Need direction for reports produced under XPMode

[ailsa 0]

Hi, I know this topic has been discussed before but cannot locate the links to help me via the search section, so please direct me again pleas.

 

I have just purchased a new computer running Win 7 64bit, have upgraded to Win 7 prof which gives me XP Mode. I have installed TMG V7.04 on Win 7 ok and followed directions to get PDF writing sort of working (getting a few errors but will work through those), but it on the XP Mode I am having a few issues.

 

Installed ok, ran printer setup to install pdf printer but got errors and no printer installed.

I would like to find on the list the directions on how to run reports to MS Word 2007 via XP Mode. I get errors saying no printer installed even if trying to run a report to wordpad or even as a Text file. I cannot seem to figure out how to install any printers under XP Mode, whenever I try it cannot locate any of my printers. (All printers I have are wireless, and currently working fine under Win 7 64bit)

 

I need to be able to print at least family group sheets, either from Win 7 64 bit or via XP Mode to my currently installed printers. I have followed Terry's directions re the PDF printer and have it working ok at times, other times it does not want to work and crashes. and then I have to reboot.

 

I wonder if the way I installed makes a difference.

1. Installed TMG V7, then installed V7.04 bypassing V7.02 and V7.03 - did this on both Win 7 64 bit as well as the XP Mode

 

If I could ask for the directions/ links to the instructions on how to print via XP Mode I would be most gratefull

 

BTW have not restored my backup files yet, just using the sample files until I get this correct and then I will restore my backups.

 

Many thanks

 

Ailsa in not so sunny Brisbane Australia at the moment.

[Terry Reigel 0]

Ailsa,

 

You do need a printer installed on the computer for TMG to create reports - I think it looks at the driver for margins and the like. That means that XP Mode needs to have a printer installed in order to create reports there, as you have found.

 

This has nothing to do with how you installed TMG - there is no need to install the incremental updates as long as you install the latest version. In fact, installing first 7.00 was a waste of time - you should have downloaded and installed 7.04 directly. But in any case, the issue is that there is no printer installed in XP Mode, not some problem with TMG.

 

I had no problem installing printers in XP Mode - I just went to Start > Settings > Printers & Faxes in XP Mode and installed both my local printer and one on another machine connected over the LAN, though it's been a while now and I don't recall the details. I'm not sure how the "wireless" printers are actually connected to your system - perhaps that is the issue.

 

I have two suggestions that might help, but I'm not sure. First, make sure your printers on the host Win7 installation are being shared. If that fails, I'd suggest trying the manual installation process in XP Mode to install a printer - I don't think it even has to be one that really exists, as long as Window and TMG can see a driver for it (I'm assuming you will run only reports to a Word Processor from XP Mode, and will open and if desired print them from a word processor installed in Windows 7).

[ailsa 0]

Ailsa,

 

You do need a printer installed on the computer for TMG to create reports - I think it looks at the driver for margins and the like. That means that XP Mode needs to have a printer installed in order to create reports there, as you have found.

 

This has nothing to do with how you installed TMG - there is no need to install the incremental updates as long as you install the latest version. In fact, installing first 7.00 was a waste of time - you should have downloaded and installed 7.04 directly. But in any case, the issue is that there is no printer installed in XP Mode, not some problem with TMG.

 

I had no problem installing printers in XP Mode - I just went to Start > Settings > Printers & Faxes in XP Mode and installed both my local printer and one on another machine connected over the LAN, though it's been a while now and I don't recall the details. I'm not sure how the "wireless" printers are actually connected to your system - perhaps that is the issue.

 

I have two suggestions that might help, but I'm not sure. First, make sure your printers on the host Win7 installation are being shared. If that fails, I'd suggest trying the manual installation process in XP Mode to install a printer - I don't think it even has to be one that really exists, as long as Window and TMG can see a driver for it (I'm assuming you will run only reports to a Word Processor from XP Mode, and will open and if desired print them from a word processor installed in Windows 7).

 

 

Thanks for this information Terry, I will check everything tonight and hopefully now I have a better understanding regarding the printer set up, it should all work. Thinking it may be my extra security on my router that may be stopping XP picking up the printers as well. I will adjust, install and let you know.

Again thanks for your assistance in a time of need, and roll on TMG V8 really looking forward to any enhancements that the team make to make a great program even better.

