Upgrading from XP to Vista -- any Flare problems?

[SusanL]

My organization is going to upgrade my laptop from XP to Vista. Any "gotchas" I ought to know about concerning Flare during this upgrade? I'm on Flare 4.2.

[RamonS]

I am sure there are way more gotchas in Vista than in Flare. I don't know of any Vista-specific Flare issues. There are many issues, but that is only because Vista is bad software. I recommend to ask for your old laptop back.

[Andrew]

There are no issues with Flare and Vista in general (that I am aware of). I use Flare on both Windows XP and Windows Vista, and I have no problems specific to either version.

However, if you are upgrading an existing Windows XP installation to Windows Vista, I would say all bets are off. It might work fine, or you might have lots of problems. The upgrade process is very hit-or-miss for Windows.

[LTinker68]

Make sure you backup your Flare projects to another computer, just in case. And you might want to make a record of what colors you have specified in the colors list in Flare, since that info is stored in the system registry. Hopefully the OS upgrade will only modify the Windows-related registry items, but I don't know how much (if any) the Vista registry has changed, so it might be a good idea to write down the hex/rgb values of the colors so that you can recreate them in Flare, if necessary.

You might end up having to re-register your copy of Flare, too, so have your license key handy. Upgrading the OS shouldn't affect your computer MAC address, which I'm assuming MadCap uses during registration, but again, better safe than sorry.

[SteveS]

I did the upgrade a while ago and Flare didn't suffer any problems, but I'll echo Lisa advice about backing up and taking hard copy of colours and so on.

As Andrew says, Windows itself is the likely cause of any problems, if you can get them to format the hard drive and do a clean install, then download the fixes before they do anything else you'll be better off. But, knowing most IT departments...

[RamonS]

However, if you are upgrading an existing Windows XP installation to Windows Vista

Uhm, that is a downgrade. Upgrade is the other way around.

[Andrew]

However, if you are upgrading an existing Windows XP installation to Windows Vista

Uhm, that is a downgrade. Upgrade is the other way around.

Whatever you say. I'll take Vista over XP any day.

[RamonS]

Seems as if you have been assimilated. I'd use a Vista DVD to fix a wobbly shelf, but I bet it will blue screen on that as well.

[Andrew]

No, I've merely used the product. But I doubt we will ever agree on this issue, so perhaps discretion is the better part of valor here.

[SusanL]

Thanks for the responses. This will probably happen during the next week, and I'll report any issues.

[Richard Ferrell]

Flare and Vista work great I have Flare running on my XP Machine and Vista Machines, Again I would backup your projects so that you can sleep easier at night

[SusanL]

IAs Andrew says, Windows itself is the likely cause of any problems, if you can get them to format the hard drive and do a clean install, then download the fixes before they do anything else you'll be better off. But, knowing most IT departments...

The IT team did a clean install of Vista a week ago and I am pleased to say that (keeping my fingers crossed) there have been no issues so far with running Flare on Vista. All my projects are working fine and nothing wonky has happened.

[doc_guy]

I'm another Vista and XP user. My Vista box is 64 bit. The only difference between my Vista version of Flare and my Windows version of Flare is that my Vista box compiles my project at lightning speed (though I think it is because my hardware is better on my Vista box).

But I love working with Flare on Vista (in part because it is blazing fast, and in part because I prefer Vista's interface).

(I know that David won't agree, but I'm don't require much from my OS, and I LOVE the Start menu in Vista. I can press the Start key and start typing and Vista shows me all the programs and files on my computer that start with those letters. If I Press <Start> <F> <L> <Enter>, Flare opens. It is so much faster than dragging through the menu looking for the program I'm trying to open.)

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.

[RamonS]

So you pay 300$ for a Vista license to get a pretty interface and a start menu that does a search on typing? WOW! Millions of Dollars in R&D and seven years of programming to give you a feature that an add-on could have done. I agree, Vista is really a winner! Too bad that it no longer allows to cleanup temporary files manually that Windows always left behind and that are a drag on performance, that it is across the board 1/3 slower compared to XP on the same hardware, and has almost doubled the storage footprint. At least it still uses the 20 year old NTFS, the worst defragger ever, and still many current software titles don't run right on Vista, not even going into detail about hardware. I don't even complain about UAC as anyone in the right mind turns that off immediately...if one can find on how to do that since about everything got renamed and placed somewhere else for no reason. Vista - 300$, new hardware - 500$, new software - 1000$, admitting that Microsoft screwed you again - priceless. So let's all run out and do the exact same thing with Windows 7! After all, it is the same like Vista, just a little bit better (and again costs a few hundred bucks for a new license).

[doc_guy]

I didn't upgrade. It came pre-installed on my computer. And I like it. Works for me! But I'm okay that it doesn't work for you.