Installation under Windows NT4/Windows 2000

Pronto Edit is designed for the Windows 9X family of operating systems. It also works under Windows ME (the successor of Windows 98). Another series of operating systems is the NT series, and the versions nowadays in use are Windows NT4/2000. Although Pronto Edit is not designed for this range of operating systems, it will work. But there a few things to keep in mind when installing it on a Windows NT4/2000 based system.

Installation

When installing Pronto Edit in Windows NT4/2000, the customer has to log in as administrator and has to make sure no other software is running in the background (especially virus or system scanners have to be closed down).

Crashes/Illegal operations

Also sometimes Pronto Edit happens to crash or saying "illegal operation" in Windows NT4/2000.

A possible solution is the following procedure:
1. Start Windows Explorer;
2. In the main root of the drive Pronto Edit is installed, there is a file called: Pronto.css.
3. Copy this file to the directory where Pronto Edit and Emulator are located.
4. Now most of the bugs should be solved.

Learning IR codes under Windows NT4/2000

Furthermore, there is a problem with regard to learning IR codes via Pronto. In Pronto Edit, you can learn an IR code via Pronto, when it is connected to the computer. In this case, the customer sends an original IR code to the learning eye of Pronto and this signal is sent to the computer, in order to process it in Pronto Edit. Under Windows NT4/2000, this is not possible. When a customer tries to do this, Pronto Edit causes a fatal error and will close down.

Given that Windows XP is standard on virtually all home machines sold today (and there's no excuse in the first place for a Win32 application not to work on NT/Win2k/XP unless it uses features only in XP or Win2k), isn't it about time XP got official support? :-)

It's not just Philips, of course. Lots of companies, particularly who make games, are trying to skip on officially supporting XP despite the fact there's no technical reason why they shouldn't and it's a far better OS then the Win9x-based ones unless you're on a very low-spec machine. Sigh!

(That said, I've used ProntoEdit on Win2k for a long time without any problems myself. I've just installed XP but haven't tried ProntoEdit yet.)

I have used pronto on XP for a couple of weeks and have experienced very few problems (just the normal crap I get with 95/98/2000)..

At least 2000 and XP crash gracefully, mainly avoiding the BSoD, and a reboot.

:)

PE works fine under Windows XP (apart from learning codes).

other than crashes learning codes and some strange visual behaviour with the maximize and minimize buttons i have no issues with pe on xp either. works great - less filling. :)

I guess I got spoiled learning codes directly into PE in Win98. Although I second Leo's comment...

"no excuse for a Win32 application not to work...

We're only talking serial communication here. It can't possibly be any more difficult to handle than a 56K external modem. XP also has a feature called "program compatibility wizard" which can make changes in the way individual programs start up and access memory. I've had no luck with it, but give it a try.

The difference has to lie is PE needing direct access to the serial port. The NT based OS’s have a software layer in between Windows and the physical hardware (HAL...Hardware Abstraction Layer). This actually makes the OS more stable by preventing simple things like I/O errors on a serial port from crashing Windows (Hence Steve's "crash gracefully").

If you have XP or at lease Internet Explorer 6 on your machine, use the IE error report that displays when PE crashes to send a report to Microsoft. (only sends error codes...no personal info for conspiracy theory fans) If enough responses get sent, maybe Microsoft will come up with a solution. Sadly, we're really talking about a luxury item (not to me, mind you) but it's worth a shot until Phillips comes out with an NT/2k/XP compatible version.