Re: Very strange: program validates differently in 98 and XP
- From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 16:16:07 -0700
Cherns wrote:
This is a problem (happening to my accountant, to whom I serve as
informal computer advisor) so strange to me that I hardly know how to
describe it, as a long-time programmer I have a lot of trouble
understanding how it could come about, and involving a number of
components so I'm not even sure *where* the problem lies.
Background: my accountant was running Win98, was panicked by the
announcements of no support, so he bought a new Dell a couple of
months ago, with OEM WinXPpro/SP2. Faced with a large number of
applications to migrate (and discarded installation CDs), we used
LapLink PCMover, which migrates applications, registry entries, DLLs,
data, and allegedly everything else, from one Windows machine to
another with a later OS. The migration seemed to go well, and most
of the programs work fine.
I never trust programs like this. Although sometimes they work, sometimes
they don't. Apparently you've run into one of the "sometimes they don't"
scenarios. I've had similar bad experiences with other similar "mover"
programs in the past
I can't explain exactly what has gone wrong in this case, but if it were me,
I would uninstall the program, then reinstall it from scratch (reinstalling
it from scratch is what I would have done with all the programs in the first
place).
--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
One program, however (TaxByte, a Canadian tax program, the company
long
since absorbed by its competitor), the versions for several years,
show a strange anomaly: there are a number of form fields that have
to be filled in with a Y or an N, but putting Y or N or anything else
brings up the error box with the message "Must be "Y" or "N"". Even
for fields that are pre-filled with a Y, just tabbing through the
field (or clicking on the field and then clicking on another) brings
up the error. Similarly, for fields that must be filled with an X or
a blank, either of these brings up an error message "Must be "X" or
blank"--but a null field (that is, entering the field and pressing
Delete) passes the validation edit. Using the Compatibility Wizard
and telling Windows to handle the program as Win98 doesn't help.
I have looked through the registry and .INI files looking for edit
field values and/or error messages, unsuccessfully. The programs
continue to work on the old machine. I find it hard to believe that
XP had a way of interpreting form input that's different from 98. I
don't know whether the problem was with the transfer, or some quirk
in the application programming, or in 98-XP differences.
FWIW: We did find some installation CDs for TaxByte; however,
attempting to re-install the program brings up some sort of progress
bar for a brief moment, then nothing. I'm a little reluctant to
attempt to remove and re-install the program, for fear of messing
things up more and irretrieveably.
Any suggestions or insights gratefully accepted. (I will, however,
be out
of town until the end of the month, so will be unable to respond
before that.) Many thanks. --Howard Cherniack
.
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