Why you could be forced to upgrade ACT! software to the latest version . . .
January 18, 2007 by Travis
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There is much abuzz about Windows Vista. If you haven’t heard, it is Microsoft’s next operating system, set to release later this month. You can check out the features here:
I think it is amazing the impact of a new operating system to application developers, partners, and ultimately the end users/customers. Consider a major service pack release to an existing operating system…
When Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released, it created quite a bit of havoc for many, as users were uncertain how to respond to a rash of security warnings when launching their daily
applications (”I never had a security warning before, is our application safe to use?”). To be fair it was a double edged sword, Microsoft customers were experiencing significant productivity losses, due to security issues in Windows, and while some could prepare for the upcoming security patch to help (those in the know about service pack 2), many small business owners could not. The result: users were confused slowing productivity at best, as many had to determine what to do with the security warnings, or, at worst, troubleshoot why their application was no longer working.You may be asking, “What does this have to do with ACT!?”
What does this have to do with ACT! you ask? Glad you asked. With the forthcoming release of Windows Vista it seems like Microsoft has done it again. As it pertains to Vista, initial reports are a bit more drastic, in fact ACT! by Sage will not work for many. Reportedly, anything older than ACT! 2007 will NOT run on Windows Vista. This is due to the development environment Vista and ACT! was created in. For simplicity sake, let’s just say that ACT! 2007 was developed in a “Vista aware” environment. Whereas older versions of ACT! were not (afterall Vista wasn’t close to release during ACT! 2006 and prior development cycles). Furthermore, initial reports are that Sage Software won’t be able to put out a patch for customers to make it work, as this is an operating system issue…oh yeah, Microsoft owns that.ACT! users running Windows Vista would have to upgrade to ACT! 2007.”But I don’t have plans to upgrade to Vista anytime soon…” The reason I’m posting this now (as oppose to after my first hand experiences), is that computer makers typically offer a free upgrade
to an operating system when customers purchase close to its launch. If you own an incompatible version of ACT! this could spell trouble. So you buy a new laptop, and you get the Vista upgrade in the mail. With glee you stick the disk in to the computer to install the Vista ‘upgrade’, and
experience first hand that your customer management database application no longer works. You do have the option to Upgrade ACT!, but now you are forced to upgrade, instead of having a choice to do so. I don’t know about you, but in my experience customers don’t typically respond kindly when forced to upgrade. Not a huge deal when it is for a single license (depending on flavor, upgrade is $129-$229), but what if this is for 5 or 10 workstations or more? Becomes a significant cost, not to mention the cost of implementation and downtime.
So be aware, if you are an ACT! user, and intend to upgrade to Windows Vista, be sure your version of ACT!, and any other critical software application is compatible. Windows Vista looks very pretty on the outside, and it may well measure up to the signature marketing that is behind it. However, consider the impact to your business, and make sure all is well with your applications on Windows Vista first. Otherwise, your ‘upgrade’ may create an unexpected ‘downgrade’ to your pocketbook.
UPDATE: Check out this very informative link on the ACT website about supporting Vista, Office 2007, and IE7.
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Hi, my name is Travis Campbell, I operate this site. A key to success in any business is to effectively manage your relationships. ACT! is a software product helping millions when it comes to doing just that. This Website is designed to assist both those considering ACT! software for their busienss, as well as to provide insight to ACT! users who want to effectively use it in their day to day operations. So login, post, browse and enjoy.
Question for you or anyone else in regards to this entry - I have ACT! 2006 along with Windows Vista Business Edition and Office 2007.
When I open ACT and open a database (previously created in ACT 2006 in Windows XP) I get the following error…
“The database XXXX could not be accessed. In order to access this database, check your network connection and verify that your database server is available. It may be necessary to disable any firewall software on your computer or the server.”
This file is stored in a backup file on an external USB Drive.
Anyone know if this is a Vista/Office compatibility problem or if I am simply having some other kind of error?
