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And JavaCard...
Edit: I mean yes, in order to make JavaCard a thing, they took out I/O streams, Garbage collection etc. But still, it runs on a string of wire powered by radio waves!
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Java Card still it requires an overhead of a JVM, puts to much space between the Metal and application...
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Got an old customer who is running her business using a custom program that was written years ago. Been recently reinstalled on a Windows 10 computer as the other one died (not sure what was wrong with it) and obviously doesn't run as expected which could be sue to configuration not done on the new computer or just Windows 10 doing things differently.
One of the things that ain't working is printing of labels with barcodes. Got the barcode printing software installed but from what I'm told, part way through using it it would dump 2 files to the Desktop that she would double-click to load in the label software and she could print away.
The files are not being created, I have looked in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore but the directory is completely empty. Programmer doesn't want to know her (neither do I) so isn't providing any details on where things might be.
Anyone have any idea where they might hide? No, I don't know what the files were called, I'm getting a million different names from her and the old husband talking in the background with helpful suggestions, isn't helpful.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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They can run, and they can hide too. Wow!
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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Wild guesses -- run as admin? Run in "compatibility mode?"
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Marc Clifton wrote: Wild guesses -- run as admin? Run in "compatibility mode?"
Thanks Marc, tried them, didn't think to add that to the post. She was nattering as I was trying to compose the post.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Have you tried running the application as administrator, or adjusted the compatibility settings for it?
You could search for files created by date and see where all the new ones are hiding.
Is defender (or other AV) potentially quarantining them, maybe disable for a test.
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DaveAuld wrote: Have you tried running the application as administrator, or adjusted the compatibility settings for it?
Done, no good.
DaveAuld wrote: You could search for files created by date and see where all the new ones are hiding.
Searched and couldn't find any files created anywhere.
DaveAuld wrote: Is defender (or other AV) potentially quarantining them, maybe disable for a test.
She had Avast, it was obtrusive when installing and never poped up while running so don't thin it was a problem.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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If she can run the old version - i.e. she still has the Win7 machine handy - then get her to run it, and use "right click ... properties" to find the full path to the files.
You should be able to use that to help locate them on the Win10 machine - or at least get the file names?
Alternatively, install a Win7 VM and leave her with that?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: If she can run the old version - i.e. she still has the Win7 machine handy - then get her to run it, and use "right click ... properties" to find the full path to the files.
You should be able to use that to help locate them on the Win10 machine - or at least get the file names?
Doesn't have it. She did turn on an even older XP machine that was trying to update the software in question. So no luck. I was hoping for the file names but nothing at the moment.
OriginalGriff wrote: Alternatively, install a Win7 VM and leave her with that?
Not interested in that much work, whinges when it comes to paying, not happening. Not sure there isn't something else needed to get stuff going either.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I had a very similar situation with a barcode printer/software, (Argox brand) - older model, no drivers for the model beyond Vista and even that was considere3d experimental.
1. It sort of worked on 7, but would quit after 4 labels (and they were printing hundreds.)
2. It sort of worked a bit better on an XP VM (windows XP mode), 20 labels then quit.
3. Other VM's no luck, nothing, nada.
(the worst was the "sort of work" result would always need a power off/on reboot to try again.)
Anyway, the only solution that worked was to run XP, native on metal.
How did I manage that?
Went down to their PC graveyard, found a slightly less old machine that worked:
1MB RAM, Pentium 3 I think), an intel 80G SSD from an old vista all-in-1
(Note: every single HDD I tried was dead - even some quite recent ones half the age of the SSD - while every single SSD I found worked, 60G, 120G. woah!)
Installed XP SP3 (from an ISO on a stick). Luckily they had Dells - XP license printed on the sticker so no cheatin either.
The bios battery's is out, showed them how to get past that, (and suggested they just leave it on)
2 years on it's still flawless - SSD included. Although it's only got 1 job: bar codes
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 Lopatir wrote: I had a very similar situation with a barcode printer/software, (Argox brand) - older model, no drivers for the model beyond Vista and even that was considere3d experimental.
1. It sort of worked on 7, but would quit after 4 labels (and they were printing hundreds.)
2. It sort of worked a bit better on an XP VM (windows XP mode), 20 labels then quit.
3. Other VM's no luck, nothing, nada.
(the worst was the "sort of work" result would always need a power off/on reboot to try again.)
Anyway, the only solution that worked was to run XP, native on metal.
How did I manage that?
Went down to their PC graveyard, found a slightly less old machine that worked:
1MB RAM, Pentium 3 I think), an intel 80G SSD from an old vista all-in-1
(Note: every single HDD I tried was dead - even some quite recent ones half the age of the SSD - while every single SSD I found worked, 60G, 120G. woah!)
Installed XP SP3 (from an ISO on a stick). Luckily they had Dells - XP license printed on the sticker so no cheatin either.
The bios battery's is out, showed them how to get past that, (and suggested they just leave it on)
2 years on it's still flawless - SSD included. Although it's only got 1 job: bar codes
Not putting that much work in for this, though great story.
Horse equipment and stuff, nothing doing finding and old computer let alone a working one.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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A Windows program? If not, you may want to try DOSBOX.
