WebFOCUS Support for Windows Vista

Dimitris Poulos

Microsoft recently released Windows Vista, a new version of the vendor’s operating system to replace Windows XP. At Information Builders, we have been keeping busy working to add Vista support to WebFOCUS.

WebFOCUS was tested on a pre-release version of Microsoft Windows Vista, and we are now actively testing on the shipping version of Windows Vista.

In the first half of 2007, we will be releasing versions 7.6.1 and 7.1.7, wich will support Windows Vista as indicated below:

Certification plan

Releases 7.6.1 and 7.1.7:

  1. Certify running of self-service applications from a WebFOCUS browser client running on Windows Vista
  2. Certify use of thin client tools such as Power Painter running from a WebFOCUS browser client running on Windows Vista.
  3. Certify Developer Studio – installation and development on Windows Vista

 

Post 7.6.1:

  1. Certify installation of WebFOCUS on Windows Vista for demo and trial purposes

 

Known issues and solutions

  1. Windows Vista requires Java 1.6

Since this version of Java is not packaged with WebFOCUS, it needs to be installed separately by downloading from www.java.com. (WebFOCUS packages and certifies the latest 1.5 Java version, and we are conducting tests with Java 1.6 for Windows Vista machines.)

  1. While Using Tomcat 5.5 on a Windows Vista machine that has Java 1.6, the following needs to performed to avoid issues while running Tomcat as a service (default configuration option when installing the full Developer Studio edition, which allows local/standalone and remote development):

This configuration requires binary file msvcr71.dll, which is not available with Windows Vista.
To correct the issue, copy msvcr71.dll into the <windows>\system32 directory and ensure it has “execute” permissions.

msvcr71.dll resides in many folders, including the following:

<drive>:\...\java\jdk1.6\bin\
<drive>:\...\java\jdk1.6\jre\bin\

It also can be copied from another PC.

  1. Windows Vista introduces a new security infrastructure called “User Account Control” (UAC). This feature is enabled by default and must be disabled to allow Reporting Server to start up when it is configured to run with security.

Note: We are actively working to address this limitation and avoid disabling this security component.

  1. Installing the server with User Account Control enabled is successful, however the user is prompted to confirm installation of this component to continue with the install process. This is normal Windows behavior.

For the latest information regarding our offering on Windows Vista, including support for Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7, please check our technical support web site:
http://techsupport.informationbuilders.com