That indeed sounds like the “incompatability error”. For those using ACT! 2007 (not Premium), there is a hotfix at the ACT website. Looks like they are slating the next version of ACT! to work with Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 suite of applications.
I have a two user ACT license. I got a new computer and installed ACT to it and had an error. I uninstalled on my old computer and it now works on the new computer. The problem is on the existing non-replaced computer. I lost the note section (looks like real large fonts - like I have demo version or something). In addition, I have no toolbar unless I run ACTDIAG. prior to starting ACT. Is there a fix here? Is this maybe a licensing problem. I have uninstalled and installed 3 times and still have the same problem. Thanks for any help.
Bill-
Was the new computer running Vista (the blog post was related to Vista support)?
There are quite a few issues that can crop up when it comes to sharing databases between computers.
What version of ACT are you using?
v6 had licensing controls, if you didn’t have enough licenses the offending client would not login to the shared database.
As for your toolbar, and font issue, make sure you have removed the temp files, defragmented the hard drive, and scanned for any malware on your system. On more than one occasion, I’ve seen spyware adversely impact the performance of ACT software (and other) applications.
Hope that helps.
Tried to upgraded to version 9 but as I am using another SQL Server database progam it would not install. It was not recognizing the already installed SQL version, which is SQL Server Service manager version 8.00.760, (I have installed Office 2007 which also now uses SQL and this installed and worked fine)? I had to install ACT! version 8 instead which worked fine as it was pre SQL etc. I have XP-Pro. ACT support unable to fix, and despite uninstalling all versions of SQL and attempting the ACT 9 install again it still would not install.
Tom-
It seems you have multiple conflicts going on here.
Office uses SQL 2005 (Express), and ACT 2006 uses SQL 2000. While I do not have specific experience with your configuration, Office 2007 and ACT 2006 co-existing sounds like trouble.
I would suggest rolling back to Office 2003, and then install ACT 2006 (be sure to get and run the uninstaller utility from the ACT website first, or have a consultant do it for you).
The next version of ACT will work with Office 2007, hang tight.
I’m a bit confused by answers to some of these questions. I am an Act! 6.0 user and find I need to upgrade. Why? I finally converted from MS Office 2000 to Office 2003 this spring on my business laptop. My laptop runs on Vista. Version 6.0 seems to run fine on Vista, but it will not work with the Office 2003 suite. What to do? The best solution is to upgrade. I’m certainly not a power Act user. I’ve been using the software for over 10 years!
Travis, in answer to Tom’s problems you seem to suggest that Act 2006 will work with Vista and Office 2003. Is this correct? I thought only Act 2007 was compatible with Vista. I’d like clarification because I want to upgrade, but I don’t think I need to go all they way to Act 2008.
Please advise. Thanks!
Richard-
If you want to run Vista with ACT and Office 2003 or Office 2007, the ACT 2008 upgrade is your best option. ACT 2006 is not supported on Vista.
ACT 2007 (non-premium version) has a patch for Vista which Sage supports, however it does not support everything. Go here to see the detailed list:
http://www.act.com/vista2007/
For customers who purchase the upgrade on the webstore, they will get a copy
of my installation best practices video. Seems odd, but a good installation is foundational for the application running properly. Go here for the ACT 2008 software.
Hope this puts you in the right direction Richard.
I had to get a new laptop and it has Vista (what a pain). I’ve been using Act 6.0 for the past few months on it with just a few lockups now and then and Outlook 2003 locking up a bunch. But today my Act 6.0 won’t run at all. I’ve tried everything from reinstalling it to going back to a previous restore point from last week( downloaded SP3 for Outlook). Where do you go from here?
Ken-
While I have seen it working, you should get a prize for having ACT 6 run on Vista!
It is possible that a security patch from Microsoft has been applied preventing ACT from running. I have seen this on very rare occasion (SQL version).
As you probably know, ACT 6 isn’t supported anymore, so while you may be able to get it to run, it won’t do mail merges or interact at all with MS Office 2007 products, or sync with a handheld device. Only this latest version (ACT 2008) is supported with Vista.
