If you are tech savvy and follow any of the IT news feeds, you would have heard last year that the internet was running out of Address space. To remedy this, they implemented Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in a wide range of operating systems, such as Windows Vista/7 and Windows Server 2008.

The latest version of Practice Management uses advanced DirectX based graphics rendering techniques that make use of hardware-accelerated rendering pipelines. Thanks to this technique, we are able to provide our users with a much higher quality and more responsive interface than what was previously possible.

In order to bring you and your clients the highest quality invoices possible, we have updated the letterhead system to bring you the highest quality image possible.

If you are unsure if you are an Access or a SQL user of Office Tools Professional, there are several ways to determine which you are.

Which of the following images looks like your version of Office Tools Professional?

Access Version:

SQL Version:

We have recently encountered an issue with Wireless Netwoks when utilizing Windows XP Compatibility Mode under Windows 7 and Virtual PC under Windows Vista. The following quote from Ben Armstrong (Microsoft's Virtualization Program Manager) explains why.

Some people have noticed that our support for virtual networking when using a physical wireless network adapter is a bit hit and miss. The reason for this is because in order to perform our virtual networking - we implement an OSI layer 2 filter driver that creates network packets with the MAC address of the appropriate virtual machine. Unfortunately the wireless networking standard explicitly forbids the creation of network packets with different MAC addresses to that of the physical computer (for security reasons). To handle this - when we detect that we are using a wireless network adapter we create packets where some of the MAC addresses in the packet match that of the virtual machine - while the other MAC addresses match that of the physical computer.

Given this approach we find that some wireless networking hardware works, but other hardware doesn't. When it doesn't work it will either:

1. Just throw away all network traffic from the virtual machine - and the virtual machine will behave like it is disconnected.
2. Think that the network traffic from the virtual machine is actually coming from the physical computer. This will cause things like the virtual machine being assigned the same IP address as the physical computer.

If you are seeing either of these symptoms your options are:

1. Try different wireless networking hardware (either at the wireless adapter or the wireless access point). I would only recommend doing this if you have the hardware handy.
2. Use Shared networking under Virtual PC - or the Microsoft loopback adapter and Internet connections sharing with either Virtual Server or Virtual PC (as discussed here: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/04/477195.aspx).

Cheers,
Ben

Published Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:19 PM by Virtual PC Guy

Filed under: Virtual PC / Server Tips 'n' Tricks

This basically states that the methods in which the Virtual Network card access the real network card are stricly forbidden by the Wireless Network Security standard. The reason it works on some wireless network hardware and not others is because some wireless hardware does not conform to the Wireless Network Security standard. This means that all secure network hardware will not be compatible with a virtual environment. So if your virtual pc environment IS compatible with your wireless networking hardware, then your network probably is not entirely secure.

A Link to this blog entry can be found here. This issue has only increased our stance against using wireless networks with Office Tools Professional. Wireless networks (typically) are not stable enough for Office Tools to remain 'constantly on'. Any sort of network disruption can cause errors that may result in data loss. This is why we strongly suggest that all Office Tools Professional users utilize any of the modern gigabit wired routers and wired NIC cards that are available on the market today. The cost of setting up a wired network is cheap when compared to that of a wireless network, yet the stability and bandwidth of a gigabit network far surpasses anything a top-of-the-line wireless network can offer.

Since running Office Tools Professional on Windows 7 utilizes a Virtual Windows XP Environment ( as described in the 'Document Management on Windows 7' article ), you must assign the drop folder differently than you would normally.

Since your Windows 7 desktop and your Windows XP Compatibility Mode desktop are two completely different locations, you will need to find the location of your Windows 7 Drop Folder from within your Windows XP environment (dont worry, this is very easy).

First, find out the name of your Windows 7 computer by right-clicking the 'Computer' icon on the start menu, selecting 'Properties', and noting what is says under 'Computer Name'.  create the Drop Folder on your Windows 7 Desktop. Then open Office Tools Professional, and go to Setup -> Documents -> Drop Folder and click the ellipsis (...).

Then under 'My Computer' find the area where it says 'C on Windows 7 machine' (where 'Windows 7 Machine' is the name of your computer). From there navigate to 'Users -> My Profile -> Desktop -> Drop Folder' (where 'My Profile' is your windows login name). Once you select the Drop Folder, click Ok to save your settings. Once you restart your Event Manager, you should be ready to use the Drop Folder on your Windows 7 based computer!

 

Windows 7 has an exciting new feature known as 'Windows XP Compatibility Mode'. This feature is vastly different from the 'XP Compatibility Mode' that was present within Windows Vista. This new version actually encompasses the entire Windows XP Operating System into a virtual environment, which allows for 100% compatibility with all Windows XP based applications.

