Windows 7: Better Compatibility Fixes?

Hi All,



I'm curious if there are other ways to get Windows 7 to be more compatible with certain programs than just running them in "compatability mode"? The problem that I've run into is with some of my more complex programs like Solidworks. The copy I have isn't really compatible with Windows 7 so that whenever I try to open a file or save one, the program just crashes. I've found a fix for the problem, which involves renaming a DLL, but such a fix is almost always trouble in my experience, with this one being no exception, making the program very unstable and corrupting saved file data. Now, since I use this program almost every day, I've found myself thinking about going back to Vista x64 because it worked there, but I wanted to stop by here just to make sure there isn't a better way to deal with compatibility issues than simply running the "compatibility troubleshooter" that I might not yet know about that could solve my problem.

Any help would be great,
Greg

Hi treblesum81 and welcome to the forum!

Please download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package, here then restart.

It has been reported that installing this package resolves the issue with Solidworks 2009 not running properly in Windows 7. As somehow the redistributable included in the updates needs the update and or experiences corruption during an install together with other components.

Please let us know how it turns out

No such luck, unfortunately. I think part of the problem is that I'm working with Solidworks 2008 (required to be compatible with the copies at school... thanks solidworks for making your stuff non-backwards compatible), but I'm not sure that its that different... I installed both the x86 and the x64 versions of the C++ redistributable, but the program still crashes any time I try to save or load a file.

Any other possibilities?
Thanks,
Greg

One thing to note about the C++ installations is that they showed the "gathering information" screen then shut down... My programs CP page shows them there, but there are about 7 installations... I'm cleaning them out now and trying to reinstall them, but there isn't any gurantee that was the problem in the first place.

Have you tried updating your Solidworks 2008 to the latest service packs and hotfixes?

Yes I have, but there hasn't been anything new that I've seen since the installation... From what I can tell, Solidworks' attitude towards Windows 7 Beta is "its beta, so you can't expect us to support it and we can't help you figure it out"

Well, that's the way they roll

What Service Pack is your Solidworks 2008 at?

Sp4.0

Please download and install SP5 from Solidworks here

Since this is the last service pack that Solidworks will be releasing for the Solidworks 2008 series, the last SP will make it almost at par with the 2009 release.

Let us know how it turns out for yah

SP5 didn't fix the problem... it really only dealt with some functionality of some of the add-ins that come with certain versions of Solidworks 2008. For the time being, I'm using the DLL fix, but I can't really do any important work with the chance that it will be irrecoverably corrupted without warning. I'm still looking for other ways around the problem, but ultimately I'll have to revert back to Vista x64 if I can't get a solution found in a day or two. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Greg