Why's my oinsight.ini file not working????

We recently had a support enquiry because the OInsight.ini file (located under C:\Windows) was not being picked up and the developer was therefore unable to change the Application Manager buttons to display the System Editor ++, rather than the old System Editor.

I’d always understood that the OInsight.ini file that OpenInsight used for these settings and others, was the one in the Windows directory. However, from Windows Vista and Windows 7, things are no longer that simple.

As Carl enlightened me, Vista and Windows 7 implement something called virtual file redirection, which means that the ini file the OpenInsight uses is not the one in C:\Windows - when it asks for the file Windows goes and gets it from the Virtual Store instead. It is Microsoft’s way of trying to stop people using ini files - they don't like you using the registry these days either!!

Anyway, the *real* ini file that Windows gives to OpenInsight is stored in your user settings folder something like:

C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows\oinsight.ini

If you change that ini file, then everything should be fine and OpenInsight will display the right buttons and your other preferences/settings.

For the more technical and those who want to understand all of this in more detail, the following link will be useful:

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/developers/archive/2009/08/04/user-account-control-data-redirection.aspx

Microsoft support for Vista, etc.

The Register has published a very interesting announcement about the support for the Vista operating system. I think that it is worth everyone knowing about this, especially VARs installing and supporting systems on pre-Windows 7 operating systems.

Configuring OpenInsight 9.0 for 64 bit Vista

In order to run OpenInsight version 9.x on 64-bit versions of Vista, some additional configuration of the default OpenInsight needs to be addressed. These changes should be made only following a successful installation of OpenInsight. The guidelines assume that you have a fresh installation of 64-bit Vista (not one of the Home editions) and also a fresh installation of OpenInsight version 9.0 or later. Depending on your chosen User Account Control settings in Vista, these may not all apply to you.

• 32-Bit Java RuntimeWebOI and CTO both require a Java run time to run. For compatibility reasons, you should download and install the latest 32-bit which is available from JRE (Java Runtime Environment).
  
• Alternative Registry LocationAs well as the operating system’s usual 64-bit registry entries, 64-bit Vista also maintains a separate list of 32-bit registry keys for the purposes of maintaining compatibility with 32-bit applications. As far as OpenInsight is concerned, these 32-bit registry settings are maintained under the ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\RevSoft’ registry branch and all registry changes for OpenInsight should be completed under this branch.
  
  The registry settings for SYSPROG are:
  
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\RevSoft\OECGI2]
  "UserName"="SYSPROG"
  "UserPassword"="SYSPROG"
  "ApplicationName"="SYSPROG"
  "ServerURL"="localhost"
  "ServerPort"="8088"
  "ProcedureName"="RUN_OECGI_REQUEST"
  "EngineName"=""
  
  The registry is not an area that should be played with lightly and for this reason Revelation have created an updated registry file to assist in the configuration of OECGI2. The file can be downloaded from the main Revelation web site at http://www.revelation.com/knowledge.nsf/07dbcbabb6b3e379852566f50064cf25/88e6dbc0988dec9385257566007831c5/$FILE/oecgi2%20vista64.reg. This file should be used in place of the OECGI2.reg that ships with OpenInsight 9.0.

Please also be sure to review and follow the OpenInsight 9.0 Workstation Installation Notes that now apply to the installation of OpenInsight on all versions of Windows.

RCL4.DLL

I am still running into developers reporting issues with OpenInsight being left running in the task manager when OpenInsight is closed. This is mostly on Vista machines, but I thought it worthwhile to include another posting here dedicated to this issue. It will not be any surprise to you that this results in some undesirable behaviour. Revelation therefore jumped on this issue very quickly and the latest RCL4.dll file resolves that issue.

Progress Bar under Vista.

Run the video above to see the Vista Progress Bar in action.

Well it looks like Sprezzatura’s Progress Bar article is having another run globally. Carl recently gave me a copy of his test form for the bar and I am pleased to confirm that it runs just as well under Vista with the new Vista looking Progress Bars.

The article was first published in SENL volume 4, issue 4 back in March 2007. The full SENL can be found at http://www.sprezzatura.com/senl/senl440307.pdf.

Full WebOI video downloads

The two WebOI videos are now available for download from the video library on the RevUK web site found at http://www.revsoft.co.uk/devvideolibrary.htm

Introduction to WebOI videos

The Introduction to WebOI videos are now ready and published to You Tube. However, please note that owing to video time limitations set by You Tube, the two videos have been split into two, leaving four You Tube videos in all. I will also be making these available as two zipped downloads shortly.

In the meantime, you can find the videos at:

1) Introduction to WebOI – Part 1a
2) Introduction to WebOI – Part 1b
3) Introduction to WebOI – Part 2a
4) Introduction to WebOI – Part 2a

Part one is a PowerPoint presentation that looks at what WebOI is, who it is for and provides a brief architecture overview.

Part two takes a look at my IIS7 settings for Vista and then we run through converting an OpenInsight form for WebOI and to run with a commuter module.