Ailsa

[ailsa 0]

Many many thanks Terry for your help and suggestions. As I have extra security on my wireless modem, this is what was causing the problem in order for me to install one of the printers on the XP Mode. Removed the security, then able to install my wireless printer in XP, was then also able to install TMG correctly (uninstalled and reinstalled again as I did have a couple of issues), able to get the PDF for TMG working as well. Then put TMG on my Win7 64bit desktop, and restored my backup data and settings. All is now fine. I can print to PDF file, printer as well as save to a Word processer file enabling me to open that file to edit and then print.

So TMG is working well on my new computer. I have uninstalled the copy of TMG that I had loaded onto Win7 as I find the other is working well so do not need to have two copies running at once.

Again thanks for your help and hope what I have just done helps others with wireless printer set ups as well.

 

Ailsa

[Terry Reigel 0]

Thanks for letting us know what you found, Ailsa.

 

Which drive have you placed your project on, the virtual C:\ drive for XP Mode, or a the drive on Win7?

 

I ask because I found that having the TMG installation on XP Mode caused very slow performance. While using the virtual drive means you need to take care to get your backups off that drive to someplace else because I couldn't find a way to access the virtual drive with my backup software running in Win7.

[ailsa 0]

Hi Terry,

 

Trying to put TMG onto my Win7 drives (have two physical drives on new computer both of 500G giving me a total of 1TB) was where I was getting the errors when I first installed TMG on the XP Mode.

Hence my reason for uninstalling and reinstalling.

This time I installed TMG via the XP Mode using the settings that it wanted to use, eg. C:\users\ Ailsa Laptop\ Documents\ The Master Genealogist (similar to what it was when I ran it under Vista and XP previously)

 

The only thing I have changed is my direction for my backup data. That I have changed to my D drive under Win 7, which shows as D on Ailsa-PC (just picked the correct drive and Folder in which to direct my backups to) and not having a problem doing the backups to that particular drive or folder.

1. I also changed this in the "current Project options, Advanced for the Backups" - I did the drop down box to choose my correct drive and folder for the backups. Also made sure when I did my backup for the first time this is where the TMG backup was directed to and so far no issues.

I like to use the second hard drive for all my data (eg, TMG backups, Family History folder data, photos, musics etc) but do not install or run programs on that drive. I also have a portable external drive in which I have it programed to do automatic backups each week ( weekly for my usage is ok, though for some it might be daily), this is working great on the new computer, and makes it easy on one drive for me to do any physical backups of data that I also want to do. I always have the programs, it is the data that I do not want to loose or redo ( had to do that many many years ago, and a lesson well learnt)

Doing the above elminates the problem of trying to get the backup data of TMG off the Virtual Drive and on to the Win 7 Drive. I think the way I have done it would mean the backup would go onto any Win7 Directory/Folder.

 

2. Slow performance: so far I have not found any difference in performance under the XP Mode to Vista 32bit. At this stage I have TMG icon sitting on my Win 7 destop. I click on it to open (hence it does take a few seconds to open the Virtual Drive but then TMG opens quite quickly. Using TMG to add or edit data seems to be about the same to me as my previous computer ( Was Vista 32 bit with 3MB Ram and Duo Core) so ok with the performance at this stage and not finding an issue with my data saving or entry (will let you know if I find anything in the future).

My new computer is a HP i7 Q720M machine with 8MB Ram, Win7 professional, Turbo burst to 2.8GHZ and 1TB hard drive (2 x 500), 1GB dedicated Graphics drive etc etc.

I use using TMG open, a number of Web sites open ( 3 -4 at a time), photoshop elements 8 open, folder re my Family History open, Word 2007 open usually all at the same time that I am inputting data into TMG. ( all the above apart from TMG are running under Win7 64bit)

 

3. My biggest issue is in relation to the time it takes to do backups. this was with Vista or XPMode and suspect it will continue for Win 7, when TMGV8 is released. It takes forever to complete.

If you have a quick solution on best way I would appreciate it.

I usually backup project plus customizations, and even if I just back up project - can go away and make a cup of coffee and come back and still wait.

I have exhibits attached at external - about 6 mths ago changed so that the exhibits were attached, and hence the long wait on backups. Previously had not attached the exhibits. Wondering if the more that I attach, the longer it takes to do backups. What to others do ?? to overcome this issue.

 

Again Terry thanks for your help and hope my answers can also help you.

 

Ailsa and Brisbane is Sunny again :->>>

[Terry Reigel 0]

Trying to put TMG onto my Win7 drives (have two physical drives on new computer both of 500G giving me a total of 1TB) was where I was getting the errors when I first installed TMG on the XP Mode.

