Zionworx

The other thread was locked. I just wanted to get some clarification on the issue that I am having.

We've replaced our laptop with a new (and permanent) PC. The new PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium. I installed Zionworx on the new PC then transfered the Data folder from the previous PC to the Data folder to the new PC and all I get is the sample songs.

Can anyone help clarify the steps to restoring the database on a machine running Vista?

Thanks
Lotus

Did you install the latest version of Zionworx.

Was the old machine running v2.0 if so you need to use the import/conversion utility as the database changed in the way it worked between v2 and v2.5

Regards
Edd

You need to adjust the permissions on the Zionworx folder to allow full control for everyone, and delete the content of C:\Users\User\appdata\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files where user is the name of the currently logged in user.

If you run Zionworx's without the correct permissions on Vista it will redirect all file requests to the VirtualStore, and when you have restored your data it has not gone to the VirtualStore.

webmaster wrote:Did you install the latest version of Zionworx.

Was the old machine running v2.0 if so you need to use the import/conversion utility as the database changed in the way it worked between v2 and v2.5

Regards
Edd

thanks for the reply. We had upgraded from 2.0 to 2.5 on the old machine. I installed 2.5 on the new machine. I then attempted the transer the files but it was still giving me the sample songs. I tried using the conversion utility but it only added the songs from when we last used 2.0. That left me with only half our database of 572 songs. So I ran the uninstall program and started over, this time without installing the sample database. I then transfered the back up files and it resulted with the same database of only 280 songs.

brainier wrote:You need to adjust the permissions on the Zionworx folder to allow full control for everyone, and delete the content of C:\Users\User\appdata\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files where user is the name of the currently logged in user.

If you run Zionworx's without the correct permissions on Vista it will redirect all file requests to the VirtualStore, and when you have restored your data it has not gone to the VirtualStore.

I will try this tomorrow night after work. One thing that I noticed was that for all the times that I uninstalled and re-installed the software, it did not once ask me for the registration info. This leads me to think that the files are still stored in the virtual store folder. thanks for your help! I wil post my progress once I've tried these steps.

Becuase you had already upgraded to 2.5 on the old machine you did not need to run the conversion utility at all. Edd's comment was just to check that you had not gone from 2.0 on the old machine to 2.5 on the new in one go.

You will want to restore your backups to the old machine before you migrate again, otherwise you will end up having lost half your songs - you do have a backup of the 500+ songs don't you?

Then ensure that the ZionWorx's folders in Program Files and the Virtual Store are deleted and reinstall. The just copy the data folder from the old machine to the new into the Program Files version of the Zionworxs folder (along with your old ini files). Ensure that Vista does not copy them to the VirtualStore folder - you might need to manually change permissions to get this to work, or run CMD.EXE with elevated permissions and do it all from the command line. Elevated permissions can only be accessed by running CMD.EXE having first right-clicked the program and choosen Run As Administrator (note that even if you are already logged in as ad admin you need to do this - your programs do not run as Admin unless you do this first).

Maybe running Zionworx "Run As Administrator" right-click option will let you get to the Program Files version of the data - I have not checked

Just did a quick test. If you do not change permissions (all users modify) to the Program Files\Zionworx folder then, even if you are logged in as administrator level account, you will get the sample database and all your changes are stored in the VirtualStore.

Though if you are an admin, and run the program from the right-click "Run As Administrator" option, then you get the Program Files version of the data and not the VirtualStore version of the data - so it can appear as if data is lost!

brainier,

that's alot of info and I don't fully understand it all. I do have our Zionworx folder backed up on a DVD as we are migrating the data from the old laptop to the new PC. Last night, I copied the Zionworx Data Folder from the Program Files folders to the Zionwork Data folder in the virtual store-Program Files folder and all the songs were restored.

I try the steps that you listed the next time I get a chance. We currently only have one user set up on the PC, but there may be a need for others down the line.

I have recently started running Zionworx on Vista Ultimate. I have the data folder in a complete separate location to program files or appdata

(Its in a location where I keep all my data, making backups easy).

So when I re-installed Zionworx in Vista, I just went in to the Preferences, clicked on the Database tab, and pressed the Change button to point Zionworx to where I keep the Zionworx data.

The only problem I have found is that Zionworx saves its settings in the Program Files folder, and I don't think there is any way to change this.

I use a "Guest" user account, but they don't have permission normally to save settings in Program files. However, to sort this out, when logged in as administrator, I just gave all users permissions to read / write to the "Program Files\Zionworx" folder. You do this by right clicking on the "Zionworx" folder, Selecting "Properties" on the popup menu - you can change the permissions in the security tab.

That is in Vista Ultimate, hopefully other version of Vista allow the same?

Thanks.

This is all we do for our users with Vista business.

Regards
Edd Stonham

I think my problem is related to this thread...

I have just installed Zionworx 2.5 on a Vista Home Premium laptop and imported a friend's 2.0 database, converting it with the utility provided. It seems that despite having 1700 songs in the database, not one of the files in C:\Program Files\Zionworx\Data has changed in the slightest since installation!

I have an Admin account and a (Limited) User account. The User account has access to just the dozen or so sample songs, while the Admin user access to all 1700.

Are all the songs really stored in that folder or has Vista got some magical store it doesn't let you see?

PS Great software, incidentally. Been using it a few weeks now.

It's got a "magical store". Any writes to the Program Files subfolders outside of the installation program are automatically redirected to the logged in users virtual store (c:\Users\username\appdata\Local\VirtualStore).

Therefore when you installed the software the sample database was placed in the Program Files/Zionworx/Data folder. You then imported the new databasem whilst logged into the admin account. This caused the changes to be written to the virtual store. You then logged into the limited account, and this users virtual store is empty - so they get the data from the installation folder. Once they change this data it gets copied to their virtual store.

You need to create a folder outside of the Program Files path (say inside c:\users\public) and for both users change the path to the database from inside Zionworxs to this new folder. Copy the contents of the administrators virtual store\zionworx\data folder to this new folder.

Note that styles and other configuration settings will be different between different users - these are stored in ini files in program files\zionworx and so changes to these will always update the local users virtual store. The software needs updating to store the ini files in a public location (or in the registry).

Thanks brainier. Why does Windows think that we're all complete idiots and make up its own mind how to handle stuff? Even when you tell it where to store stuff it still does its own thing. That's progress, I suppose.

I'll try that out tonight.

Thanks again,

Peter

Because writing stuff to Program Files folder, where programs are stored and not settings/configuration etc. That is what the users folder is for.

Microsoft have very long design documents on how to write software for Windows to ensure maximum compatibilty with the hundreds of millions of PC that have it installed on - and separate areas for settings from applications is one way to ensure this

Interaction with Vista:

You cannot restore a minimised copy of Zionworxs by clicking the icon on the taskbar. You need to right-click and choose Restore. Therefore do not minimise this product.

Peculiarly my taskbar disappears when I run Zionworx 2.5 in Vista Home Premium. Behind the Zionworx Window there is a copy of the second display, this bleeds through to replace the taskbar! If I resize the window, I can see more of the second display!

I can minimise Zionworx and my desktop magically re-appears! Maximising Zionworx causes it to disappear again.

However, this doesn't always happen and sometimes I get a proper taskbar. Maybe this is an nVidia driver problem, who knows? Anyway, it's hardly a problem!