Others running ACT 6 on Vista?
Installing ACT! 2007 on my new HP 3g with Vista was a monumental disaster. I called up their technical service department on 4 different occasions, punched in a zillion #’s requested by their automated attendant, was put on hold for 30 minutes and then automatically disconnected. This product is such poor quality their service dept is overwhelmed. I finally reached their tech in India who was eager to help but his English was barely intelligible. After several calls and about 2.5 hours with various techs the product finally worked.
Hey Mike-
ACT! 2007 isn’t the best option for Vista, as some of it’s most powerful features don’t work.
I’m wondering why you didn’t do the ACT 2008 software upgrade? It is fully supported with Vista as well as Office 2007 suite. Did anyone at ACT make you aware of that?
Greetings Travis,
I am supporting users of Act 2006 for WG, on XP Pro. Against my recommendation, they decided to move from Office 2000 to Office 2007. Yes, they have experienced problems with this mix, to varying degrees, as well as issues with Office, probably unrelated to Act. I am in the process of moving them back to Office 2003, as I hope this will stabilize their systems. What issues, if any, should I watch out for as I move forward?
TIA,
Scott
Scott-
What a bummer… two steps forward one step back!
There is an addon available to enable office 2007 with ACT 2005-2007 versions.
Contact me through the helpdesk, and I can put you in touch with right people.
http://www.TravisHelpDesk.com
Regards,
Travis
All-
What version of ACT works with VISTA? Only 2008? or will 2007/2006 with some T.L.C.?
Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin-
ACT 2007 partially works. Check out the details here:
http://www.act.com/vista2007/
ACT 2008 is fully supported.
Hope that helps…
Here’s a surprise: ACT 2008 does not work well with VISTA, either.
Michael-
Your post overwhelms the reader with details
I have it running well on Vista, what issues have you observed?
(Incidentally, it is not yet supported under 64-bit operating systems, and both
XP Pro and Vista offer a 64-bit version).
Hi Guys,
I had ACT 6.0 which I installed on Windows Vista and it was working properly for 3 months, then suddently after the 6th of March, It stoped working, basically the application would open up and I got a Windows security message.
The fixes that did not work included turning Windows Defender Off, Firewall and Security Center Off, even DRM protection and it still did not work.
The fix that did work was that I was accessing it (or running it) from an administrative account but then I tried to right click on it and select RUN IT AS ADMINISTRATOR and it worked, and now I cant use it as a normal admin user (although it did used to work before) but I can use it by right clicking and then selecting the admin option.
Hope this helps and saves others a few hours.
Regards
Arif-
Thanks for the post. Indeed, hope it helps others as well. Perhaps your system ran windows update, and impacted the security scheme somehow.
Also, be careful, ACT 6 is no longer supported by Sage. You might consider upgrading so that you can not only take advantage of the new features, but also have the data in a supported format in case you get into trouble and need help with the data…
We’ve had ACT 2005 Premium for Workgroups running on Vista Business for a while now. HOWEVER, we are not able to use Office 2003 or 2007 functionality. All of our users are Remote Users, so that may be part of it. And our Vista machines have the Security feature disabled, so that may help. I guess it’s time to upgrade!
–Martin
Martin-
Thanks for posting.
Interesting, I haven’t seen ACT! 2005 under Vista. You might want to consider upgrading to the ACT 2008 software not only for the Vista and Office support, but also for Sage support. If there was a problem with your database, Sage no longer supports ACT! 2005.
-Travis
Travis,
Are you on the help desk or in sales? Seems like the fix is upgrade only. But if I upgrade on one computer, it becomes a domino effect. Other computers can’t access the database, so they need to be upgraded. But they run XP. So I should upgrade them all to Vista. But the hardware won’t support it, so I buy new hardware, but now all the other software that we use needs to be upgraded because it won’t run on Vista, and on and on.
