out, I was finally able to get Procomm Plus 4.8 to work with Win 7. I found a few other references on the web and collected those to come up with these steps which worked for me.
1. I used Procomm Plus 4.8. I tried 4.5 and 4.7 and Win 7 complained that the program did not install correctly.
2. Removed all of the Fax options during the install. When the Procomm installer Select Components screen is displayed, uncheck both fax options. In the Internet section, uncheck "News/Email". I also unchecked "Scripts" as I did not need any of the old BBS or host scripts.
3. After the install is completed, the Procomm help files did not display, however a windows help box opens and there is
a link to install the WinXP help files. Click on that link and it will take you to a Microsoft help site that will allow you to download the WinXP help files that run on Win 7. After you do this the help files display fine.
4. The default location for the Procomm files was "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Procomm Plus\*". This directory did not allow me write permissions and some of my scripts that write to files would fail. I changed the path of all the Procomm Plus files (Scripts,Capture,Downlaod) in the Options,Data Options,Paths screen to a directory in the "My Documents" folder. This worked better for me, as I did not have to navigate to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Procomm Plus" directory to look at a file. However, if you prefer to keep the default Procomm directory location, you may need to enable read/write of the directories. To do that follow these steps below for your Procomm Plus file location.
On the Start Menu, Select All Programs, accessories, Windows Explorer, right click, and select “Run as administrator”
Navigate to the C:\ directory where your Procomm Plus files are, typically this is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Procomm Plus"
Right click on “Aspect” and select “properties” select the Security tab. Click the Edit, Select your user name, and “full Control” in the allow column. Click apply, OK, OK.
Repeat these steps for the Capture, Download, Upload and Notes directories as needed.
5. All of my scripts run fine. However, scripts that used the sdlgfopen, or sdlgsaveas commands did not allow me to navigate to a different directory. I was using PowerDesk 6, and had the dialog helper option enabled. This gives you additional options with a file open/save dialog box in Windows. Once I disabled the PowerDesk dialog helper. The file open/save dialog boxes in Procomm worked fine. If you have an application that adds additional features to a file open/save dialog box, it may need to be disabled to get your Procomm file dialog boxes to work properly.
After trying several things, such as a WinXP virtual machine with Windows 7, that did not work out, I was finally able to get Procomm Plus 4.8 to work with Win 7. I found a few other references on the web and collected those to come up with these steps which worked for me.
1. I used Procomm Plus 4.8. I tried 4.5 and 4.7 and Win 7 complained that the program did not install correctly.
2. Removed all of the Fax options during the install. When the Procomm installer Select Components screen is displayed, uncheck both fax options. In the Internet section, uncheck "News/Email". I also unchecked "Scripts" as I did not need any of the old BBS or host scripts.
3. After the install is completed, the Procomm help files did not display, however a windows help box opens and there is
a link to install the WinXP help files. Click on that link and it will take you to a Microsoft help site that will allow you to download the WinXP help files that run on Win 7. After you do this the help files display fine.
4. The default location for the Procomm files was "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Procomm Plus\*". This directory did not allow me write permissions and some of my scripts that write to files would fail. I changed the path of all the Procomm Plus files (Scripts,Capture,Downlaod) in the Options,Data Options,Paths screen to a directory in the "My Documents" folder. This worked better for me, as I did not have to navigate to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Procomm Plus" directory to look at a file. However, if you prefer to keep the default Procomm directory location, you may need to enable read/write of the directories. To do that follow these steps below for your Procomm Plus file location.
On the Start Menu, Select All Programs, accessories, Windows Explorer, right click, and select “Run as administrator”
Navigate to the C:\ directory where your Procomm Plus files are, typically this is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Procomm Plus"
Right click on “Aspect” and select “properties” select the Security tab. Click the Edit, Select your user name, and “full Control” in the allow column. Click apply, OK, OK.
Repeat these steps for the Capture, Download, Upload and Notes directories as needed.
5. All of my scripts run fine. However, scripts that used the sdlgfopen, or sdlgsaveas commands did not allow me to navigate to a different directory. I was using PowerDesk 6, and had the dialog helper option enabled. This gives you additional options with a file open/save dialog box in Windows. Once I disabled the PowerDesk dialog helper. The file open/save dialog boxes in Procomm worked fine. If you have an application that adds additional features to a file open/save dialog box, it may need to be disabled to get your Procomm file dialog boxes to work properly.
