WinSMITH Weibull & Visual: VISTA Hints

WinSMITH Weibull and WinSMITH Visual will operate on the Vista^®-both 32 bit and 64 bit operating system from Microsoft.

Some installations on the Vista operating system proceed without failure. Others using pre 5.0AX versions may grumble occasionally about:
1. OCX files not properly registered, and

2. Problems of accessing the help file!

Versions after 5.0AX do not incur these occasional problems. Here are some hints and workarounds. Before you do these modifications, back up your registry!!!!

1. After installation you get an error message that says
“Run time Error 339. Grid 32 OCX not properly registered etc”? It seems this problem may be associated with the new security features of Vista and you should not receive this complaint for version 5.0AX and subsequent upgrades.
To fix the pre 5.0AX versions occassional OCX registration problem, do this:
a) Download the file http://www.barringer1.com/Anonymous/grid-reg.zip . This is a workaround developed by Microsoft.
1. Unzip the file Microsoft provided file.
2. Rename the file from grid-reg.txt to grid-reg.reg .
3. Double click on the grid-reg.reg file (this will reregister the files in your registry)
4. Restart the system.
5. Now Vista should work without grumbles!

b) Microsoft says, if method a) results in a persisting issue:
1. Run MSCONFIG,
2. Select Tools,
3. Select “Disable UAC”,
4. Click Launch,
5. Click OK, and
6. Restart the system.

c) Use VISTA’s compatibility feature as described at

http://help.unc.edu/?id=6037.

d) Another reported technique from Jorge Granada is:
Open the grid-reg.txt file in Word Pad,
from the start menu click on Run
type in REGEDIT
import the file from Word Pad
save REGEDIT

Where did these methods originate?
Method a) and b) are from a Microsoft Support Incident: SRZ070104003074 between Barringer and Zheng on January 08, 2007.

Method c) was reported by Tyler Shoman.

Method d) is a technique reported by Fulton on a troublesome Vista machine that would not register the Microsoft grid-reg.reg file.

2. If you can not access to the help files in Vista? Microsoft decided the WinHlp32.exe was obsolete but didn’t provide an alternative.  Here’s the workaround:

If you have downloaded and installed the big bunch of VISTA upgrades, when you click on the WinSmith help file, down will come a hyperlink for you to follow (by the way, when I first installed VISTA it did not have the hyperlink!!!!) so Microsoft is still trying to overcome their internal screw-ups in my opinion!!).  I case you want to short circuit the long route of typical Microsoft talk, go to:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

on that document you will see another hyperlink to a Windows Help program called WinHlp32.exe page.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148

where you must click on the “Continue” button will open the Internet Explorer “Add-on Installer package” to get the “Windows Genuine Advantage” program installed.  This will in turn open a Windows Help program with two hyperlinks.

            One help file is for the 32-bit system and one for the 64-bit system.  Suggest you choose the file that reads:

Windows6.0-KB917607-x86.msu which is 601KB in size and you get it by clicking on the DOWNLOAD button.

            The file choice you DON’T need is usually Windows6.0-KB917607-x64.msu . By the way, if you click on the wrong file, Vista will grumble!!!—and you’ll know that is the one you can’t use because you’ll get the error message that says “this file does not apply to your system.”

After you go thru this tedious installation effort, you’ll be able to read the help files under the Vista operating system in WinSMITH Weibull and WinSMITH Visual.

Return to Barringer & Associates, Inc. homepage

Last revised 10/18/2009 with details about 64-bit Vista