MadCap Flare and Windows 7

[Slick]

MadCap Flare 5.0 doesn't seem to work with Windows 7. Any ideas?

[LTinker68]

Doesn't work how? You can't install it or you can install it but not start it or something else?

(And welcome to the forums.)

[NorthEast]

If W7 was released after Flare v5, then it's a fair guess it wasn't in the list of supported OSs.
Maybe ask MadCap support what the position is?

[Andrew]

I haven't had any trouble with Flare v4.2.1 and Windows 7 (though I haven't done a lot of work in Flare on Windows 7 -- only a few small edits).

[doc_guy]

Slick,

Can you be a bit more specific? What are you trying to do and what happens?

[forfear]

MadCap Flare 5.0 doesn't seem to work with Windows 7. Any ideas?

I have been using Flare 4.2.1 on Windows 7 without issues. Its what we have. Have also 'trial'ed Flare 6.0 on the same.

Flare v5 should work definitely. You don't need to install any versions of the .NET frameworks that Flare 5.0 needs, on Windows 7 I think, since its already built in.

[wbrisett]

Has anybody tried this (running Flare) with a 64-bit installation of Windows 7?

[Adrian Durand]

Hi,

I've not tried Flare on 64bit Win7, but do run Flare 6 on 32bit Win7 with no problems at all, and also ran Flare 5 on the same system prior to Flare 6 being released.

hth.

Adrian

[Andrew]

Has anybody tried this (running Flare) with a 64-bit installation of Windows 7?

Yes, I used the 64-bit version of 7 with Flare v4.2.1.

Do you have a specific problem or concern? Nearly all 32-bit Windows software runs on 64-bit Windows.

[wbrisett]

Do you have a specific problem or concern?

Actually, yes I do.

I keep killing the memory footprint with my large projects. I've found workarounds to one of them (with 20,000 topics), but my current project involves 6,000 interdependent HTML files which seem to be killing Flare (basically I'm running out of memory during the build process). I just got off the phone with MC support and they are going to try building one of them on a 4GB Windows 64-bit system. The irony is in order to increase the amount of RAM I have, I have to load Windows 7 on a Mac and use VMware, so I can assign additional RAM to the environment. I tried to do this with XP Pro, only to find out that of the 6 GB of RAM I assigned, only 3 GB were being recognized by Windows. A support document on MS site confirmed that the 3 GB limit was because I was using a 32-bit environment. FYI, Windows 7 in the 32-bit mode still only allows you to use 3 GB of RAM. That's why I have to use the 64-bit mode. So, there you go.

[rob hollinger]

MadCap Flare 5.0 doesn't seem to work with Windows 7. Any ideas?

CHM targets set to language other than Windows system locale will not compile on Windows 7.
Make sure your running Flare 5.01.

http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/Fl ... ensive.htm

[rob hollinger]

Do you have a specific problem or concern?

Actually, yes I do.

I keep killing the memory footprint with my large projects. I've found workarounds to one of them (with 20,000 topics), but my current project involves 6,000 interdependent HTML files which seem to be killing Flare (basically I'm running out of memory during the build process). I just got off the phone with MC support and they are going to try building one of them on a 4GB Windows 64-bit system. The irony is in order to increase the amount of RAM I have, I have to load Windows 7 on a Mac and use VMware, so I can assign additional RAM to the environment. I tried to do this with XP Pro, only to find out that of the 6 GB of RAM I assigned, only 3 GB were being recognized by Windows. A support document on MS site confirmed that the 3 GB limit was because I was using a 32-bit environment. FYI, Windows 7 in the 32-bit mode still only allows you to use 3 GB of RAM. That's why I have to use the 64-bit mode. So, there you go.

Your running Flare V6 and shouldnt have problems in Windows 7.
The first thing I would try would be a command line compile which would take away all the UI. This can save some memory with your compiling projects of this magnitude. Below is an example BAT file. You will want to make sure you free up as much memory as possible before kicking off that build.

Here is an example Commandline Batch file:

cd\Program Files\MadCap Software\Madcap Flare V5\Flare.app
madbuild -project "C:\Users\[YOURNAME]\[PROJECT LOCATION]\Project.flprj" -target MYTARGET_CHM

[wbrisett]

The first thing I would try would be a command line compile which would take away all the UI.

