Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise compliance
Q. Is Wolfson Software Microsoft Windows 8.1(tm) Enteprise compliant?
A. The Wolfson Unit suite of Windows programs has been tested on computers with Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit and 64-bit installed. The programs all function correctly except for WinDesign 6 on 64-bit environments.
Depending on the security settings for the computer being used, Windows 8.1 may show ‘User Account Control’ dialogs when running Wolfson installations or running Wolfson programs from a network drive, please read on...
If you have any further questions that are not answered in the details below then please contact the Wolfson Unit.
WinDesign 6
Running the program on Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64-bit results in a 'MSVCR100.dll missing' system error, which prevents the software from working. We are currently addressing this, but until a new release becomes available WinDesign6 should not be used on machines with Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64-bit installed.
HLP Help Files
The .HLP help file format supplied with some Wolfson software is no longer supported in Microsoft Windows 8.1 but you can still view the files with no problem. This is explained in detail in this Microsoft article. You can view our help files in Windows 8.1 by downloading the WinHlp32.exe program from this Microsoft page.
If WinHlp32.exe is not installed, viewing help files causes the error dialog shown at the bottom of this page.
CHM Help Files
The .CHM help file format supplied with some Wolfson software is fully supported in Microsoft Windows 8.1. The operating system, however, may disable the right-hand side panel of the help file viewer, and all help pages may appear empty. The issue may be resolved by unblocking the help file:
- Go to the Wolfson software installation folder, right-click on the .CHM file being blocked and select Properties.
- In the General tab of the Properties dialog, click the 'Unblock' button.
- Click OK to accept changes.
This only needs doing once.
Hardware Dongles
Parallel port dongles are being phased out, as their drivers are not supported by our hardware lock suppliers anymore. The latest installations of our software contain the new Windows 7 and 8.1 compatible drivers for USB dongles, which have been tested extensively under XP, Vista, 7 and 8.1 32 and 64 bit. Our clients are still entitled to free program updates, but we strongly recommend upgrading to USB dongles. The upgrade cost is £110.00, which includes shipping with guaranteed delivery. The new dongle will be shipped on receipt of the old one.
ShipMotions Program
The ShipMotions program relies on background code that has not been compliant with 64bit operating systems. We have recompiled this code and it is now compliant, please download the latest version from our Customer Download Area.
‘Security Warning’ pop-up dialogs
The Wolfson Unit has obtained a digital Software Publisher Certificate (SFC) from a trusted Certification Authority, which has now been built into all our installations and executables in the form of a Microsoft Authenticode® digital signature. This ensures that the software downloaded from our website and the programs supplied in the Wolfson Software CD Rom actually come from us and have not been tampered with since their publication.
The digital signature of our programs can be inspected by right-clicking any Wolfson executable and then selecting Properties > Digital Signatures.
Depending on the personal User Account Control settings, the operating system may now bring up a dialog asking for permission to continue and showing a link to our Software Publisher Certificate. Just click ‘Yes’ to continue.
Digitizing Tablets
Some of our software is compatible with digitizing tablets. At present there is no support for this option in Windows 8.1 as most digitizer manufacturers have not yet released Windows 8.1 drivers for their products. Our HST program has been updated to use third party drivers for using the digitizing tablet and compliance is now reliant on them to update their drivers accordingly.
This information was last updated on 11th May 2022.
