August 2006 - Posts
What a headache!!
I had a battle today with the fairly new Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting package. From an earlier post I mentioned a little development application based on this platform...but that's not what I'm here to barf about today...
So you would think that a logical way to go (speaking about selling this application to companies...which is what I seem to do these days) is to install the trial version (a great 20-use trial, 5 of which get burned just setting it up for the customer) and let them kick the tires. Then, when they have a smile on their face, purchase a volume license and deploy.
But NO...this is not a clean way to go. Microsoft made it that you can simply purchase a retail license when you hit the end of your trial and punch in the license key. That's nice in a one or two license situtation, but if you want volume license, here is a word of advice...
The Problem - the Trial will not go away!!
You would think that an uninstall (complete) of SBA (the trial) and then an install from the Volume License CD (VLCD) would be the answer. Mostly because the VLCD does not have a license key...it is baked into the install.
So you install from the VLCD on a virgin machine and when you run it, it shows the product key already entered (with '*'s) for you. Click next and you are done.
So you install from the VLCD on a machine that had (note: HAD since you uninstalled) the trial. You run the app and it says, "this is a Trial version...wanna buy a license"...No thanks, already have one.
You've done your homework, searched everywhere, contacted Microsoft (up to the point of paying for support) and still no answer. You've religiously followed the detailed uninstall guide in the Microsoft KB (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897877) ...nothing, it still thinks it's a Trial version. (By now you are down to 0 uses most likely)
The Answer - Seek and destroy.
Well, when anything really stumps me, it is usually a quick trip to http://www.sysinternals.com. My favorites, FileMon and RegMon. Well, FileMon was the hero this time. I was able to determine that out of all the places that the KB article listed, they forgot one.
Under \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Small Business Accounting you will find a pa.dat file. When I killed this file, all of a sudden when going back into SBA, instead of the "buy a license" screen, I was treated with a activation screen with the license key entered (in '*'s) for me.
Problem solved!!
So, since I saw no other information on this and since (according to Microsoft) SBA is becoming popular, I would think there will be many that might run into this. In fact, I haven't tried this, but I'm not sure if killing that file will start your 20 uses over again with the trial...I hope to not have to find out.
So my day was abruptly broken up by two calls for 'dead' computers. One was a simple 'hangover from hibernation'. When your on a portable computer and rely on hibernation, you sooner or later experience the 'hangover from hibernation' syndrome where it "kind of" came back from hibernation, but it really is not functioning. Usually a whack with the power button is the cure.
But, the other was not such the case. Here is a customer (well – sort of) that I have been trying to emphasize the importance of routine computer cleaning. This is one of those services that we offer to customers where on a twice a year basis, the computer is torn down, dust bunnies blown out, fans oiled and inspected or replaced and then some follow-up software cleaning (defrag, non-critical updates, etc.) is done.
This customer doesn’t see the need for it and would rather pinch a few pennies to save a few dollars. Even though that grinding noise has been going on for some time now, and even though I have emphasized the need to take care of it now…the dude decided to ignore it. Well, today is the day!! And now that it no longer makes any noise, nor for that matter does anything at all, it is most likely time for a new CPU, motherboard or both (or more). The cost will certainly dwarf the cost of routine cleaning.
This is not unlike anything else…wait until something goes wrong. The doctor, the dentist, the mechanic all have similar stories. Heck, we’ve heard about them in the IT world with backup for ages. Well, today was just another one of those days.
Of course, I can also add the stories of those that resist running as a non-admin user that claim they will be just fine...until that day came where I got the chance to look at them with that "I told you so" face. Prevention is cheap - Repair is expensive.
...what's the world coming to?? I'm trying to at least get a post a week out. But, in reality, I've not much to blog about. It has been a busy week - between business and life.
I've had some fun with building an application for Microsoft Small Business Accounting. It's really interesting to see how "fresh" the product really is. One thing for sure is that it is at least all written in .NET (unfortunately 1.1). That has been a great thing since there is VERY little documentation or help available for most of the methods, properties, etc. on the classes of the SDK. Well, nothing a little Reflector (http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/) can't help with. There are still some mysteries, but Reflector and a little time goes a long way. My application is far from complete, and now that I have at least prototyped the functions needed from SBA, my attention is now turned toward the UI - which is a WinForms app. But, man...after working in VS 2005, I am back in 2003 and really miss the 2005. I understand that I can perhaps use 2005 for the development, but there are some tricks to getting it to work...somehow I am finding that the parts I am missing from 2005 are easier to get around than figuring out how to deal with this in 2005. Maybe it will come to me.
As a side note on the whole SBA thing, I was sorely disappointed that there were some "key" capabilities lacking from the SDK that I found only a SQL query would do. That really sucks because now my application is SBA version locked.
'til next time.
Okay, so I have resisted the blog for many years now. Not because I don't like them - not the case at all. I read many of them and enjoy the good stuff available (some of the wacky stuff too). My resistance to my own blog has been about keeping one current. I guess I always felt that my blog would be a "one entry" blog....maybe this is it! I always felt that after a day of problem solving, business building, knowledge enhancing and so forth, more time typing about it was going to cause me to go crazy.
Well...I'm going to give it a go and see how well I can fit it into my life. I know I certainly run across many areas that are worth blogging about, so I should be able to produce something.
Let's see how it goes.