7 Replies Latest reply on Jan 4, 2007 4:23 PM by Andrew Carter

    Will SW become Windows-compatible soon?

    Dietmar Rempfer
    Dietmar Rempfer Dec 31, 2006 3:18 PM
      Is there any word as to whether, at least with the upcoming Vistaversion, Solidworks will finally adhere to Windowscompatibility requirements? I have just installed SW 2006 SP5.1,and I had a hell of a time modifying the installation to teachSolidworks to run for a Limited User account. Frankly, Ithink it is an outright scandal for any major software developer tocontinue selling products for Windows that violate compatibilityguidelines that have been out for about a decade now. Heck, evenAutoDesk has by now managed to sell Windows-compatiblesoftware...

      So, now that Microsoft finally sets up user accounts as LimitedAccounts by default in Vista (the way they should always have beenset up, by the way), will SolidWorks provide software that canactually run for such users?
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        • Will SW become Windows-compatible soon?
          John Burrill
          John Burrill Jan 2, 2007 2:09 PM (in response to Dietmar Rempfer)
          http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~...1/pubs/vista_cost.txt
          You'll find out in February-along with whether you'll be able to run Solidworks at Greater than 640x480 with an HDMI device connected to your computer.
            • Will SW become Windows-compatible soon?
              Dietmar Rempfer
              Dietmar Rempfer Jan 3, 2007 12:30 PM (in response to John Burrill)

               

              Originally posted by: John Burrill http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~.../pubs/vista_cost.txtYou'll find out in February-along with whether you'll be able torun Solidworks at Greater than 640x480 with an HDMI deviceconnected to your computer.



              Apart from being mostly nonsense, see here, this really has nothing whatsoever to do with what I wasasking. The issue I am talking about is whether the next versionof Solidworks will be properly designed from aWindows-compliance point of view, or if it will still assume thatit runs on a system in an MS-DOS-like environment, stripped of allprotections afforded by modern operating systems. If the latter,I'll take my business elsewhere.
                • Will SW become Windows-compatible soon?
                  Stefan Hamminga
                  Stefan Hamminga Jan 3, 2007 5:04 PM (in response to Dietmar Rempfer)
                  Since you seem to know what is wrong with SW you could post your changes and have them included in SW?
                  That way you would be productive instead of just bitching about something that perhaps has had a lower priority than delivering a good functioning CAD package.
                    • Will SW become Windows-compatible soon?
                      Dietmar Rempfer
                      Dietmar Rempfer Jan 4, 2007 12:14 PM (in response to Stefan Hamminga)
                      Well, the issue is that right now we have a CAD package that doesnot function at all, if you are interested in running yourcomputer in an even remotely competent and secure configuration. Wealso have a software package that will not run for the default userconfiguration in Vista. Good functioning? Not in my book, no. Iwant to make one thing very clear: Microsoft has set outrequirements that a user-mode application needs to meet in order tobe considered Windows-compatible. This happened roughly 10 yearsago. SolidWorks does not meet these requirements. Caseclosed.

                      As far as posting the necessary changes, if it were that simple.First of all, including the necessary modifications in theSolidWorks install would be a trivial matter for the developers,but it requires a very significant amount of competence on the sideof the user to change the installation after the fact. It cost me acouple of hours of work with various debugging  tools,decoding and sorting the hundreds of access violations SolidWorkswould generate on startup for a Standard User account. After havingidentified the issues, you need to be comfortable editing theregistry, and adjusting ACLs for both the registry and the filesystem. Finally, it appears that some of the issues aremachine-dependent, so what works for me may not work for someone ona different computer. So, no, I cannot simply post the necessarychanges, but there is also no need for me to do that. Thedevelopers of SolidWorks are well aware of the issues, and theycould easily fix them if they chose to.