Kind of hard to build customer loyalty that way. I’ve used Act! for 15 years. I’m at a new office, and have a couple of seats running. My XP machine dumped. I’m now on Vista, the only copy in our office. We were planning on using Act! throughout the office, but if I have to go through this large of a headache, I’m going to look at the other choices out there first.
Dave
Dave-
Apologies for the delayed reply. I am an independent consultant assisting small businesses maximize their customer and prospect databases. ACT! is one of the products I support.
A couple things. You can run ACT! 2008 on Vista or XP, but you cannot fully integrate ACT! 2007 on Vista (MS word integration, handheld sync and a few other things don’t work.) You might consider running XP on all machines (you can request your IT person to install it with a new system) until you are ready to go to ACT! 2008 in the office, and then decide to go to Vista on a case by case basis.
Let us know how your search for other choices goes.
What a croc of bull this whole thing has become! I use Act! 6.0 because when I purchased the first Sage Act! it was sooooooooooo sloooooooow that it was not funny. Sage has thoroughly DESTROYED a great program (you need Level I Security access NASA mainframes to have it run with the expected response) that used to be quick and efficient…and now Vista is doing another number on Acr!?
Does anybody have any other suggestions? Looks we may have to bite the bullet with a Microsoft contact management program…but which one?
OJ-
There are a couple options if you don’t want to continue with ACT, you could consider an online/hosted solution, or go with a simple single user product like Microsoft Business Contact Manager, but be careful it is a resource hog as well. I get people going and coming with that product quite often.
All the Best.
Travis:
I have had ACT 9.0.1.162 since mid-2007, and now I have major problems with Vista compatibility. It keeps crashing, freezing, or just not opening at all. It is also horribly slow. I am getting the same error message some of these other people get about not accessing the database.
ACT says it anything past 9.0 is compatible with Vista, but according to you, this is not true. Before I blow another $170, is there anything I can do? I have to justify this expense to my CFO, and he’ll say “we just bought this program not even a year ago.” Thanks
Cassandra-
The latest version of ACT! 2007 does install on Vista. The problem is it won’t integrate with Word, Excel, nor sync with a handheld under that configuration.
Here’s the full post on the ACT! website:
http://www.act.com/vista2007/
You might consider rolling back to XP Pro. If, however it is a single license $170 might be worth it to upgrade to ACT! 2008.
As a side note, I’ve had more frustration with Vista than any other OS I’ve upgrade to before. (Nothing to do with ACT!)
Hope that helps.
I had ACT! 2006 (version 8.0) and when I got a new computer running Vista, I found it worked, but when I tried to synchronize my contacts with the iPhone through Outlook, using CompanionLink, I was told I had to upgrade to ACT! 2008 or ACT! 2007. I decided to buy ACT! 2007 (9.0) and it works fine with Vista and CompanionLink. I’m able to synchronize my contacts from ACT! to my iPhone through CompanionLink, Outlook 2007 and iTunes. I’m actually using Boot Camp on my MacBook Pro and Vista. I’m waiting for a Mac version from ACT! I tried a number of contact managers for the Mac, but wasn’t able to find something that I liked better than ACT!
David-
Interesting scenario.
FYI, ACT! 2009 Corporate Edition EX and ST now include ACT! for Web, which now supports Safari. It isn’t native Mac, but it is a start. You can run Mac OS, and get to your ACT! DB over the web, instead of doing boot camp or parallels.
Hope that helps.
Here’s my issue… and I’m not even sure anyone will get this… but, hopefully someone will.
My company uses ACT! 5.0. My boss doesn’t like it enough to upgrade… so, that is where I’m stuck. I am using Microsoft Office 2007, and the templates I use to make sales documents WILL NOT work with my version of Office. It says something along the lines of “Can Not determine version of windows” and frankly, I have no idea how to solve it. We REALLY don’t nor will want to upgrade to a newer version of ACT! This is just such a hassle.