This is great news to all Office Tools Professional users, but unfortunately there is a downside to using virtualization technology... You have to treat the Windows XP Compatibility Mode as another whole computer. To Office Tools, the Windows XP mode is an actual stand-alone computer, with its own processor, motherboard, hard drives, and even its own IP address. The downside to this is that when you open a file from within the Office Tools Document Management, it will use the Windows XP Mode to open that file, which can cause an issue.This can best be described using an example:

You have Adobe Reader and Microsoft Office installed on your Windows 7 machine. You then open up Office Tools, which opens in your Windows XP Compatibility virtual environment. When you try to open a Microsoft Word or an Adobe PDF file inside of Office Tools, the Windows XP mode machine does not know how to open them0.

This happens because even though you have Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader installed on your Windows 7 machine, the Windows XP Virtual Machine does not have those programs installed since it does not know that it is a virtual machine.

To remedy this, you must install all your normal document applications (Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Microsoft Works, etc) on both your Windows 7 machine, and your Windows XP Virtual machine.

Windows 7 has an exciting new feature known as 'Windows XP Compatibilty Mode'. This feature is vastly different from the 'XP Compatibility Mode' that was present within Windows Vista. This new version actually encompasses the entire Windows XP Operating System into a virtual environment, which allows for 100% compatibility with all Windows XP based applications. This feature is available in Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate only.

Before attempting to install Office Tools Professional on your Windows 7 Operating System, please visit the Windows 7 XP Compatibility Mode website and download Virtual PC for Windows 7, and the new Windows 7 XP Compatibility Mode. Be sure to watch the 'How To' videos that illustrate how to install a Windows XP Program into the XP Compatibility Mode environment, and also how to run an XP Compatibility Mode application.

Once you have Office Tools Professional installed on your Virtual PC, you will have to set up your virtual network so Office Tools Professional will have access to your database. From the Windows XP Compatibility Mode desktop, you will see a 'Tools' menu at the top of the window. From that menu, select 'Settings'.

This will open the 'Windows Virtual PC Settings' form. Select 'Networking' from the list on the left, and make sure to select your actual network adapter for the 'Adapter 1' option.

By default, this is set to 'Internal Network'. By selecting your actual network adapter (which is an 'Intel Gigabit adapter' in this case), you will be giving your Virtual environment the ability to access your network, therefore giving Office Tools Professional access to your server hosting the Office Tools database.

If your network is set up as a domain, you may have to add the virtual computer to the domain. Your network administrator or IT consultant can do this in just a few minutes. The computer can be added to the domain by opening the Start menu on the virtual computer, right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties'.

This will open the 'System Properties' dialog. Navigate to the 'Computer Name' tab, and click on the 'Change...' button.

From this dialog, select the radio button that says 'Domain', and enter in the name of your domain in the text box to its right (in this example, the domain name is 'n40s'. Once the domain name is entered, click 'OK'. You will be prompted with a Username/Password dialog box.

In this dialog, you will need to enter in the username and password of the domain administrator. The username will need to be entered in the '[Domain]\[Username]' format (in this example, the username is 'n40s\Administrator'). If you entered the username and password correctly, you should see a message box that says 'Welcome to the [your domain name] domain.' After it is finished, you will need to reboot the virtual machine. The virtual computer will automatically log back into windows once the reboot is complete. You will need to click on the 'Start' menu, and select 'Log Off'. This will take you to the 'Log On to Windows' screen.

In this dialog, click the 'Options >>' button to show the 'Log on to:' combo box. Drop down the combo box and select your domain. Then enter in your normal windows username and password (the one you use to log into your actual computer), and click 'OK'. You should now be connected to the domain, and should have all of the same windows and network security settings as your actual computer. Your virtual computer should now be able to run Office Tools Professional and connect to your Office Tools Professional database without any problems.

If you are utilizing a wireless network, please read our knowledgebase article on 'Windows 7 XP Mode (or Windows Vista with Virtual PC) and Wireless Networking' for critical information regarding wireless networks.

Due to the virtualization of Windows XP, the document management system will work differently. Please see our knowledge base article on 'Document Management in Windows 7' for more info.

If you experience any difficulties running Office Tools Professional from within your Windows 7 XP Compatibility mode environment, feel free to contact us at Support@OfficeToolsPro.com with your questions.

Firewalls and Anti-Virus programs can cause some instabilities within the Office Tools Professional system. There are exceptions you can make in your anti-virus and firewall programs to insure that your office will not experience any stability issues.

You will want to have your IT person do the following:/p>

On your Workstations...

• Exclude the 'C:\Program Files\Office Tools\' folder from any anti-virus scans
• Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Office Tools\Popup Reminders.exe'
• Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Office Tools\Event Manager.exe'
• Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Office Tools\Event Timer.exe'
• Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Office Tools\Timer.exe'
• Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\MSACCESS.exe'
• Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Office Tools\Program.mde' (you may need to click 'view all files' to see this file)

On your Server...

Add a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\MSSQL\binn\sqlservr.exe' NOTE: the x in MSSQL.x is a calculated number... To find out what yours is, go to 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\North 40 Systems' and look to see what the x is inside of that folder. Use that same number when creating the firewall exception.

These exceptions are a good preventative measure toward keeping Office Tools Professional working in your office.