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Topic: Windows Vista and Help files (Read 16722 times) previous topic - next topic

Windows Vista and Help files

My PC has Windows Vista.   I have just installed NWC 1.75b and discovered that I can't access the on-line help files.   If I upgrade to NWC 1.75c or to NWC2 Beta version will this resolve the problem?   I'm a very inexperienced user of NWC and not a musician so the on-line help is really crucial.

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #1 –
I moved your topics out of the NWC2 area.

See your other post for details on correcting Microsoft's original decision to remove WinHelp from the RTM version of Vista.

NWC2 currently uses HtmlHelp, which works on the RTM version of Vista.

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #2 –
Thanks for that - I'll download NWC2 (Beta version) and see if that resolves the problem of missing on-line help.
Isn't it just typical of Microsoft to unilatterly discontinue its own standard for 'On-Line Help' files.   By the way I'm not sure what RTM version of Vista is - my PC has Windows Vista Ultimate - does that make a difference vis-a-vis NWC2?
Bill515

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #3 –
Actually, Microsoft has historically been pretty careful to protect backward compatibility. In my opinion, Vista is a pretty radical departure from this history.

My reference to RTM was meant to signify the retail versions of Vista (Basic, Premium, Ultimate ...), either preinstalled on computers, or on the retail shelves. As mentioned in the other topic, you can now download support for WinHelp direct from the Microsoft web site. Microsoft has specifically disallowed third parties (such as Noteworthy Software) from providing this functionality. You have to get it direct from Microsoft.

See also:

FAQ - Accessing Help on Windows Vista
http://ntworthy.com/composer/faq/103.htm

Google Search
http://www.google.com/search?q=vista+winhelp

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #4 –
Here is a funny/sarcastic article on upgrading to Microsoft's next big thing in operating systems. This upgrade even includes support for WinHelp right out of the box.

Review: Windows XP


Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #5 –
Thanks for posting this link, Eric. I sent it to two of my sons-in-law who are IT professionals and found that one had "upgraded" back to WinXP several months ago and the other had traded in his Vista Ultimate box for a Mac. One of them added that scuttlebut says there is no demand for pirated Vista copies in places such as China where software piracy is common. It looks as though Microsoft has found its Edsel.

Cheers,

Bill

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #6 –
Quote
It looks as though Microsoft has found its Edsel.

That was Windows ME, wasn't it? 

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #7 –
Quote
That was Windows ME, wasn't it?
I actually liked ME, for the most part.
I'm hating Vista right now, though.  Would love to switch to XP...

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #8 –
I bought and installed ME, but uninstalled it after some months and went back to 98.

XP is ok for me.  If I had my druthers, though, I'd be back on Windows 3.11 or even DOS 5.


Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #9 –
I'm really thinking about reverting to XP. Vista gets on my nerves. Even MS own pre-installed programs give me trouble. It doesn't seem to be compatible with itself!

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #11 –
Quote from: David Palmquist –
If I had my druthers, though, I'd be back on Windows 3.11 or even DOS 5.
I'm curious. What did you use in DOS 5 that wasn't availiable in DOS 3.1?

Win95 was a big improvement over Win3x.

Other than large drive support, I haven't seen much to get excited about in the last 12 years.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Rick G.
What did you use in DOS 5 that wasn't availiable in DOS 3.1?

IIRC, DOS 5 was basically the debugged version of DOS 4, which was almost as buggy as Vista. The improvements over DOS 3 included a file management shell and a help system, both of which I found very useful. Ver. 5 was also, I think, the first version of DOS to include QBASIC, which was certainly an improvement over GW-BASIC, IMHO.

So I think there was some significant improvement there. But I certainly agree with Rick that there hasn't been much improvement in the last 12 years, other than the elimination of the aritificial barriers on file and hard drive sizes, which were a legacy of Windows' origin as a DOS GUI. It's nice to have those removed. Also the 512-files-per-directory barrier. All of that stemmed from an early decision by the MS crew that no one could ever possibly need any more than 64K of RAM. They were soon proved wrong, of course, but multiples of 64 ruled the PC world right up to the release of XP. You might say they still do.

More memories.....

Bill

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #13 –
Quote from: William Ashworth –
IIRC, DOS 5 was basically the debugged version of DOS 4, which was almost as buggy as Vista. The improvements over DOS 3 included a file management shell and a help system, both of which I found very useful. Ver. 5 was also, I think, the first version of DOS to include QBASIC, which was certainly an improvement over GW-BASIC, IMHO.
Yeah, DOS 5 fixed DOS 4's buggy file management shell and help system by removing it.

I rather liked the help system, bugs and all. It looked like the start of integrated database support, something that Windows still lacks.