If all else fails, they'd best buy a compatible 2nd hand computer that is still capable of running their old system, and then transferring it to something more modern.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: A Windows program? If not, you may want to try DOSBOX.
Yes Windows program so no need for that.
Eddy Vluggen wrote: If all else fails, they'd best buy a compatible 2nd hand computer that is still capable of running their old system, and then transferring it to something more modern.
I didn't get a call when it died or any questions for advice on the new computer so not getting a new 2nd hand one for them.
Thanks for the ideas.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Michael Martin wrote: Got an old customer who is running her business using a custom program that was written years ago.
DOS or Windows program?
Michael Martin wrote: Been recently reinstalled on a Windows 10 computer as the other one died (not sure what was wrong with it) and obviously doesn't run as expected which could be sue to configuration not done on the new computer or just Windows 10 doing things differently.
Backup(if it's there) from old machine could be useful. Was there any automatic backups in old machines(any saved data in CD/DVDs)? Possibly data backups.
Michael Martin wrote: Got the barcode printing software installed but from what I'm told, part way through using it it would dump 2 files to the Desktop that she would double-click to load in the label software and she could print away.
Couldn't expect help docs from that much very old programs. Better check
Michael Martin wrote: Anyone have any idea where they might hide? No, I don't know what the files were called,
Possibly Registry.
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thatraja wrote: DOS or Windows program?
Windows to .mdb I think.
thatraja wrote: Backup(if it's there) from old machine could be useful. Was there any automatic backups in old machines(any saved data in CD/DVDs)? Possibly data backups.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Oh data backups, yes, of the.mdb files only.
thatraja wrote: Couldn't expect help docs from that much very old programs. Better check
They still have the phone number of the original programmer. He doesn't want anything to do with it. Neither do I, but he's probably been engaged with them longer so it at the faarrrkkkk no stage.
thatraja wrote: Possibly Registry.
Possibly, but everything seems to be file based so I doubt it.
Thanks.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Decompile it to work out what the code is doing.
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F-ES Sitecore wrote: Decompile it to work out what the code is doing.
I'd prefer to move into Management.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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check the windows event logs, all of them.
there could be a number of issues going on here, my initial reaction is that there is a .dll or two, or three that are needed and no longer can be found. If they are swallowing errors in the app, then you will only see this in the event logs...hopefully.
Start there.
Might want to see if you can track down the "creator" of this mysterious and magical custom program, and see what they have to say.
good luck.
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Slacker007 wrote: check the windows event logs, all of them.
there could be a number of issues going on here, my initial reaction is that there is a .dll or two, or three that are needed and no longer can be found. If they are swallowing errors in the app, then you will only see this in the event logs...hopefully.
Thanks hopefully that won't be needed but probably will.
Slacker007 wrote: Might want to see if you can track down the "creator" of this mysterious and magical custom program, and see what they have to say.
As mentioned in one of my other relies, they have his phone number and he's refusing to take ny part in the program at all any more.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Michael Martin wrote: it would dump 2 files to the Desktop
Which desktop? There are two "desktop" folders - the one in the user profile, and the shared one that's usually in C:\Users\Public\Desktop.
Of course, if the application is old enough, it might just assume the desktop folder is in a fixed location, and write the files somewhere completely different.
If you can get access to the machine, maybe Process Monitor[^] might help to identify the problem.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Richard Deeming wrote: Which desktop? There are two "desktop" folders - the one in the user profile, and the shared one that's usually in C:\Users\Public\Desktop.
Shouldn't matter which as they both display on the current users Desktop. Plus I reckon this may have been written around the time of Vista so though it may have existed the Public\Desktop wasn't targetted.
Richard Deeming wrote: Of course, if the application is old enough, it might just assume the desktop folder is in a fixed location, and write the files somewhere completely different.
That's what I believe C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore is for. Have another old customer that has bucket loads of data in a Palm III database. I installed that software and to get to the data you have to get in to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Folder (x86)\Palm\...
Richard Deeming wrote: If you can get access to the machine, maybe Process Monitor[^] might help to identify the problem.
I couldn't be paid enough to start wading through that murky pile of sh*t.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Michael Martin wrote: That's what I believe C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore is for.
That only works if the application doesn't have a manifest. If it was written for Vista, isn't running elevated, and doesn't have permission to write to the folder, it'll just get an "access denied" error.
For the purposes of this virtualization, Windows Vista treats a process as legacy if it’s 32-bit (versus 64-bit), is not running with administrative rights, and does not have a manifest file indicating that it was written for Windows Vista.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Use Process Monitor to find out where the application is (presumably) trying (and failing) to write to.
If you've never used it before it's got a really steep learning curve, and depending on how active the software is you might benefit from creating a HelloFileSystem test app to help figure out how to set your filters, but it's a really useful tool for snooping on what an application is trying to do behind the scenes.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: Use Process Monitor to find out where the application is (presumably) trying (and failing) to write to.
If you've never used it before it's got a really steep learning curve, and depending on how active the software is you might benefit from creating a HelloFileSystem test app to help figure out how to set your filters, but it's a really useful tool for snooping on what an application is trying to do behind the scenes.
I'm not that invested in this by a long shot. I'll invest in a carton of beer instead.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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