How to Install Peachtree Classic v11 on Windows XP

Javier — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:26:00 GMT

This has nothing to do with SBS... so, you can probably stop reading now.

I'm avid user of Peachtree (although my “area of expertise“ are the Classic and 2000 versions). I used to spend a lot of time (and still do) on alt.comp.software.financial.peachtree and PeachtreeForums. If I had a cent for each time I have answered this question I would have enough to buy a coffee J. So, I decided to post it here for future reference (I apologize for going Off Topic).

Little Know Fact: I “met” Chad Gross long before either one of us became SBS MVPs on the Peachtree newsgroup. In fact, he was the one who introduced me to the SBS2000 newsgroup. It's a very small (virtual) world!!!

Install Peachtree Classic

- Use the setup disks and install it. Since I hate to use floppies... for future installations it might be a good idea to install it on a workstation and copy the content of the C:\PCA directory to a CD then create a .bat file that copies the entire content back to the PC. This way you have created your own PCA v11 CD.

Create the Shortcut

- Right click on a empty space on the desktop and select New -> Shorcut

- A wizard should appear and in the "Location of the item" put: C:\PCA\PCA.BAT and click Next (do not use NETPEACH.EXE). Type a name for the shorcut and click Finish.

- Right Click the newly created shorcut and select properties. On the Options tab and select Full Screen in Display Options. Go to the Layout tab and put the following settings:

Screen Buffer Size and Window Size
Width: 80
Height: 25

- Click "OK"... that should do the trick.

Note: Peachtree v11 cannot run on Windowed mode on XP/2000 (it becomes painfully slow). That;s why we have to do this.

Set the Enviromental Variables

- Right-click My Computer and select properties. Go to the Advanced Tab and click on Enviromental Variables.

- On "System Variables" press New and put “Overlay_Heap“ as the variable name and “1“ as the value. Repeat this step with “PC3ID“ as the variable name and “CO“ as the value.

- Open C:\Windows\System32\Config.NT with Notepad and add/modify so it says “Files =100“.

That should do the trick! Reboot the PC just in case.

Javier's SBS Wonderland : Peachtree

How to Install Peachtree Classic v11 on Windows XP