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PFE Supported on Windows Vista
| Important Note: You may require further consultation on the content of this document. You may not have the in-house expertise or the time to apply the instructions included with this document. Either way, Tecsys can help: just contact our support team at SMBSupport@Tecsys.com with a brief description of your issue(s) and one of our technical specialists will contact you directly. |
TECSYS PointForce Enterprise 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 are now Supported on Windows Vista!
Our testing on Windows Vista is complete. We are now Supporting Vista with PointForce Enterprise versions 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1.
We have performed an extensive series of tests with our own Enterprise software and all the 3rd Party Add-On applications that we currently integrate with.
Our Windows Vista Support is extended only to the following 32-bit versions:
- Vista Business
- Vista Enterprise
- Vista Ultimate
Since we are only supporting the 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 releases of PointForce Enterprise, we strongly recommend those using older versions of PointForce Enterprise and WinSol (4.1 and below) to maintain your Windows XP Pro workstations. We are not planning to test or support these older versions of our software on the Windows Vista Operating System.
For those on older versions of PointForce Enterprise and WinSol, we cannot guarantee that they will work on Windows Vista. Any Vista related support for these non-supported versions will be billable regardless of the outcome.
For those running 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 versions of our software, we recommend that you do not upgrade your existing PC workstations to Vista from XP Professional unless there is a compelling reason to do so. Rather, it is recommended that you only adopt Vista with newly purchased Vista Certified PC workstations.
With this new Vista Support come several conditions for working with this new Operating System that you need to be aware, and the following outlines these conditions:
- This Vista Support extends to your PC workstation only. This is not to be interpreted as server support. Currently our recommended Windows server platform is Windows Server 2003.
- A new Enterprise Client Update (ECU) application, previously known as WinSol Client Update (WCU), is now available from us that supports the installation of our PointForce Enterprise Client application on Windows Vista workstations. You will need this updated version for any Vista-based installation.
- A series of modifications has already been deployed into the 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 PointForce Enterprise environments that facilitate our support for Windows Vista.
- There are some 3rd party applications that will require an update to work with Vista. These are outlined in the Supported Features table at the end of this document.
- Peripheral devices, especially printers, need to be compatible with Vista. You will need to obtain new Vista compatible drivers for existing devices, or buy new hardware that is Vista compatible.
The Supported Features table that appears at the end of this document is applicable for all server platforms that we currently support: Windows Server 2003, Linux Red Hat, and SCO Unix. However, the two elements that are different between these three server platforms are the e-mailing with Win2PDF component, and the Quote Sheets component. The differences are identified in the table by two asterisks (**) with the details denoted below the table.
Also, we created two test environments, one was an XP Pro to Vista upgrade, and the other was a clean, fresh install of Vista. We noted the differences between these two different environments. If you are upgrading your XP Pro workstations to Vista, we strongly recommend that you perform a clean, fresh install of Vista rather than an upgrade, since this will yield the best results. The Vista installation process allows for a clean installation as an option (formatting the hard disk etc…) rather than the traditional upgrade. There are many online resources available to you relating to the Microsoft Vista product. Here are just a few of the most popular and useful sites:
| Source | Web Link |
| Microsoft Vista Homepage | http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx |
| Windows Super Site | http://www.winsupersite.com/vista/ |
| Microsoft TechNet Vista Site | http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/default.aspx |
| PC Magazine’s Vista Site | http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,1786052,00.asp |
| Windows Vista Team Blog | http://windowsvistablog.com/ |
| Windows Vista Community | http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/community/default.mspx |
| Windows Vista Magazine | http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/UK/ |
If you have any questions or concerns about this announcement, please contact us by email at smbservices@tecsys.com.
| Supported Features & Products | XP PRO | Vista Upgrade | Vista Full Install | Notes and Observations |
| Server Platforms | Windows Server 2003, Red Hat Linux, SCO Unix | |||
| PointForce Enterprise 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1 running PVX 6.3 | OK | OK | OK | Although PVX 6.3 is not officially supported to run on Windows Vista by Sage, our applications do not utilize the components of PVX that are incompatible with Vista. This saves us all a costly and arduous PVX upgrade. |
| TalBAr (barcode plugin) | OK | OK | OK | |
| Castelle Fax Press 7 & 8 | OK | NO | NO | These versions are not supported on Vista by Castelle. Failed to install. |
| Castelle Fax Press 9 | OK | OK | OK | Castelle’s version supported to work with Vista. Does not work on their SBE units. May require a hardware upgrade. Required us to change the driver from HP LaserJet Plus to HP LaserJet IIP Plus (the new ECU update includes this new driver configuration setting). |
| Email with Win2PDF | OK | OK** | OK** | Depending on the version of Win2PDF you have installed, you may be required to upgrade to the latest release: www.win2pdf.com. |
| Email Adobe Acrobat 5.05 | OK | NO | NO | PDF Writer (driver) removed by upgrade and it would not install on Vista. This is the only version of Adobe Acrobat that was integrated and supported to work with PointForce Enterprise. However it is not supported on Vista. Note: If you require the PDF functionality, you must use the supported Win2PDF product outlined above. |
| Crystal Reports 10 & 11 | OK | OK | OK | All users that access the Enterprise server need to be updated to ODBC 4.21 and all previously generated Crystal reports tested and possibly modified for validity. |
| Quote Sheets | OK | OK** | OK** | |
| Palm Desktop 4.x | OK | OK | OK | Palm Software had to be reinstalled after upgrade to work with Vista. |
| OrderStream | OK | OK** | OK** | |
| Windows Terminal Server | OK | OK | OK | Remote Desktop pops up with a warning that the terminal server is an older OS than Vista but it allows you to login. |
| EDI - Cleo LexiCom | OK | OK | OK | The updated version of Cleo's LexiCom 3.4 is Required for Vista. |
| Radio Beacon | OK | OK | OK | Integration with RB was tested, not the installation of the application itself. |
** Vision FS won’t work on Vista for either Linux or Unix. On Unix, Samba using Windows Active Directory Authentication will not work with Vista. On Unix, you must use Samba with User Authentication. On Linux, you must use Samba with Windows Active Directory Authentication.
