Installation
Right-click the installer file, click properties and then go to the compatibility tab.Set it to be compatible with Windows XP. I don’t think it really matters if you choose Service Pack 2 or 3 from the list. I chose Service Pack 2 because it was the current one when this version of the program was compiled. As this is an installer it will need to run with Administrator rights. It will trigger a UAC response when it installs – this is ok. Actually it’s great. UAC is great. Never turn it off. No, seriously.
Running
In Windows 7 To set ACNE to run in XP mode. Right-click the actual acne.exe file,click properties, compatibility & set to XP sp 2 or 3 mode. It doesn’t need to run as Administrator, which is good practice anyway. You should only run a program as Administrator if you desperately need to (ie. the installer, as above). It can make the difference between a program crashing-and-burning itself, or your whole computer.
While you’re at it you should probably tweak the shortcut you use in the start menu as well. The procedure is the same … right-click the shortcut and click properties …
That should do it. If you have any questions, comments or tips, please feel free to add them here.
I just found the solution to another problem I’ve stumbled across in Windows 7 – the text in the ACNE window is too big and doesn’t fit in the spaces for it. As it turns out the system fonts can be the wrong size in certain isolated cases. It affects installations on systems with high-resolution monitors. An explanation and the solution is at https://community.dynamics.com/product/gp/gptechnical/b/developingforgp/archive/2009/11/24/windows-7-bitmap-fonts-and-microsoft-dynamics-gp.aspx
For the more adventurous, I can verify that ACNE and its hardware Dongle will run in a Windows XP virtual machine using VirtualBox. – it recognises the USB device. I couldn’t get it to generate an Excel spreadsheet until I install Excel in the XP VM.
If I need to use it on a new machine in the future I will be running it in this VM.