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    dmclaughlin
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Windows 7

Hi all,

I also serve as the IT department here at Cross Light and would like to pose a question.  Has anyone with ETC software obtained a Windows 7 beta?  and if so, how is it working out?  I have no current plans to upgrade our offices, but I'd also like to be able to plan for it when it does come.

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  • in reply to brucek

    USB to Serial dongle FTW.

    Seriously though, I always keep a USB to serial adapter around for legacy equipment.

  • in reply to epimetheus

    As I mentioned in a previous post here at ETC we are looking at Windows 7 carefully, and are in the beginning stages of testing all our legacy software with it.

    Once testing is complete we will be giving you a full picture of what we find, including workarounds and so forth. However, here is what we have discovered so far.

    Avoid Win 7 64 bit if you need to work with legacy systems, especially Unison

    Unison Lightmanager is a Windows 16 bit application; support for 16 bit applications is not present in 64 bit versions of Windows. Lightmanager will not run at all. SLTA applications, including EELoad, also do not seem to work.

    Most newer software seems to work with 64 bit systems, although there are a few specific things you need to do to get network services working with it.

    Be cautious with USB-Serial adapters

    It's true that many USB-Serial adapters will work with ETC equipment OK; however we have seen exceptions, especially with EELoadNT and SLTA kits. Since there are so many varieties of these, you mileage may vary - we can't test them all. Main thing is before you are relying on it to go to site and configure a system, make sure you know it will work!

    We'll keep you all posted on results of our testing. If there's anything specific you want to know before you buy a new laptop, feel free to give us a call at the usual tech support numbers.

     

    Tom



    [edited by: tomsteer at 2:12 PM (GMT -6) on Mon, Dec 21 2009]
  • in reply to brucek

    I believe the Dell Latitude E5500 has a native serial port built in.  I'll let you know once I have it configured if it plays friendly with legacy unison Serial ports.  I am assuming that the old Win98 serial ports still won't work, but I will try the XP version when I get a chance. 

    I never had much luck with USB to serial adapters, and I always looked for a built in serial port due to the fact that another manufacturer's software only supported PCMCIA to serial adapters, and not USB versions. 

    I'll post any unusual results when I get them.

     

  • in reply to Holztech

    I have had success using my laptop (an HP HDX18) running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, and running most current verisons of recent ETC software. Windows 7 Ultimate (maybe some other versions do too) has an 'XP Mode' that you can download from MS, a virtual version of XP that it can run. Using XP Mode  has allowed me to use Light Manager. It's a bit kludgy, since XP Mode doesn't like recognizing my old Iomega USB floppy drive as a locally attached drive - so I can't directly save to it directly from LM, but it's a simple enough task to drag .cfg files around and copy files from the XP Mode virtual hard drive to the mapped floppy from the real world. Just remember to copy the LCD font files and such at the same time or your LCD will look broken.

    ** I have not had success using LM in this virtual XP mode to connect to a CMEi on the network, though I have not spent very long trying.

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