Resolved AddressBook Plus--Beloved 32 bit Legacy App

I love an application called AddressBook Plus. I have used it since Windows 3.1 days but its origins go back to DOS. The last release of the software was for Windows 98. The company is long, long gone. The software is lightning fast, intuitive, flexible, meets my needs, has never crashed, has never corrupted the data, etc. I just love it. It seems like the user community is down pretty much to just me. It has installed and worked perfectly on every system (i.e., 98, ME, XP) up to and including Vista (32 bit) where I use it now. My problem is that I am at a dead-end. My SONY laptop with Windows 7 (64 bit) where it has been impossible to install. I thought some of the emulation modes would handle it but apparently not. All the attempts result in error messages that say contact vendor for compatible 64-bit version. What can I do?

Is there a simple way to run it on my 64 bit Windows 7 SONY laptop? (I find it rather scary to consider buying an OEM version of Windows, installing it, and dealing with whatever comes up in the future.)

Can I still buy a new laptop with Windows 7 (32-bit)? Would AddressBook Plus be likely to work?

What do you give up if you get 32-bit Windows 7 on new hardware capable of hosting the 64-bit version?

..Paul..

 

What version of Windows 7 do you have? If home premium (likely) then I'd consider an upgrade to professional, this gives an extra XP mode in a virtual machine.

Windows 7 32 bit may work but it'll cost just as much (probably more) than the upgrade.

One thing to remember though as technology advances you'll have more and more issues like this, it's usually better, cheaper and more secure to change with the times rather than trying to make old software compatible with new.

 

Win 7 does not support many legacy apps. So there are no guarantees that your old software would work with 32 bit.

I agree with wildfire. Its time to move on.

 

I know what it feels like Paul, I am still hanging on grimly to the Address Book in Lotus 123, and would swear on a stack of Bibles that there is no better available today. I still use it on my XP machine but sadly had to wave goodbye to it on my Win 7 machines. Live goes On.

 

You have given me hope. I have Windows 7 Home Premium rather than Pro on the laptop. I'll try to find a friend with Pro and see if I can install it. If I can, I'll upgrade to Pro and put off the "final solution" for one more generation.

I know my Luddite tendency is hard to defend. Several years ago I took a 40 hour course on Microsoft Access. My plan was to craft a replacement for my beloved application as the project in the Access class. I figured it would be straightforward. I brought in my laptop with AddressBook Plus and showed it to my instructor pointing out the features I liked. My instructor suggested I pick an easier project. She said an experienced Access coder could match most but not all of the functionality but it would take several weeks of serious coding and performance would be an issue for some of the functions. I picked a different project and haven't touched Access since.

The AddressBook Plus application came on a single 5 1/2 inch floppy which I still have somewhere in the closet. Here is a 1992 review of the product
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1563/is_n2_v10/ai_11936377/

..Paul..

 

No need, ignoring the questionable legalities involved, if your system can handle Win 7 HP there's no reason Win 7 pro won't work (as Pete said though XP compatibility is an additional free download)

 

Gotcha Pete, Yes a sound plan.

 

If you have a unused copy of WinXP/Win 98 lying around, you can save money by downloading & installing other VM apps like Oracle VirtualBox. Its free & supports anything from DOS to WinXP.

On side note, if you are willing to spend money on upgradation from Home to Pro, how about purchasing a current Address book program which is to your liking ? It should cost much less than upgrading from Home to Pro & also much less hassles.

 

I have install copies of 98 and ME from systems that died years ago. Those copies are not in use anywhere now. I don't know if that qualifies as unused.

