Windows Compatibility Wizard

[tkcomer]

Ok, so now I’ve run into another problem. I have PhotoShop 4. A while back I had a hard drive failure and I never got around to putting it back in. I installed it today. I have to use the Program Compatibility Wizard to make it work. But now, when I click on the wizard, the hourglass flashes for a split second and stops. The Wizard does not come up. Also, when I click on Help and Support, the same thing happens. If I stick the Windows XP CD in, it says it is an older version and some files will not be saved. Not what I want. I want to put PhotoShop back in, but the fact that these 2 programs for Windows no longer work troubles me. Any ideas? Thanks.

[kcredden]

Boy, wish I could help here. Anyone else? I've got Photoshop 7, myself. Have you checked the cost of an upgrade, BTW?

[tkcomer]

Basically I want to resize pics so they are not so large when I E-mail them. I’ve had this PhotoShop for years and I kinda like the way it works. I could find a freebie program, but I’d like to know what happened to the Compatibility Wizard and the Help and Support programs.

[tkcomer]

I tried to do a Windows repair, but at the recovery console, it asks for an administrator password. I have never put a password in. I even disabled passwords in the CMOS section and made sure ther were no passwords in my administrator account. No dice, it keeps asking for a password. I even assigned passwords in both sections to try to change whatever password was in there but no change. Any suggestions?

[kcredden]

I'm still drawing a blank here. But I'll stop by the USEnet and see if anyone's got a clue there. There's far more people there, than here that could help. Maybe they can hit it.

I know how you feel about using the old program. I've thought about using another program to just resize photos (especially since now I have a 5 mpx camera), but I'm too set in my ways now, with the GIMP and Photoshop 7 :)

Keep your info coming, I'll refer them to this thread.

I tried to do a Windows repair, but at the recovery console, it asks for an administrator password. I have never put a password in. I even disabled passwords in the CMOS section and made sure ther were no passwords in my administrator account. No dice, it keeps asking for a password. I even assigned passwords in both sections to try to change whatever password was in there but no change. Any suggestions?

[tkcomer]

When I do a search for the Wizard, I get two files that are shortcuts. They are C:\Windows\system32\Config\systemprofile\StartMenu e\Programs\Accessories The other one is C:\DocumentsandSettings\TimComer\StartMenue\Progra ms\Accessories Both are shortcuts. They both point to this hcp://system/caomatctr/compatmode.htm In both of them, that is the target. But it is in gray, not black. Once I discovered that this was an actual Windows problem, and somehow a file got deleted or lost, I decided to use the Windows repair method. I’ve used this before with no ill effects. But I can’t figure out how it got a password in it. Especially since I installed this operating system a while back due to the hard drive failure.

[tkcomer]

Well, I did manage to figure out how to reset the password. I was doing the repair wrong also. I was trying to do it on the first screen instead of the second one. But during the repair, I got an error message and the thing locked up. Had to do a complete install. At least I had a second 'puter I could hook the hard drive up to so I could save stuff. Jeeze. And the Compatability Wizard got Photoshop 4 to work, but not like it used to. And my spellcheck in Word 97 is gone. What a pain this has been.

[kcredden]

Sounds like windows was all screwed up, TK. I hope you now have 2 harddrives installed, so your work/data goes on the 2nd drive? I've found at times, only a complete re-install of windows will straighten up the problems.

Now spellcheck is gone? Shee...Maybe you should consider upgrading to Open Office now. I've never had such a problem with it, and works jsut like MS office. Oh did I mention it's free?

Well, I did manage to figure out how to reset the password. I was doing the repair wrong also. I was trying to do it on the first screen instead of the second one. But during the repair, I got an error message and the thing locked up. Had to do a complete install. At least I had a second 'puter I could hook the hard drive up to so I could save stuff. Jeeze. And the Compatability Wizard got Photoshop 4 to work, but not like it used to. And my spellcheck in Word 97 is gone. What a pain this has been.

[tkcomer]

I have a second hard drive I save stuff to, but I hadn’t updated my E-mail address book. Plus a few pics that I had. Can I just get a word program from Open Office? And can it open documents that are saved in Word? I found for fix on Office 97, now the spellcheck tab is there, but it lost its dictionary. I’m slowly bringing this computer back.

[kcredden]

HI TK:

I get your system now. So yes, you can install just the word processor on OpenOffice, if you like. I have just the spreadsheet, and Wordprocessor installed on my system and it works fine. Also the wordprocessor reads and writes to Office DOC files with no problems. I have heard of rare times when it has some problems, but I havent' had any experience with that so far.

Good luck!

I have a second hard drive I save stuff to, but I hadn’t updated my E-mail address book. Plus a few pics that I had. Can I just get a word program from Open Office? And can it open documents that are saved in Word? I found for fix on Office 97, now the spellcheck tab is there, but it lost its dictionary. I’m slowly bringing this computer back.

[tkcomer]

Well, after doing some trolling on the net, I finally figured out how to get the spellcheck and the dictionary working again. You have to edit the registry. Ugg. Everytime I reload Windows, something is different. The last time, I had to put a .dll file in to get Word working. That was easy. I get nervous fooling with the registry. I’m slowly getting this ‘puter back to where I want it.

[kcredden]

Ug...editing the registry, dills. ug. Why don't they just have a repair on the installer and be done. Registry editing is dangerious to say the least.

Hope your getting it fixed.

Well, after doing some trolling on the net, I finally figured out how to get the spellcheck and the dictionary working again. You have to edit the registry. Ugg. Everytime I reload Windows, something is different. The last time, I had to put a .dll file in to get Word working. That was easy. I get nervous fooling with the registry. I’m slowly getting this ‘puter back to where I want it.