Thanks Rob. That's was the recommendation of the support group as well. I'm in the middle of doing that as I type this (on another computer). I'll see how that fares.

Wayne

[Andrew]

Do you have a specific problem or concern?

Actually, yes I do.

I keep killing the memory footprint with my large projects. I've found workarounds to one of them (with 20,000 topics), but my current project involves 6,000 interdependent HTML files which seem to be killing Flare (basically I'm running out of memory during the build process). I just got off the phone with MC support and they are going to try building one of them on a 4GB Windows 64-bit system. The irony is in order to increase the amount of RAM I have, I have to load Windows 7 on a Mac and use VMware, so I can assign additional RAM to the environment. I tried to do this with XP Pro, only to find out that of the 6 GB of RAM I assigned, only 3 GB were being recognized by Windows. A support document on MS site confirmed that the 3 GB limit was because I was using a 32-bit environment. FYI, Windows 7 in the 32-bit mode still only allows you to use 3 GB of RAM. That's why I have to use the 64-bit mode. So, there you go.

Yes, all Windows non-Server 32-bit OSes have a (variable) limitation in RAM between 2 and 4 GB (typically around 3-3.5). 64-bit is the only way around it with Flare.

Are you getting actual out-of-memory errors?

[wbrisett]

Are you getting actual out-of-memory errors?

Yes. Has to do with the way Flare is keeping track of the links between documents (at least that's the current theory). The command line is looking very promising and has gotten further than any of the other methods so far.

[Andrew]

I'll have to load up my 7000-topic project and test on Windows 7, then. Definitely useful information to know before we upgrade our primary boxes.

[forfear]

Has anybody tried this (running Flare) with a 64-bit installation of Windows 7?

Have tried it on Flare 4.2 and Flare v6 on Win 7 64bit

[amanda]

Is anyone running Flare 6.0 on 32-bit Windows 7 experiencing weird performance issues? If so, how did you get around them?

For me, Flare is slow to respond whenever I type. Flare usually hangs while I'm in the middle of typing a sentence. Flare can also take a while to finish saving a file or updating a TOC.
Performance was fine when I was using Flare 6.0 with Windows XP.
This hanging issue is really slowing me down.
Does anyone have any ideas as to why I'm getting this issue?

TIA!

[SteveS]

Hi Amanda,

I'm using Flare 6 on a Windows 7 box, albeit 64 bit. I have no performance issues whatsoever.

I guess it comes down to either:

• The specification of your machine

• Whether your files are local or networked

• If you have intellisense turned on

Being as Flare ran on an XP box without an issue I would check you have your new installation configured the same as before.

If you are running a business flavour of Windows 7 you can install an XP emulation mode. Basically a virtual XP box, might help but I haven't spent any time with it so cannot comment on its effectiveness.

HTH

[RamonS]

I'm using Flare 6 on a Windows 7 box, albeit 64 bit. I have no performance issues whatsoever.

If you are running a business flavour of Windows 7 you can install an XP emulation mode. Basically a virtual XP box, might help but I haven't spent any time with it so cannot comment on its effectiveness.

The XP mode is nothing else than running XP on VirtualPC. Performance is horrible as with every virtualization product from Microsoft. But it works and lets one run more applications. If that is the way to go I recommend a dual-boot with XP instead or staying on XP. The only disadvantage to that is that Microsoft does everything to make XP unusable going forward.

[amanda]

Hi Amanda,

I'm using Flare 6 on a Windows 7 box, albeit 64 bit. I have no performance issues whatsoever.

I guess it comes down to either:

• The specification of your machine

• Whether your files are local or networked

• If you have intellisense turned on

Being as Flare ran on an XP box without an issue I would check you have your new installation configured the same as before.

If you are running a business flavour of Windows 7 you can install an XP emulation mode. Basically a virtual XP box, might help but I haven't spent any time with it so cannot comment on its effectiveness.

HTH

Hi, Steve,

Thanks for your help! I turned off IntelliSense and I think that did the trick. Fingers crossed!