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psychoholica
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| Posted: November 03 2007 at 16:56 | IP Logged
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Any news on the Vista front? I would love to try this app out but it doesnt work. :(
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 04 2007 at 15:55 | IP Logged
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psychoholica,
Some users have reported success with Vista, others are having problems. Can you give me details on what you've done so far? As long as it works for some, there should be no reason that we cant get it to work for all. Is it just the Insteon that isnt working? Does PowerHome install at all? Let me know and I'll do my best to help you out.
Thanks,
Dave.
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psychoholica
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| Posted: November 04 2007 at 21:22 | IP Logged
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Hi Dave,
Im getting the same -2 error. It didnt look like this was solved but im up for trying the reg edit if you think that will work.
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 04 2007 at 22:20 | IP Logged
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Dave --
I normally run PH on my W2K3 server, but wanted to try to see if I could get it to work on Vista. I have a fairly recent install of Vista Ultimate 32-bit, nothing too out of the ordinary. UAC enabled.
The installation went fine, no problems. I did initially have problems using the SDM and also got the script error, but when I placed both the sdm executable in Win XP compatiblity and also powerhome, the issues went away and so far, it's working well. Can't say if it would work this well long term, but at least it's running. No errors on startup -- but on shutdown, I get a notice about active COM objects still running as the SDM shuts down.
I tried copying the database to no avail, but then realized that was likely UAC doing virtualization to the per-user storage area. But since this was just a test, I had PH read the PLC and spider -- here's a screenshot below (apologize for the size if comes across too big). Happy to help if I can -- only caveat is that I can't keep the PLC connected to this machine, but can occasionally move it over for testing...
HTH!
-Brian
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 04 2007 at 22:35 | IP Logged
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Brian,
Excellent work!! So it looks like PowerHome installs without issue (obviously, you must install as an administrator) but you must then set both the SDM and PowerHome to use XP compatibility mode.
Everything works fine after this, no errors on startup, but the SDM has an error saying that COM objects are still connected when it shuts down. Did I get this right so far?
I have heard from another user about the database copying where they have problems. They copy the database from their old machine but when they start PowerHome, it's not the database they copied. I know almost nothing about Vista but it seems that you reference some UAC virtualization. Can you shed a little more light on this?
Thanks for all the hard work Brian. It's really big help and a step in the right direction.
psychoholica,
Can you try the XP compatibility mode that Brian mentions to see if it fixes the script server - 2 error?
Thanks,
Dave.
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 04 2007 at 22:50 | IP Logged
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Yep, sounds right to me ...
As for the UAC virtualization -- what's happening is Vista enforces that per-user data is stored to the Users folder. It thinks the db is per-user data, so the app is redirected to a virtualized store, typically here:
c:\users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\powerhome\Database\
In there, you'll see the pwrhome database file...replace that and you should be good to go. Doesn't produce the greatest result in this case since the data is not per-user, but the intent of the feature was to keep users from stepping on other data.
I've got a couple other vista boxes I can play around with to see if there's a concrete method that'll work...
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psychoholica
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| Posted: November 05 2007 at 01:02 | IP Logged
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So on a fresh Vista install I tried PowerHome, I get the script -2 error.
I changed both of these files to run in XP SP2 Compatibility mode:
C:\Program Files\powerhome\Smarthome\Device Manager\SMD3.exe
C:\Program Files\powerhome\pwrhome.exe
I still get the error, tried a reboot to be safe.
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 05 2007 at 09:15 | IP Logged
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Could I offer a couple of suggestions?
1) Try running the SDM3 as administrator (right click, run as administrator) before launching PH. See if the launches and finds the PLC.
2) Try running PH as administrator.
3) This is the complicated one. Failing all this, download Process Monitor from Microsoft. Close PH and the SDM, and run Process Monitor. Try to run PH, and watch the logs in Process Monitor. Specifically, look for errors reading registry keys of files. You'll likely see PH first, then the SDM afterwards. Post any failures here!
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/proc essmonitor.mspx
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 05 2007 at 11:52 | IP Logged
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OK, here's some more Vista information that I've gathered while playing around with it this morning. After a reboot I had some errors so decided to start over again:
If I have UAC enabled (which I typically do :)) I set both the SDM3.exe and pwrhome into XP SP2 Compat mode. I was getting the OLE errors from SDM, but fixed that by modifying the permissions on these registry keys:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{53A47403-34CF-412A-87E6-CEA3482CEF2 A}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{53A47403-757C-439C-8B76-59A270560 38E}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SDM3Server.SDM3
At this point, all seems fine so far.
If I disable UAC _or_ try to run PowerHome as an administrator, I get the Script Server (-2) error when starting PowerHome. At this point, I'm not exactly sure why that is, but if I find out I'll post back.
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 05 2007 at 12:55 | IP Logged
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Brian,
You are fantastic. Way above and beyond. This is a huge help.