You are right about QBASIC. I used QB4 and BC7 (QBASIC's cousin and big brother) with DOS 3.x  QBASIC would strike anyone as a big improvement compared to BASICA or GW-BASIC.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #14 –
DOS 5 - memory management!  Good old DOS=High, LOADHIGH and DEVICEHIGH.  Of course, the menu system in the CONFIG.SYS wasn't unwelcome either...

Until DOS 5 you simply couldn't fit enough TSR's into a PC's RAM and still have sufficient RAM to actually run some programs.

This was something very important to me as a network manager - I NEEDED those TSR's for NIC drivers and shell/redirector programs.

Memory management was the key, as for the rest, well, I couldn't have cared less...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #15 –
....and wasn't it grand, boys....?

I started computing on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III - the one we all knew as the "trash-80". 48 great big K of RAM. A proprietary version of BASIC, essentially BASICA with a few Tandy-originated quirks. Entered the PC-compatible world with a Tandy 1000, clock speed 8 mhz, and had to rewrite all the programs I had written on the trash-80 so they would run in GW-BASIC. Put slowdown loops in some of them because of that blazingly fast 8 mhz speed (the z80 chip on the trash-80 ran at 4 mhz). A few of those programs are still running on my wife's Win2000 machine today, reconfigured as QBASIC programs. One I eventually rewrote in C and released as a shareware game....which went nowhere....but which I recently found online on a site devoted to legacy games. That was great, because my only existing copy was on a floppy, which my current laptop can't read. I was able to download my own game and start playing it again.

....memories, memories. Computers can do so much more today, but oh, gentlemen, didn't we have fun!

Cheers,

Bill

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #16 –
First computer (other then reading some manuals) -- 1958, an IBM 650, a really fancy one.  Besides 2000 ten digit (decimal) words of storage on a drum there were THREE index registers.  Plus lots of vacuum tubes.  Later, when some tape drives were added they came with 60 words of ferrite core memory.  I came in one morning and found that the air conditioner had died, but being winter in Wisconsin we just opened the windows and that kept it cool enough for the tubes not to start melting.

I didn't seen a non-mainframe (IBM 709, 7090, 1410, 1440, 7010, 7044, then to S/360 including model 67, S/370, lots of models) until we started using the first PC in place of 3270 dumb terminals.  I had one at home, with a 300 baud acoustic  coupler so I could dial into the lab.  I dabbled in RISC machines, then retired and had to actually BUY a computer!

Almost never used BASIC in any form.  Started with assembler, and continued almost to the end (but never learn it for PCs), with some FORTRAN, PL/I, APL, SNOBAL, and lot of LISP.  Never used a non-IBM computer until I retired (IBM Research, 31 years) and had my own PC.

I still miss assembly language.  To quote someone (forgot who) I liked being barefoot and feeling the bits between my toes.

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #18 –
:)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #19 –
I started with FORTRAN in school, but much of my work was in COBOL and some Assembler, then COBOL and C. The office's first PC came around 1988, but we didn't do much productive with the GWBASIC on it except play games.  This is a transcription I made of the Black Box program.

As an aside, a backup generator is keeping me online now.  We are still in the dark since a tornado (mile north of me) and strong straight line winds hit around noon on 4/4.
Since 1998

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #20 –
Quote from: William Ashworth –
....and wasn't it grand, boys....?

... One I eventually rewrote in C and released as a shareware game....which went nowhere....but which I recently found online on a site devoted to legacy games. That was great, because my only existing copy was on a floppy, which my current laptop can't read. I was able to download my own game and start playing it again.

SNAP! I worked on a game back in 1991 ("Alien Drug Lords" - a drug busting game which was panned by the media as a drug-running game (exact opposite).) Whilst it wasn't great, it wasn't bad. Anyhow, it worked only Amigas, and I got rid of my Amiga after several indicative shifts in market. Net result, the game only exists on legacy game sites... Perhaps more popular now than when we released it... (I'm even credited as Musician: Abdrew Purdam on one site! Thank goodness for unrepentant typos!)

and I guess we move on!

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #21 –
Oh, thank you, David!

Bill

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #22 –
ARGH!

Why is Vista so @*&^#*&# SLOW?!?!?
 

Re: Windows Vista and Help files

Reply #23 –
Dos 3.1 wasn't much good... Too few file handles. Working with dBASE and Clipper, Dos 3.2 and 3.3 brought long longed-after enhancements. But Dos 5, yes, that was sooo cool, with everything that went up high. 640 K all for yourself, well, nearly.
I like my XP now. It does all kinds of things that were absolutely impossible back in the old days. Vista will have to improve drastically before I ever switch over to it.
I would probably not even touch a free copy. I have no machine that is powerful enough to run it on. Leave that to (relatively) zooming XP.