Installing MedLook on a 64-bit Windows 7 system
A number of people have asked if MedLook will work on a Windows 7 system. Many users have already found out that it will - before me! In a couple of cases though there was at least one problem. I just got off the phone with a client that was trying to get setup on a 64-bit Windows 7 system. The initial installation gave a “NewDBSelected…” error message when trying to open an existing database.
The good news is that to get the message means MedLook itself is running fine. The bad news is that this means the Microsoft ODBC driver for Visual FoxPro is not installed correctly. How can this happen? The VFP ODBC driver installs very quickly and virtually never fails. It is part of the “first time” installation procedure of any MedLook deployment. However, on 64-bit Windows 7 systems it will not work correctly unless it is installed using the Windows Compatibility helper.
Since you may or may not have this problem it is easiest to assume the best (i.e. that the installation will complete with no problems). If you find that you get the NewDBSelected… message then fix the problem. Here’s how to fix it.
First, remove the existing installation of the VFP ODBC driver. This can be done through the Add/Remove Programs icon of the Control Panel (go to Start and then Control Panel). You will see Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver near the bottom of the list of programs. Uninstall it.
To install it properly, download it to your computer from http://www.medlookusa.com/updates/VFPODBC.MSI. After it is downloaded do not run it directly or you will have the same problem as before. Now open My Computer and browse to the location where you saved the file. Right click on it and use the Compatibility option. Let the computer do all of the work for you from this point forward. In the case we just went through it looked as though it failed because after we filled in the questions that the installation program asks it implied at the last step that it couldn’t finish. However, we tried MedLook and it worked just fine.
So if you encounter this particular problem you should know that others have gone down this path before you with success. It’s just a minor, albeit frightening, glitch in the installation. Can we expect anything less from a new operating system from Microsoft?
