Adminsoft Help Library

Contents

New Users and Evaluation

Existing Users

Technical Issues


Introduction

This is a small reference library of important information and FAQs (frequently asked questions) that should assistance you to install and use the software.  We apologise that it is very limited at present, but we will add to it over time.

Evaluation Resources

For your convenience, we have provided some evaluation resources, that give you a very basic overview of the software, and an idea of what some of the screens look like.  These are much quicker to download than the software itself.

(Click here to view evaluation resources)

Assistance with Installation

You will need to allow us to use our remote support facility to do the installation for you.  We are happy to do this working together with your IT support professionals. 

(Click here for more information about Installation)

Getting Started

We have provided several pages on our website to assist with getting started using our software for the first time.   This is divided into two general requirements:  An "Administrators Guide" for system administrators or directors / office managers who are involved with the initial implimentation of our software.  The software is reasonably intuitive to use (well, we have spent a lot of effort trying to achieve this - but at the end of the day "intuitive" is in the eye of the beholder).  We have also provided a few quick pointers for "New users of our software".

Backups and Restoring Data

We have provided a backup facility to make it easy to back up your Adminsoft data.  For more information on this, and restoring data that you have backed up, click on the following link:

(Click here for more information on Backup and Restore)

Overnight Re-Index

Our software supports a special "command line" call to rebuild all index files for its data tables.  For multi-user sites we recommend that you run this every night.  Single user sites should do it at least weekly (and it never hurts to do it more frequently).  It is very easy to set up Windows Scheduler to get our software to do this automatically.  You can do this on a workstation that is left running overnight, or on the server itself, if it is a Microsoft platform.   If you have a Linux server, then you will need to do this on a workstation that is left running overnight (unless you have very good Windows emulation software on the server itself).

Set up Windows Scheduler to run the following command line (change "F:" to the appropriate mapped network drive):

Run:         F:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe   Reindex 
Start in:    F:\Adminsoft

If you still have the old "\GECL" folder structure, then set up Windows Scheduler to run the following command line (change "F:" to the appropriate mapped network drive):

Run:         F:\GECL\GECL.exe   Reindex
Start in:    F:\GECL

You can add a second parameter to the command line to specify how long (in hours) you want the "completed" message to remain open on the screen before automatically closing.  (If you do not include a second parameter, it will default to seven hours.)   This is useful when run from a workstation that is left on overnight, so that the staff member can see in the morning that it ran.   Two examples of this might be:

  • F:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe   Reindex  5            (If run at 4.00am and you want it to remain open until 9.00am
  • F:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe   Reindex  0.01        (If run on the server, and you want to close it almost immediately.)

Multiple Screens - Command line options

When you close our software it saves the screen position, width and height, and restores the main Adminsoft window to this, when you next launch our software.  In September 2012 we introduced a safety check on the main window settings that are restored, as there was potential mischief if these were somehow corrupted (positioned completely off-screen or extremely large, such that you could not see the pop-up sign-on window, and or Normal, Maximized, and Close buttons at the top right).   By default our software will now always open on the main screen if you have multiple monitors.

However, if you do have multiple screens and want it to always launch in your right-hand monitor, say, you can add "command line parameters" into the short-cut ("Target" setting) that you use to launch the software, that will instruct our software where you want it to open.  Usually you will just add a "Left" setting to control which monitor is used, but you can also specify a "Top" setting.  Use spaces (or asterisks) to separate the parameters.  You can also use a colon to separate a keword and its value (or nothing at all).  Numeric values are in pixels.  To check your screen configuration and resolutions (width and height in pixels), right-click on an empty part of your Windows Desktop, and choose "Screen Resolution" from the ensuing pop-up menu.  You may need to use a bit of "trial and error" to get the Adminsoft window positioned exactly where you want it.  Here are several samples ("S:" being the mapped drive letter to the appropriate server resource):

  • "S:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe  Left 1281"   - Will be positioned hard to the left of the right hand monitor (if main monitor is 1280 pixels wide)
  • "S:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe  Left:1400"   - Will be positioned slightly in on right hand monitor (if main monitor is 1280 pixels wide)
  • "S:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe  Left 1300 Top 250"   - Will be positioned on right hand monitor and 250 pixels down from the top
  • "S:\Adminsoft\Adminsoft.exe  Left -1280"   - A negative number will position it on the left monitor (e.g. triple monitors 1280 pixels wide, or two monitors configured with the "Main" being on the right)
Note that if you do run our software on a secondary display, we may need you to drag your Adminsoft window over onto the main screen before initiating a remote support session with us.

