TowerBase Home > Windows Vista
A small number of TowerBase users have reported that they cannot get TowerBase to work using the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. I do not know how many people are using TowerBase with Vista but I guess it would be dozens by now. Several ringers have reported that they are using TowerBase with Windows Vista without problems.
I demonstrated TowerBase on a laptop using the Vista Home Premium operating system at the 2008 Ringing Roadshow.
I use TowerBase, without any problems, on my lap top computer which runs Windows Vista Home Premium. However, there seem to be some general compatibility issues with Windows Vista and a few items of software that I have purchased from commercial companies, for use with Windows XP, do not appear to work with Windows Vista.
There is an issue with the Help feature in TowerBase. The TowerBase help files were developed using Microsoft's .HLP format. For some reason, Microsoft dropped support for .HLP help files in Windows Vista. However, Ted Steele has found a way round this problem: I got the help download from the Microsoft site here. It requires you to accept an Active X control and to run the Windows Genuine Advantage check, so it won't install to illegal copies of windows. A stand alone installer comes first in the download then it looks for updates and downloads the actual file. At one point it offered a choice of two files to download, with instructions to select the appropriate one. I had no idea what the file names meant but as one was highlighted I guessed that this had been identified for me. Anyway, it worked.