BTW, thanks so much for the replies. :]
Leah-
Not sure what to tell you here, the bottom line is, Word 2007 isn’t supported with that version of ACT! (about 8 years old). Try downgrading office to Office 2000. Does your boss know that if the database crashes, it is no longer supported to repair by ACT!?
I just received a new Desktop computer with the 64-bit Windows Vista and tried to load the ACT 6.0 but could not. Error message said “could not load and unsupported 16-bit application”. Very disappointed.
Is there another contact program that will run on Vista that the Database + Notes & History could be transferred?????????
Norm-
Congrats on your new computer. The issue is 64-bit windows. It is now supported in ACT! 2009, did not work with previous versions. You might want to upgrade or move to a different product if you are using it for business, as ACT! 6 is no longer supported (if something happens to the DB).
Hope that helps.
My client has been running Act 2.0 for Windows on Win ‘95 for years. He wants to preserve his data base and move it to a new Dell runing Vista , but we are unsure where to begin.
Is Act 2007 going to be compatible with Vista?
Will Act 2007 read the data base from Act 2.0 for Widows?
If not, how would you suggest we preserve our database and convert it to some form that Act 2007 can access?
Lawren-
Actually ACT 2007 is not going to be your best solution for him on Vista, I recommend ACT! 2009 (which is currently the latest version). You’ll first have to upgrade the 2.0 database to version 6, and then move it to the new and improved 2009 format.
Hope that helps.
Travis -
Hi again, I am a long time ACT user and we have spoken before. I am currently running ACT 9.0 Version 9.0.1.162, Hotfix 1 with a two user shared database. WE have been limping along on our last upgrade (myriad problems with Outlook, Notes, etc) but nohting to really prompt an upgrade.
Now the database is freezing 5-6 times a day forcing a complete re-boot, etc.
My question is - Does it make sense to upgrade to ACT 11.0? Will this “fix” my database freezing issues? I have hired a local ACT guru and he couldn’t solve my issues and now I am wondering if an upgrade is the way out.
Are there the same “usual” ACT problems with ACT 11.0 ?
Thanks
Mark
I was just checking to see if anyone knows of the compatibility of ACT6.0 with Windows XP SP3. We still use ACT6.0, and plan to upgrade soon to 2009, but need to keep operating on 6.0 for a couple more months.
We have been using ACT6.0 on XP SP2 very successfully.
Does anyone use ACT6.0 on XP SP3?
Thanks.
Hello. I am having trouble opening our database. We recently had to reinstall the software on our server due to a virus. We made a backup of the database, but when we try to open it, I get an error stating that the database can not be opened because it is not a shared database. In case you are wondering, this database was being “shared” prior to this happening. I am not sure if the error is referring to the same thing.
Any suggestions would be appreciated on how to resolve this. Thanks. - Chris
I use ACT 2005. I recently got a new computer using Vista. I had XP & Act 2005 worked but really dragged the system down. I use it only for the database, I do not do the mail merge or documents etc. Will ACT 2005 work on Vista? If not, is there another database manager you could suggest without dragging my system down? I use the contact area & notes area almost exclusively.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Julie
Julie-
Since ACT! 2005 is no longer supported, you might consider finding an alternative product. The challenge there is migrating the data to the new product. Best option would be to upgrade to ACT! 2009, where the data migrates much easier. Hope that helps.
Chris-
Yes, it is referring to it as a network share. You need to share the DB in order to access it over the network, check and make sure the supplimental files folder is shared. Sometimes it is as simple as unsharing and sharing again (within ACT!) for it to work. Hope that helps.
Fred-
Haven’t run ACT! 6 for some time, I’m not sure. If you test it and can report back here that would be great.
Others tried ACT! 6 with XP SP3?
Mark- (my apologies about the commenting system being disjointed, will be improving it in the future)
Can’t say for sure if ACT! 2009 will “solve” your problems or not. My concern is if you have database issues, and upgrade will not correct that. You might be wise to invest to have the database examined, and fixed….then move forward once you are assured it is clean. If this is something you need assistance with, feel free to contact me directly.