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Now I’m REALLY confused
By Wolfie | April 26, 2008
At work, we’re running a customer information database that uses an Access database file with a user-friendly Visual Basic front-end. Part of the set up is integration with postcoding software, for address verification. It currently runs on a Windows 98 system.
We’re looking at upgrading the hardware, so at the moment we’re trying to ensure that the database will run on either XP or Vista (we’re not yet in a position to also be able to upgrade the software). We know that the database will run on XP, as we’ve got an XP laptop that it currently works on. The problem is that we can’t recreate that result; none of us have been able to get the database running successfully on XP. The usual result is that we can get either the database to work (enable customer searches, add orders, etc) or we can get the postcoding software to work. Not both at the same time.
My latest attempts are even more confusing; run the database and it opens up without problems. Run the routine to print an address label and it will let you do that - and let you use the integration with the postcoding software to verify the address - but do anything that requires searching for a customer and you get a “Runtime 91″ error, which is what you normally get when the Access file can’t be found.
I’ve been trying to do this on an XP installation on the BootCamp partition of my Mac, and I’ve got nowhere. Today, I loaded a trial version of Parallels, the desktop VM software that allows you to run Windows without having to re-boot your Mac. I told it to use the BootCamp installation of Windows (couldn’t be bothered to try and re-set everything up) and everything seemed to work well. Just for a laugh, I thought I’d run the database program.
And guess what? It works perfectly - exactly as it’s supposed to. Yet I’ve changed nothing about the installation. The only difference is that it’s running in a VM window. I wondered if something had changed, so I re-booted into BootCamp and no, it still doesn’t work there.
Which is why I’m REALLY confused; what is the fundamental difference between Parallels and BootCamp that is making the software work in one and not the other? Any tech-heads out there able to give me any clues? Please…
Categories: Technology |
Tags: BootCamp, Parallels, Software
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