The Script Server -2 error is caused when PowerHome cant locate the phscr.pbd activeX control. This control is automatically registered during install but sometimes does not install properly. In this case, a phscr.reg file is included that users can right-click and select "merge" to add the proper information to the registry. If you open this file up and go to the very end, you'll see the text for the location of the phscr.pbd file. My guess is that the UAC crap is causing PowerHome to look into a location that the file isnt truly at...probably the "c:\users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\powerhome" location that you mention. The registry is pointing to a different location and so PowerHome cant locate the file. The fix may be to edit the phscr.reg file and change the location to the virtual store.
Since the PowerHome database is not really "per-user" data, does Vista allow turning off of the UAC on a per application, per location, or per file basis? Or is it always just globally on or off?
Excellent detective work so far.
Thanks,
Dave.
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 05 2007 at 14:46 | IP Logged
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Dave --
That's the weird part about it. It works when I have UAC enabled, it only fails when I bypass UAC. What you're suggesting makes perfect sense if it were the other way around and only happened when running it as normal user.
So far, I'm really puzzled... I may try process explorer and look at the handles to see if it even tries to find that location...
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 05 2007 at 22:58 | IP Logged
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Well I worked with JaredM and we were able to get PowerHome (and the SDM) running on Vista. The trick appears that the UAC *must* be enabled. Compatibility mode did not seem to be necessary.
With UAC off, the Script Server - 2 error and the SDM "IsResponding" errors. Turn UAC on, and everything seemed to work just fine. I originally thought that XP compatibility mode was necessary for both pwrhome.exe and SDM.exe but in JaredM's case, it was not necessary.
I will be researching the UAC problem and try to determine what is necessary in order to run PowerHome with UAC disabled (what seems to be the preferred mode of operation).
Thanks,
Dave.
EDIT***
Sorry Jared, I confused my usernames and wanted to make sure that I gave you the proper credit for working with me.
2nd EDIT***
Got the username right but messed up the real name  . All should be in order now.
Edited by dhoward - November 06 2007 at 20:27
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 06 2007 at 00:09 | IP Logged
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OK, so we found the commonality :)
This is going to sound funny, but I don't think UAC is the issue, although it certainly looks that way. (And I may be wrong...)
So here's my thinking: Let's assume we're all admins. With UAC, when logging into the box, you get two tokens. One for standard user, and one for admin. As long as we don't run as admin, things work. Therefore, the context the app runs as is important. UAC doesn't really care (except, it provides virtualization); my hunch is, if we disable UAC but create a non-admin account and try it under this account, it will work.
So, the problem is likely with something like UIPI (user interface privilege isolation). Lesser-privileged applications won't be able to talk to more elevated ones, and I'm wondering if that's what's happening here. By running PH in a lesser-privileged way, the communication is allowed. In part, this helps stop shatter attacks.
This is all just a hunch right now and I could be completely wrong...
Edited by bhlonewolf - November 06 2007 at 00:10
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: November 06 2007 at 19:17 | IP Logged
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Wow -- I can't believe how obvious the solution was. I want to stick something in my eye 'cause I didn't see it :)
When the app installs, the registry files are done for HKCU (current user) -- and of course, when running as admin, the app will look at HKLM, not HKCU. I copied these reg keys into HKLM, and it works fine :)
2007-11-06_191427_ph_newreg_hklm.reg.txt
Rename the attachment to .reg from .txt, and give it a whirl!
(Now in the interest of disclosure, I was an engineer on the Vista team, and I happened to mention this problem to one of our senior test leads and he said, "make sure those keys are in HKLM ... so credit to him for the suggestion!)
Edited by bhlonewolf - November 06 2007 at 19:18
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 06 2007 at 20:30 | IP Logged
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Brian,
Excellent!!! I cant tell you what great news this is. I know a number of users have been waiting for Vista support and now it finally looks as if it is possible. FIgured it would take an "inside man" to get this figured out.
Now all I have to do is pull together everything into a "Vista Howto" and we should be ready to go.
A great big thanks to you Brian,
Dave.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: November 06 2007 at 20:47 | IP Logged
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Wow, you stuck with your beliefs and you were right. That's good problem determination from an old IBM developer. Good job Brian….
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doogie
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| Posted: January 16 2008 at 14:12 | IP Logged
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Hi... doogie here... I also have an 1132 that won't install under Vista... exactly what do I have to do and what does that reg.txt file listed a few posts up have to do with it... I gather I'm supposed to download that and put it somewhere.... but where? thank you so much!
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cmhardwick
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| Posted: January 17 2008 at 08:29 | IP Logged
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Download the file (save to desktop would be easiest). Changing the .txt to .reg
After it's saved, go to your desktop and double-click it. This will give you a prompt of "do you want to add this to your registry" (or something along those lines). CLick YES and then you should get a successfully added message. That's it.
I'm assuming this process is the same in Vista as in XP, which is what I use.
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Cicero, Enjoying automation!
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doogie
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| Posted: January 17 2008 at 16:15 | IP Logged
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I guess mine is a different problem... I can't even install my smarthome software on my Vista machine... when I run the setup.exe it tells me it can't install the software on my version of software and I can't go any further.
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: January 21 2008 at 10:29 | IP Logged
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doogie-- what are you trying to install?
For Powerhome, I believe it installs fine on Vista-- and IIRC, there's no smarthome separate installation... you should be able to just install it and go. Is that for houselinc or something?
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Topic: Windows Vista?
