Highfields Amateur Radio Club
PC Help Pages.

The way that Windows Vista works makes the PC less likely to have system files altered by malicious software, however it can cause problems with older (pre Vista) software that will run within Vista but is, obviously, unaware of the new operating method.

Older programs will, usually, write information to the Program Files folder. Vista has this, and other areas, set as restricted access and any programs written for Vista should be writing their data to the Application Data folder within the users' own area. When a program tries to write to the Program Files folder and is denied it invokes the User Account Control (UAC) but the older programs don't "know" about the UAC and this may cause the program to hang or even cause a catasthophic system crash.

Running Older Software:

You can use a software run-time mode known as Elevated Mode. To set a program to run in elevated mode every time you will need to log in as an Administrator, then:


1. Install the application as usual, noting where it is installed to or use the search to find a previously installed application that's having problems.
   
   
2. Open the folder where the application resides and right click on the program icon and select Properties from the menu :
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Select the Compatability tab (ringed in orange) will give you:
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. If you are the only user of your PC:
   Put a tick in the box for Run this program as an administrator (ringed in red).
   
   If there are other users of the PC who will be likely to use the program:
   Click on the Show settings for all users (ringed in green) then put a tick in the box for Run this program as an administrator in the new properties window that opened.
   
   
5. Click OK.

The program will now run in the elevated mode and be able to access the areas that are otherwise "off limits".

(The 2820 cloning software was used as an example, it works just fine in Vista without being in elevated mode).