COMPUTER REQUIREMENT NEWS

The ever-changing world of computers and computer software is a constant challenge for all of us. In this section we share the ways in which we are keeping up with the latest hardware and software changes that affect your Solar suite of products.

WINDOWS VISTA

The current release of Solar Fire Gold is fully compatible with Windows Vista, and all the latest versions of Esoteric Technologies programs can be installed and run on Windows Vista,including Astracadabra, for which the new version (v1.7) will be required.

However, the on-line help files in some programs are not accessible when running Windows Vista. This issue currently affects most older (non-current) versions of our programs, as well as the following current program versions: Solar Spark v2 and AstroTides v1. However, users are able to download an update from Microsoft which will remedy this issue. See the following web page for more details. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

Due to the new security features of Windows Vista, customers installing Solar Fire v5 onto a new computer with Windows Vista may experience a program crash upon startup immediately after first installation, although this has a fairly simple remedy ie. to choose “Run as Administrator” from its desktop icon (using a right hand mouse click to bring up its menu). This needs to be done only once in order to fix the problem permanently.

There is also a much smaller likelihood of a similar problem with Solar Fire Deluxe v6.0.30 or earlier. However, this can be avoided altogether simply by ensuring that you allow the installation program to launch Solar Fire Deluxe at the end of the installation (ie. do not uncheck the option to run Solar Fire).

Also, users of Solar Writer v2.2.1.3 or earlier may find that graphics and illustrations are missing from the reports after installing onto Windows Vista. The remedy is simply to apply the latest Solar Writer patch update from the Esoteric Technologies website.

Neville Lang, Technical Director

64 BIT COMPUTERS

You may not even know what 64 bit computers means. If so, then don't worry - just carefully note, print or copy the computer requirements on the product page for whichever product you are interested in and take it to your computer software salesperson before purchasing your software.

Currently the vast majority of Windows operating systems in use are 32bit versions. However, both Windows XP and Windows Vista have 64 bit versions available for sale, for use with computers which use 64 bit CPUs. Therefore, customers who are purchasing new computers may be offered computers with 64 bit versions of Windows pre-installed.

The 64bit versions of Windows are capable of running 32bit software, but no longer support 16 bit software.
Most of our current software products (including Solar Fire Gold) are 32bit programs, so can be installed and run on both 32bit and 64bit computers. However, some products still contain some 16bit components, and therefore cannot be installed or run on 64bit computers.

Please note that this issue is common to a large range of existing software products from both small and large software publishers, and consequently it is our strong recommendation that any customers buying new equipment choose 32bit computers, unless they know that they have a specific need for 64bit computing.

We are expecting that as we release new version of our programs, in most cases we will be able to ensure full compatibility with 64bit computers. However, older programs (such as Solar Fire – Standard Edition) cannot be made 64bit compatible. Solar Fire – Standard Edition Users wanting to run their programs on 64bit computers would have to upgrade to Solar Fire Gold.

To ensure that users buying 64bit computers are fully aware of any possible incompatibility with any of our programs, we have added information about this to the computer requirements that we provide on each product’s webpage on our site.

Following is a summary of 64 bit compatibility status of our main products (May 2007):

Products which are already 64bit compatible
* Solar Fire Gold
* Solar Fire Deluxe
* Asteroid Add-on
* Chart Data Collections
* Astracadabra
* AstroTides

Products which can be installed and run on 64bit computers, but with patch updates which cannot be applied on 64bit computers
* Solar Writer
* JigSaw
* Imperial Astrologer
* ZoneTrekker

Products which cannot be installed on 64bit computers

* Solar Fire Standard Edition
* Solar Maps
* Solar Spark
* Biorhythms Pro

Please Note: We will be working to overcome incompatibilities, and expect to be able to move more products into the “64 bit compatible” category in time.