Mechanic tested on Windows 8
Date: 21 Nov 2011 @ 15:21
Categories:
General
OverNet were able to get copies of the Windows 8 Developer Preview and successfully installed the current, DOS, version of Mechanic Workshop Manager.
Mechanic will run on any 32bit version of Windows.
Essentially, you follow the standard "How do we install Mechanic onto an XP computer ?" from the Mechanic specific support download page. As with Windows 7, you have to jump through a few - Microsoft created - hoops to perform the tasks mentioned. When you run Mechanic for the first time under Windows 8 you are requested to enable the 16 bit application support and after that it works fine.
Two hints
- when you need to edit the various text files run WordPad as administrator and then it won't complain about any changes you might make
- the BTRIEVE.TRN file used by the BTRIEVE engine in Mechanic has to be moved to a different location than the root directory of the "server" driver. We now recommend that you change the path in the /T parameter BTRIEVE in your MECH.BAT to create this file in the "server" Mechanic program directory - usually C:\MECH. All workstations need to point to this same physical file e.g. their /T parameter should point to this file on the network drive - usually N:\MECH\BTRIEVE.TRN
Windows has not supported full screen mode for DOS applications since Windows Vista was released. I have been told that it can be achieved by dumbing down your display card driver to standard VGA but have not confirmed this. Windows 8 did not give me an option to do that. Mechanic will run perfectly well in a Window and the font can be resized to make it as large as you want. The advantage of this is that Windows can display it's notifications without pushing Mechanic out of the way and in the future you will be able to run the DOS and Windows versions of Mechanic Workshop Manager simultaneously.