Upgrading Hardware and Software

[Rod]

Can anyone please help. My church was only formed in January 08, and we have successfully run Zionworx on a member's old XP Home laptop with Powerpoint 2002 for a few weeks. It is, however, very slow and we are about to buy our own dedicated laptop, plus Office/Powerpoint 2007. The laptop will inevitably have Vista Home Premium.

I would rather be forewarned of any issues to expect, and hardware to avoid, and would be glad to hear of issues such as:

1. Any remaining bugs/compatability issues between ZW 2.6.42, PPT 2007 and Vista.
2. How can I be sure that the proposed laptop has the Extended Desktop facility (is it automatic in Vista HP, or does it depend on the graphics card/accelerator)?
3. Any comments on a Dell 1525 laptop for running ZW.
4. Any further advice on importing the ZW database from the old XP laptop, other than the helpful text under the Vista topic.

Hope this is intelligible. I am not overly IT literate and it is my first ZW post.

Grateful thanks.

[brainier]

So, an IT simple response needed!

1. That version works better on Vista than on XP by the sound of it. XP has a flashing icon/ppt issue which Vista does not. But do not minimise Zionworx in this version either.
2. It will do. Though you might need to install the latest drivers, but with Vista that is typically not needed.
3. It runs on a Pentium 3 in my church, so anything newer is fine.
4. I assume you are running version 2.6.42 currently. If not, upgrade your current PC to that version as it will similify the migration.
4a. Install the latest version on the new laptop and run the software once (you must do this). Register the software with your registration info.
4b. Ensure Zionworx is not running on either PC.
4c. Copy the database folder and the settings files (zwmargins.ini, zwsettings.ini and zwstyles.ini) from the old laptop to the new. On the old laptop the location will be c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\zionworx\2.6. On the new laptop this location for this will be c:\programdata\ZionWorx\2.6\.
4d. Replace the data folder and the three settings files on the new PC with that copied from the old.
4e. Start Zionworx and check it is working - check the hymn search feature, as the database indexes might need updating on Vista. Do a full database index update from the Database menu.
4f. Do not copy the database file back to an XP machine. The database format (esp. for the indexes) has changed on Vista and so the database on XP does not work.
4g. Stop Zionworx and copy the database folder to removable storage as a backup.

[Rod]

Many thanks Brian for such a comprehensive, speedy and helpful reply. We are about to order the laptop, so I will be able to follow your instructions once it arrives.

Best wishes.

Rod