Compatibility

This article describes different compatibility aspects of the software, specifically operating systems, compatibility issues and different workarounds.

All applications on this site are developed for Microsoft Windows platform. Even though there is no official support for other platforms apart from Windows, many people have successfully used these applications on Mac and Linux platforms using so called emulation software.

Windows Vista and later

In Windows Vista an new security feature was introduced called User Account Control (UAC) which prevents unauthorized changes to system configuration on your computer. It works by prompting you for permission when a task requires administrative rights, such as installing software or changing settings that affect other users.

UAC presents a problem for software which was designed in the days of Windows 9x series of operating systems, which did not include any sophisticated user account control features such as UAC. It was a common practice for software to store configuration data and other documents in the installation directory of the application, making everything compact, isolated and self-contained. This practice doesn't always work in the recent operating systems such as Windows Vista, 7, 8 and later versions.

The most common installation path for software in Windows is Program Files directory, located in path "C:\Program Files" or similar. UAC treats this location as a system folder, hence, forbids normal users from writing to this folder. UAC requires administrative privileges in order to make modifications to the content of this folder.

Another place where administrative privileges may be required is the registry, where most of locations are now protected from modifications. Applications sometimes have to write to the registry in order to use some of the functionality, for example: automatically start application on login.

Workarounds for UAC issues

Turn off UAC

Open Control Panel and find User Accounts controls, where you can easily turn off User Account Control. Although it helps eliminate the issues, but it comes at a cost of lowered down security.

Run as Administrator

When launching applications, user can specify to run it with administrative privileges. Just right-click on the application icon and select "Run as administrator".

Custom installation path

Instead of installing application into the default and problematic "Program Files" folder, choose a custom path which is not shared by any system applications. For example C:\Tools\, or even D:\Programs\ on a another drive if available, and so on.

Compatibility mode

Windows compatibility mode allows the use of applications which require write access to the installation folder even when they are installed in a protected folder such as "Program Files". In this mode, when application will try to create files/folders in the installation folder they will be silently redirected by the operating system to so called VirtualStore location. For additional information on locating application data and the VirtualStore concept, please see Application Data Storage article.

Mac and Linux

Mac and Linux operating systems are not directly supported, however there are ways to run applications developed for Windows on these platforms through either compatibility layers or virtualization.

Compatibility layers

Compatibility layers simulate a Windows environment by providing alternative implementations of Windows system calls and libraries. This is the simplest approach but may not work for all applications, and some software features may not be fully functional.

Virtualization platforms

Virtualization allows you to install and run a guest operating system within your native host operating system. In this case, you can install and run Windows inside Mac or Linux as if it were an application. This approach tends to offer better compatibility than a compatibility layer, at the cost of higher system resource usage and a more involved setup.