Issues with Windows 7 and Vista

So far we have discovered two issues with Windows 7 and Vista:

  • Our F1 context sensitive help does not display.  You need to download and install a small program file that Microsoft in their wisdom decided to leave out of Vista and Windows 7.  See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607 and follow through to download and install the necessary program.  Note:  Be careful which version you download:  Choose the 64 bit version only if you have 64 bit hardware - otherwise download the "x86" version.

  • Some installations of Windows 7 and Vista (especially) cannot run our remote support facility, others run it very slowly, while others run it perfectly.  If you experience either of the two problems, try setting your Windows desktop theme to "Windows Classic".  (This disables "Aero" and keeps things simple - which seems to do the trick.)   Important Note:   We have found that McAfee antivirus blocks our remote support package for some daft reason. (It is the only one that does this.)  Windows (or your antivirus software) should warn you that you are about to run an executable program that you downloaded from the Internet.  Make sure that you select the correct option (i.e. "Allow" it to run) - and tick the box to "remember" and not ask again for this file.

Disaster Planning

Provided your computer environment is set up appropriately to let key staff run our software from home, you should be able to maintain continuity of your accounts function, in the case of a pandemic or other natural disaster - that does not knock out power and communications.  (We wish the solution for clearing the mail box and banking cheques was as easy.)
Our software runs fine in Terminal Services and Remote DeskTop environments through a VPN connection, and we have several user sites who do this all the time to provide access from branch offices, and / or to facilitate working from home.   It also works fine with Remote Desktop or VNC through a VPN.

Our Software runs really slow on one or more workstations

Assuming that you have sufficient RAM on the workstation concerned, usually the culprit will be your anti-virus software.  We have found that e-Trust and Norton can be particularly bad for this.  If this problem occurs, change the anti-virus settings for the workstation(s) concerned, so that your anti-virus software doesn't check files with extensions of DBF, FPT, or CDX (or any files at all in the \Adminsoft folder structure on your server - and c:\AdsftUsr folder on the local workstation).  It is fairly safe to do this, as trojans/viruses will not attach themselves to non-executable data files, and are highly unlikely to know about the \Adminsoft and \AdsftUsr folder structures, and install themselves into these anyway.  However, for safety reasons, we would not encourage you to disable scanning of all files in the entire \Adminsoft folder structure if you are not encountering any such performance problems.

Note that we use Eset "Nod32" and "SmartSecurity Suite" here ourselves, and have not encountered any such problems (or heard of anyone who is using Eset products having such problems).  We cannot sing the praises of Nod32 and SmartSecurity enough.  They are both very fast and have a small footprint (especially compared with something like Norton which is grossly obese in comparison and has the poor performance to match).  Eset has some very clever heuristics which enable it to identify many new viruses even before they have been included in the signature pattern list.   It always wins the "fly-offs" that are done by independent researchers like "Virus Bulletin": being the fastest in the scan speed tests, and the best at both identifying new test viruses and not issuing false positives.  So we would encourage you to seriously consider switching to it, when it is time to next renew your anti-virus licences.

Low-level system problems (OLE errors etc.)

On rare occasions, some low-level system files do not install correctly.  This typically causes "OLE Errors" when you try to perform operations that use these low-level files (e.g. sending email and print preview of reports).   These errors may occur on one (or more) workstations, but not on others.  We have provided a separate installation program to help get past this sort of problem.

(Click here for assistance with low-level installation problems)

Problems with Print Preview

The report may seem to run correctly, but you get hieroglyphics when it is displayed on the screen.  Alternatively, you may get a systems error in some shape or form, complaining about "OLE".  Both problems are caused by a system file not having been registered correctly, or a previous entry in the Windows Registry having been lost for some reason.  You may find that reports will work perfectly if you send them directly to the printer, but fail every time if you try to use Print Preview.  For assistance to overcome either problem, click on the following link:

(Click here for more information on Print Preview problems)

If you need further assistance or have feedback you would like to give us, please contact our Help-Desk:

E-Mail now to:    Support@Adminsoft.com

Phone: (09) 262 2020  (within New Zealand)         From Australia:  1800 030 837 
(From other countries +64 9 262 2020)