| This page contains important information for Duplicate Scorer users who are considering upgrading their Windows system to Windows Vista, those already using Windows Vista and those thinking of installing Duplicate Scorer on a Vista system. |
With Windows Vista, Microsoft tightened up on some aspects of system security. In particular, application programs like Duplicate Scorer are no longer permitted to maintain user data in the folder C:\Program Files or any subfolder thereof.
Unfortunately, my original strategy with Duplicate Scorer was to keep all program data files, by default, in subfolders under C:\Program Files\Scorer. This can lead to problems under Vista such as Auto-save errors, names not saved and problems saving and recovering results files.
Latest versions of Duplicate Scorer offer existing users the option to move all their data files into a more "Vista-friendly" location. I would advise users to accept the offer to move their data files. This will help to avoid problems in the future even if you have no immediate plans to move to Windows Vista.
For new users, or those installing on new machines, Duplicate Scorer will now default to saving user data in subfolders of a folder called Bridge within the My Documents folder. The techniques listed below may help users of older versions, or those who prefer to do things manually, move their data to a more suitable location.
The first thing you need to do is to create a new folder, or folders, to hold your Duplicate Scorer data files. I suggest creating a new folder in My Documents called Bridge. Within My Documents\Bridge, create further folders called Results, Movements and Database. If you have the Club Option Pack installed, the last of these folders (Database) can be used to store your membership database. If not, it can be used to store your player names files.
Duplicate Scorer regularly saves a snapshot of your results so far in what's called an auto-save file. This happens all the time you are scoring in order to protect you from power failure etc.
You need to ensure that your auto-save file isn't being created under C:\Program Files. To do so, start up Duplicate Scorer. Click on the File menu and choose Set Auto-save Path. Select a suitable folder (I user my normal results folder) and click OK.
Use Windows Explorer to move any existing results or movements files stored under C:\Program Files\Scorer into the new folder(s) you have created for the purpose. Within Duplicate Scorer, the first time you load up a saved result or movement, navigate explicitly to the appropriate new folder and open it from there. By default, Duplicate Scorer always goes to the result or movement folder you used last, so once you have used the new folder once it will become the default for the future.
Similarly, the first time you save a new result or movement, navigate explicitly to your new folder and save it there. Again, this will become the default for the future.
You should avoid selecting any items from your Recent results list which are located within C:\Program Files otherwise you may set the default back to an inappropriate folder.
This information is only relevant to those who are not using the Club Option Pack and are therefore not running in database mode. Club Option Pack users should skip to the next section. If in doubt, start up Duplicate Scorer. If you see the message:
| Club Membership Database Active! |
near the top right corner then you are running in database mode and should skip to the next section. If you don't see this message, read on.
When not in database mode, Duplicate Scorer uses two files called Pair Names.txt and Individuals.txt to remember competitor names for use in subsequent competitions. Unfortunately the location of these files is dictated by the menu item or icon you use to start Duplicate Scorer. I'll tell you how to change this in a moment. First of all you need to establish the location of your current names files. To do so, start Duplicate Scorer and click the Names button. The caption bar on the names entry window will tell you where your current names files are stored.
If your names files are being stored under C:\Program Files move the files to a more suitable location. I suggest My Documents\Bridge\Database. Close down any current instances of Duplicate Scorer.
You now need to change the properties of the menu items or desktop icons you use to start Duplicate Scorer. For example, suppose you start Duplicate Scorer using Windows Start menu. Click on the Start menu as usual and locate the menu item for Duplicate Scorer but instead of left clicking on it right click the start menu item. This should bring up a menu from which you can choose Properties (near the bottom).
Within the properties window, click on One of the file tags is labelled Shortcut. Click on that one. About half way down the shortcut properties there's an item marked Start in:. This specifies the default folder which will be used if you start Duplicate Scorer using this menu item or icon. What you need to do is to replace this with the full path of the folder where you want to keep the names files. There's a little trick you can use here to save yourself typing or if you are unsure exactly what to type. If you open a Windows explorer window and go to the folder you wish to use, you can copy and paste the path from the Address box of your explorer window. However, whether you type it or copy and paste it in, note that in the properties window you should always enclose the path in double quote " characters.
If you have more than one menu item or desktop icon which you use to start Duplicate Scorer then you will have to repeat the above process for each of them.
If you are operating in database mode (ie. you have installed the Club Option Pack) then you will need to move the club membership database. You can determine the current location of the membership database by starting Duplicate Scorer and clicking on the Names button. The database location will be listed in the names window's caption bar.
Copy the membership database file (ClubMembers.mdb) to a more suitable location. To make Duplicate Scorer and Club Database Manager use the database in the new location, start up Duplicate Scorer and click on the Tools menu. Choose Select Club Database Location, navigate to the new folder and click OK. Note that you select the folder for the club membership database, not the specific file.
Note that changing the database location in this way changes it for both Duplicate Scorer and the Club Option Pack. Alternatively you can use Club Database Manager to change the location (click on File and select Choose Database Location). It doesn't matter which way you do it.