My first choice above all would be to find a current application that has the functionality I have grown to love as well as being intuitive and flexible. I have about 3000 records of people. Regular fields like multiple phone numbers, multiple addresses, etc. Ability to add a variety of custom fields (e.g., birthday, date moved in, number of children.) Ability to search on any of the regular or custom fields including an embedded string search on freeform notes section. Each person can be "tagged" with up to 100 (or perhaps more) tags where a tag is something like dead, attended event x, attended event y, sent invite to z, no show for event y, sent 1999 Xmas card, interested in jazz, member of ABC club, member of XYZ club, etc. Very flexible subsetting (selection) and supersetting (union) of records based on combinations of tags. Ability to print labels in flexible formats, both standard (e.g., Avery) and custom. Ability to print phonebook and other lists in attractive and compact form. Form-based data entry, updating, and display. Some simple field value defaulting and verification. Export of selected subset of records and selected subset of fields in CSV or DBF. Flexible import of record additions. Though I don't have it currently, importing of record updates for selected fields would be nice. In my current application, exporting a few hundred records may take 3-4 seconds. Every other function I use is subsecond response.

If I could find anything close to this functionality, I'd jump at it.

..Paul..

 

Yes, you can use that. No problems.

 

From your description it appears to be a very good and powerfull address book app. Yet to find all these features in any of the apps I have used till date. Maybe others can help you [& me] in this.

 

I am still working this issue. As Arie pointed out, AddressBook Plus is probably a 16 bit app, not 32 as I said in the title. Actually, all I know is that its last release was labeled as compatible with Windows 98 which I guess means it was in the "16 bit era." The application is running perfectly on my Vista with a 32 bit processor.

The thread I am currently pursuing is to find a friend with Windows 7 Pro to see if it works there using the tools/environments described above. I'd happily upgrade to Pro if it works. It would literally be a new lease on life for this beloved application.

It is embarrassing to openly declare my attachment to this old application. I understand why folks have said its time to move on. If I had something good to move on to, I would.

..Paul..

 

If it works in WinXP, its going to work in virtual XP. No question about that.

VirtualBox can be installed on any OS including XP/Vista/Win 7 on any flavor. You don't need Win 7 Pro for that.

 

Thanks for the re-reminder about VirtualBox. I read some of the VirtualBox documentation but I'd like to be sure I understand it. Is the following likely to work?

I install VirtualBox on my Windows 7 64-bit laptop. I launch VirtualBox. I find my old XP or ME install disk and install this OS in the open VirtualBox window. After that is done, I install my legacy application (i.e., AddressBook Plus which worked fine under ME, XP, and Vista-32-bit) in the XP window that will become available. In the XP window I launch the legacy application and it works -- keyboard, mouse, flashdrive (read and write), hard drive (read and write) and printer known to my machine previously are all usable from my legacy application. If I click the Windows 7 desktop, I can access what was just done to files on my disk or flashdrive.

Do I have it right as described above? (My fingers are crossed!)

Let me add one more question to the above mix. I have a two beloved Canon Multipass color inkjet printers that worked great in XP. (The non-OEM ink cartridges are literally $1 each. That's why it is beloved.) Printer drivers for Windows 7 do not exist and no one claims to have a workaround. Can I connect the Canon Multipass to a USB port, install the printer drivers in the XP window under the VirtualBox and have it work for any application running under XP? For a Windows 7 application, I guess I would have to create a PDF file and then print it from an XP window. (Fingers still crossed!)

..Paul..

P.S.: I have newer color printers but I hate to pay 10-30 times as much for ink cartridges. I will print one color copy on the new printer and then use the copy function to make how ever many additional copies I need. Color text and graphics, though not photos, come out fine. Just call me cheap.

 

Yes those are the steps more or less. If you want USB access from within VirtualBox, you would have to download & install VirtualBox 4.1 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack before installing guest OS [WinXP].

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

 

Well..... VirtualBox and the extension installed without a hitch. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. The documentation is excellent. I got the info I needed and stopped reading when it went over my head. From the documentation, it seems to be as close to magic as you can get on a computer. I set up a virtual machine and tried to install Windows Me using the Windows backup disk from my now unused Dell desktop. It would not install and said to get the correct version from my PC vendor. I guess it requires an un-flavored OS install disk. I think I have one of these for Windows 95 or 98 but could not locate them. I'm not sure what kind of install disk would work.

I'll give up on the VirtualBox option for now. I am now trying to resurrect my XP laptop since that may be the easier path. I'll start another thread in the malware forum regarding my XP laptop.

..Paul..