Astrolabe's Astrochatter

[ray]

Hi there,
Just to make things a little more confusing I suppose,
there are actually two types of Vista available. The regular 32 bit version, and the 'bleeding edge' 64 bit version.
Normally you will get the 32 bit type in the store unless you order the 'Ultimate' version of Vista. (the Ultimate version of vista gives you the choice of 32 bit or 64 bit). (Choose 32 bit to be safe.) The Home and Premium versions of Vista come with the 32 bit flavor only, and you have to send for a 64 bit copy in the Mail.

The 64 bit type of vista has lots of compatibility problems, and some of our older software won't work on it, Such as Solar Maps. If you have the 64 bit version you might also have to order a new install CD from us to make some of the programs install properly.

Solar Fire 6 will work on all versions of vista even the 64 bit. Previous versions of Solar Fire won't work on 64 bit vista, but will work on the 32 bit version.

Our latest CD #500G will work with 64 bit Vista for everything but Solar Maps which doesn't yet work on 64 bit vista.

With the regular 32 bit version of vista all or our software will work, but sometimes you have to adjust a certain setting after the program gets installed before it will run properly. More on that below.

At the end of April a friend got a nice new 64 bit computer from Dell and he received the normal 32 bit version of "Vista Home" with it. So it seems that this is what they are shipping for now, the 32 bit version, but if you are ordering a new computer right now be sure to specify the 32 bit version of Vista and you will have a lot less problems.

There does exist a 64 bit version of Vista Home and Vista Premium, but right now you have to order it directly from Microsoft. That might change though, so if you are ordering a new computer be sure to specify the 32 bit version to be sure.

Sometimes on Vista there's a little setting you have to adjust on some of the older versions of our software.
If the program crashes as soon as you try to open it, that means that the program wants administrator access. This is a common problem with older programs. How you do that is:

right click on the program's icon on the desktop, then click on properties, then click on the 'compatibility' tab, and on this compatibility page, check the box where it says 'run this program as an administrator' all the other checkboxes on this compatibility page can remain unchecked.

How do I check which Kind of Vista I have 32 or 64 bit?
Press and hold down the windows key on the keyboard (between the ctrl and alt keys) and then press the 'pause' key on the keyboard. This will bring up the 'System' screen from the control panel. In here in the middle of the page it will say either '32 bit operating system' or '64 bit operating system.'

Ray

[kitmiller]

I am trying to move my charts to my new vista pc; solarfire opens, but when I try to import my old charts, no files show up in the import window that solarfire opens. I have moved the files physically to the userdata folder, but they are not showing up when I select Open and File. Just shows the Main2 database.

I am using Solar Fire Deluxe 6 0 3 1, and I have updated it here to the latest update.

If I double click my older files, they open into SF no problem.

Your help would be greatly appreciated, since I cannot live without this program !!

:>

[ray]

If you have the files in the proper userdata folder they will appear if you click on chart / open and file. Make sure you actually click on the purple button on the word 'file', and not the little down arrow on the button. The down arrow shows only the last 10 files recently used in SF6, but if you click on the word 'file' you get a more powerful 'file management' page.

Also people often copy their files into the wrong folder unintentionally. What people often do is they will pick up the old userdata folder and drop it on top of the new userdata folder and this doesn't work. It causes a second userdata folder to be created inside of the first userdata folder which won't work. So you want to pick up the inidividual chart files and drop them onto the userdata folder instead.

On the chart / open / file page (aka the 'file management' page) there is a 'folder' button which will allow you to navigate the hard disk and locate your chart files wherever they may be on the computer, but if you don't know much about windows file managment and folder browsing you may want to try one of the easier options below.


There are several easier ways to do this But most of them require that you still have the old computer up and running. I recommend that people keep their old computers for 3 months, because hard disks on new computers have the highest failure rate in the first three months, and you may need that old computer yet while you are waiting for the new one to be repaired.

So if you have the old computer then go to the old computer and start up Solar Fire and click on 'utilities' and 'backup chart files' and then select either a floppy disk drive or a usb memory stick to backup the charts onto. They will easily fit on a floppy. Then you go to the new computer and insert the backup and then start Solar Fire and select 'utilities' and 'restore chart files.'

Everybody should have at least one backup of their chart files.

If you don't have a floppy disk drive on both computers, or a usb memory stick (they are really cheap now and even a small one should work) or if you need to backup more than just the chart files, then you can use a free program on our web site called 'astrobackup' to backup all your solar fire files and burn them onto a CD. Then next you insert the burned CD into the new computer and it will automatically bring up the restore program and restore the files to the right place. Here is the link for that, be sure to watch the instrucitonal video which requires adobe flash player from adobe.com
http://alabe.com/astrobackup/

Finally, if you can't do any of the above then you can double click the old file like you said, and then just save all the charts to a new file in the new program. Do that by double clicking the old file and thereby loading all the charts into Solar Fire 6. Then click on the first chart it in the loaded charts list, then hold down the shift key on the keyboard and click on the last chart in the list. This will select them all. Then right click on the selected charts and select 'Save to file' and on the 'file management' screen hit the 'create' button to create a new file to save the charts in, and then press the 'select' button to save those charts in that new file.

Ray

[kitmiller]

Ray,
All it took was clicking on the word File instead of the drop down arrow. Odd little quirk !!

Thanks for giving me such a fast response!!!

Kit