Support topics - VT Transaction

Is VT Transaction compatible with Windows Vista

The VT Transaction October 2006 edition is compatible with Windows Vista (32 bit). Earlier editions are not. Most PC's are currently 32 bit.

VT Transaction+ is compatible with both 32 bit and 64 bit Vista.

Ledgers list appears to be corrupted on screen
For a very small number of users in Vista, the list of ledgers (used when selecting an account) is preceded by two lines of undecipherable characters, and the ledgers cannot be properly selected. This in turn is a fault in Vista with the underlying Visual Basic 3 programming language used by VT Transaction. This is an old language no longer supported by Microsoft, and hence this fault cannot be investigated. The only workaround in these circumstances is to use VT Transaction+.

Program icon
Because VT Transaction is an old 16 bit application, Vista uses default windows style icons for both the desktop shortcut to VT Transaction and for the VT data files. This can cause confusion for users who are used to the normal proprietary icons.

Program file location
The VT set up program automatically detects that you are using Vista and installs VT Transaction to the C:\Program files\Transact folder. For earlier versions of Windows, the default is C:\Transact. This change was made because Vista is more fussy about program file locations than earlier versions of Windows.

Data file location
As in earlier version of Windows, VT Transaction files can be stored in any folder on your PC or network to which you have access. VT Transaction files can be opened by double clicking on them in a folder. This is often easier than using the Open Company dialog in VT Transaction itself, because the Open Company dialog only supports short file and folder names. Names longer than eight characters are reduced to eight characters using a ~ character and a number.

If you copy files from another computer, or frequently move files between computers, the easiest place to keep your files is in your Documents folder (the folder that is called My Documents in earlier versions of Windows). The easiest way to open them is to double click on them in the Documents folder.

When you display the Open or New Company dialogs in VT Transaction in Vista, the dialog initially points to the Public Documents folder (C:\Users\Public\Documents). This is where your data will be by default if you created your company in VT Transaction in Vista. In earlier versions of Windows the dialogs point to the application folder (usually C:\Transact).

DO NOT store company data files in the Program Files folder or any sub-folder thereof!
A common mistake is to move company data files from an old PC to the the C:\Program files\Transact folder, simply because the files used to be in the C:\Transact folder on the old computer. Vista does not like data files in the Program Files folder, but is not quite brave enough to tell you! The data is initially copied to the C:\Program files\Transact folder, but Vista secretly directs any changes made by VT Transaction to these files to a copy known as a compatibility file buried away somewhere in your Users folder. You probably will not tumble to this until you try to use a backup copy of your data. You will then find that you have merely backed up the file originally copied to the PC some months or years ago.

If you have placed your company data files in the C:\Program files\Transact folder, you should immediately move them to your Documents folder to prevent any further confusion. You can access the up to date copies of your files by going to the C:\Program files\Transact folder and then by clicking on the Compatibility files hyperlink in the folder window. This jumps you to the folder where your up to date data really is.

Conclusion
VT Software recommends the use of VT Transaction+ rather than VT Transaction in all versions of Windows. This is especially so for Windows Vista.