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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Old Software (Thomas Rohner)
  Brewing software and Windows compatibility ("Bill Pierce")
  Re: Homebrew Recipe Software (Scott Alfter)
  re:Software problems (Brian Myers)


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Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 10:07:38 +0200
From: Thomas Rohner <t.rohner at bluewin.ch>
Subject: Old Software

Hi

Have you tried the virtual XP, that comes with Win7 Pro and higher?
Sadly, it doesn't come with the home version.

I guess, most old software will run on it. (if it doesn't make use of 
the hardware extensively, or uses strange programmers tricks)

By the way, i also got a "new"(used Dell, like new for 300$) notebook 
with Win7 64 Pro.
I will try to install Promash, my preferred brewing tool. If it doesn't 
work in native Win7, i will use virtual XP. (In the brewery, it runs 
happily on Win98 for now. No need to change, until this HW dies... i use 
a old 256Mb USB-stick with Win98 drivers for backup)

Cheers Thomas

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Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 10:31:12 -0400
From: "Bill Pierce" <BillPierce at aol.com>
Subject: Brewing software and Windows compatibility

Ian Ramsay asks about old brewing software and Windows compatibility.  I'm
still a committed ProMash user and have successfully run it with every
version of Windows from Windows 95 to 64-bit Windows 8.1.  There was a
problem with ProMash not loading with 64-bit versions, but this was
addressed about 2007-2008 with a "new" version of the ProMash installer.
It's still available for downloading on the ProMash website.  You, will,
however, have to enter your registered user code and key.  If you no longer
have them, there is an automated utility on the site to send them to you,
but it uses the e-mail address you first used to register ProMash.

I don't use much other old brewing software apart from some spreadsheet
utilities, so I must say I haven't had compatibility problems.  If you do
have an old piece of software you're attached to, and you are certain it
really requires Windows XP, the solution is to download and install a
"virtual XP machine" and run it under later Windows versions.  A virtual XP
machine (it needs to be installed) came with the Professional and Ultimate
versions of Windows 7, but this was discontinued beginning with Windows 8.
However, there are a couple of free virtual machines available if you do a
search for them.

Incidentally, a virtual XP machine is the solution for all software that
truly requires XP.  If you are concerned about the security implications now
that Microsoft no longer supports XP, running a VM is an excellent choice.
It keeps XP isolated from various security threats by "surrounding" it with
Windows 7 or 8.

Brew on!

Bill Pierce
Cellar Door Homebrewery
Burlington, Ontario




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Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 12:50:48 -0700
From: Scott Alfter <scott at alfter.us>
Subject: Re: Homebrew Recipe Software

On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 at 09:27:27 -0600, Mike Schwartz wrote:
> Promash was the go-to software for many years but unfortunately is no 
> longer being actively updated and who knows how long it will still 
> function.  When you look at the web site there are "news items" from 
> 2003 when he released the last update.

I'd expect it to keep running indefinitely.  I run it on Linux under Wine;
while early versions of Wine had some layout issues, those have been fixed for
several years now.  I have the program and all my recipe and brew-session files
checked into my Subversion repository, so pulling it onto a new computer (even
one that still runs Windows) is trivial.

Another option, if Microsoft does something with future versions of Windows
that breaks ProMash, would be to set up a VM with a version of Windows that
will work (or do like me and use Linux and Wine in the VM).  This VM would be
portable across whatever OS and hardware upgrades may come.

About the only issue I foresee becoming a problem would be if the BJCP styles
changed substantially.  AFAIK the last such change was in 2008; an update to
ProMash was made available at the time.  If a similar update isn't forthcoming
the next time around, I'm not sure how big an effort it would be to roll your
own update.

Scott Alfter
scott at alfter.us



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Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 08:35:22 +1200
From: Brian Myers <brian.d.myers at gmail.com>
Subject: re:Software problems

Hi Ian, long time no see.

Google "xp virtual machine", or look here :

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-nz/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-
in-windows-7

Win7 can run a virtual Windows XP machine as a program, and old XP software

will usually run fine inside that shell.

regards,

Brian

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