WebOI under Vista and IIS7 Quick Start Guide

As many of you will know, throughout the 9.0 beta program I have been working on a Vista machine. Following the commercial release I have continued and more recently worked through configuring IIS7 under Vista for WebOI. Whilst I would advise you to take professional advice on configuring IIS7 in a live environment, I have written up my experiences in getting WebOI running under IIS7 on my standalone Vista machine.

You can download the WebOI under Vista and IIS7 White Paper from the UK Revelation web site.

Vista running in compatibility mode.

I’d planned not to post this article as I thought it was just me being stupid again. However, a recent conversation with a non-Revelation developer proved that Vista running all sorts of programs in compatibility mode can have consequences where the software is behaving in a certain way for the installed operating system. This posting is therefore more of a heads up than anything.

During the beta test program for OI 9.0 I let my license run towards its expiry date and I duly began receiving the notice that the period was about to expire. I clicked the OK button and continued to use the beta software without any problems. However, when I let the beta test run passed the expiry date I began to have problems on my Vista machine, although the same copy running under Windows 2003 Server behaved as expected.

Following a number of tests, my colleague in the US support team uncovered the problem. My machine, although running Vista, was reporting to OI that it was running XP. This lead him to research the issue further and he found that running in “Compatibility Mode” could cause the operating system to be reported as XP, not Vista.

Changing the shortcut properties to not run in compatibility mode resolved the issue and the license warning screen operated as designed – something else to watch out for when installing your OpenInsight system (and other applications) on Vista machines.

Vista rollouts set to overtake XP

Forrester Research recently surveyed 962 decision makers in companies operating in North America and Europe with regards to their adoption of the Vista operating system. During this survey they discovered that Vista deployments could shortly replace Windows XP as the operating system of choice in the enterprise.

An article published in on on http://www.computing.co.uk/ dated 5th February '09, goes on to state that the study shows that Vista is currenty running on nearly 10 percent of corporate desktop systems. However, a third of those people surveyed said that they had already started rolling out Vista, with 26 percent citing plans to deploy later this year.

It goes without saying that as more of our users move to Vista, anyone deploying OpenInsight systems will need to begin to cater for the Vista operating system very soon.

The good news is that I have been running very successfully on Vista Home Premium throughout the 9.0 beta program and all of my work, demos, etc are now undertaken using the version 9.0 commercial release.

I have run into a few issues, one of which I have already highlighted on this blog (support for fonts between XP and Vista) and I’ve also had an issue the was a result of my Vista machine reporting itself to be an XP machine – watch for a posting on this coming very soon.

One of the few known issues is that of OpenInsight being left running in the task manager when OpenInsight is closed. It will not be any surprise to you that this reults in some undesirable behaviour. Revelation jumped on this issue very quickly and the latest RCL4.dll file resolves that issue. Although the previous link will give you access to the latest file, I would strongly suggest that you save a copy of your existing rcl4.dll file in case this new file gives you any problems. The official recommendation will be to upgrade to OpenInsight 8.0.7 or more preferably 9.0, to be as ready for Vista and Windows 7 as possible, especially as Revelation are offering 25% off the cost of OI WORKS during February ’09.

Note: Although I am using the lower end ‘Home Premium’ version, this is not going to be a supported version for use within networks. I would therefore recommend that you opt for Vista Ultimate or Business, preferably the former. It should also be noted that, as I understand it, there is no upgrade path from the Home Premium edition to Business. I would therefore suggest that you do your homework before purchasing a computer with Home Premium.

Bitten by Vista big time - Grrrrrrr

Don't get caught out by a Vista trap that I have fallen head-long into.

As many of you will now know, I have been writing a new examples application to coincide with the OpenInsight version 9.0 release. This application has been completely written using my Vista Home Premium machine.

Now, not being overly technical, I usually opt for defaults when installing software – it usually helps when I get myself into a mess as the support guys know where to find things. Anyway, choosing default options on this occasion has left me with something of a headache – mainly because I had planned to give my application to WORKS subscribers and most of you will have wisely stayed with Windows XP.

The issue is that Vista has a lovely new font called Segoe and I understand that Microsoft have set this as the default font for Vista. In turn, my OpenInsight installation picked this up as the chosen default font when creating a new application. I only noticed this when I dropped the application onto a colleague’s XP machine to show them how nice it looked. Needless to say, it looked awful as the XP default font on that machine was wider than Segoe and caused the text on my buttons and labels run off the controls.

Not to worry I thought. Sprezzatura have a friend in Microsoft and I’ll check that it is OK for me to include the Segoe font with my application – problem solved. But Oh no – It is covered under license and you can not freely distribute it. So my options are:

1. License the font for each user.
   
2. Get the user to upgrade to Vista, buy one of the Windows Live packages or Office 2007 (all of which I understand have the new font (but do your own homework before buying)).
   
3. Change the font on every window and resize the controls as applicable.
   
4. Only support Vista with my application.

Needless to say, as my application is primarily for demo purposes on my machine, I’ll be choosing option 4 for the moment.

BUT be warned. If you are planning a move to Vista, make sure that you use a common font such as Arial when designing and building your applications.

My advice – stick with XP Pro for the moment!!!