You can do that, but I find it causes very long delays in doing anything in TMG - more below.

 

The only thing I have changed is my direction for my backup data. That I have changed to my D drive under Win 7, which shows as D on Ailsa-PC (just picked the correct drive and Folder in which to direct my backups to) and not having a problem doing the backups to that particular drive or folder.

That's the key thing to do - you want to get your backups on the Win7 drive, and not on the XP Mode virtual drive, because you can't backup anything on the XP Mode drive from a backup program running on Win 7.

 

Doing the above elminates the problem of trying to get the backup data of TMG off the Virtual Drive and on to the Win 7 Drive. I think the way I have done it would mean the backup would go onto any Win7 Directory/Folder.

Exactly.

 

2. Slow performance: so far I have not found any difference in performance under the XP Mode to Vista 32bit.

The performance issue I mentioned occurs when you try to run a program in XP Mode that is using files on a Win 7 drive. There is a huge delay when a virtual machine tries to access the host system. MicroSoft acknowledges it in other applications of Virtual PC, and has posted a fix, which doesn't work in the case of XP Mode. You are avoiding that issue by placing the TMG project and configuration files on the XP Mode virtual drive.

 

3. My biggest issue is in relation to the time it takes to do backups. this was with Vista or XPMode and suspect it will continue for Win 7, when TMGV8 is released. It takes forever to complete.

I think you are seeing the delay I mentioned above. Since you are backing up to the host drive, you encounter the delay. Try backing up to the XP Mode drive - I think it will be much faster. But if you do that, your backup system won't be able to access these backup files - not good at all. I think the solution is to either just live with the delay, or to do the backups to the virtual drive and then remember to copy them to the host drive (or set up an automatic system in XP Mode that does that).

 

I'm using a different method - running TMG normally in Win 7, and only using the XP Mode installation for reports to word processor. That means I have a very bad delay in running those reports, but since I am accessing the project files on the host drive, but since I do that rarely I find it acceptable.

 

I have exhibits attached at external - about 6 mths ago changed so that the exhibits were attached, and hence the long wait on backups.

 

Having exhibits complicates the backup process. Including them in TMG's backup means you copy them over again every time you do a backup, but that's probably not necessary since generally they don't change often. The generally recommended solution is to not include them in the TMG backup, and back them up directly with all your other data. But with them being on the XP Mode virtual drive as you have configured it, your normal data backup system can't access them. Some solutions:

 

1. Keep them in the TMG backup, and suffer long backup times and larger backup file sizes.

 

2. Exclude them from TMG backups, and remember to copy them manually to a spot on the host system drive, so your normal backup procedure can include them.

 

3. Move your main TMG installation, including the project and exhibit files to Win 7, and use the XP Mode installation only when you need to make reports to word processor. There are complications to this solution though, since you are using external exhibits, but not too difficult to deal with. You have your data on the D:\ drive on Win 7. If you try to open the files directly from within XP Mode the path will be different, and the exhibit links won't work. But if you map the D:\ on the host so it is also the D:\ drive in XP Mode, then open it on the mapped drive when you are using the copy of TMG on XP Mode, the paths will look the same to both Win 7 and XP Mode, so there will be no issue with the exhibits.

 

Again Terry thanks for your help and hope my answers can also help you.

You're welcome.

[ailsa 0]

Thanks for you info Terry, but at this stage Reporting is high on my usage for TMG, I am trying to do something special for my Mum for Xmas, so need to have reporting, so will leave TMG as I have set and put up with delay until TMGV8 comes out.

 

Your reply re the Exhibits:

 

2. Exclude them from TMG backups, and remember to copy them manually to a spot on the host system drive, so your normal backup procedure can include them.

 

I have full copies and backups of all the above on my D drive and back that up regularly to external drive as well as CD/DVD's and know the directory for the exhibits, so by passing them every so often will not cause an issue with me and will then help reduce the time for the backups, until TMGV8 comes around and I can run that from Win7 64bit.

 

Again many thanks for your suggestions and input into the TMG site and forum it is appreciated.

 

LOVE TMG, it Rocks !!!! and would not change to another program, just waiting for the next version to come out, so Bob I know you and the everyone are working hard on TMGV8, but at least when it does come I know that it WILL work and has been well tested, so that wait will be worth it and count me in an one of the first to do the upgrade. Just please also make it so that it can be downloaded from the site as previously as once out I will want it straight away.

 

Ailsa in Brisbane.