2-25-10

I think it is a very nice OS. I use XP at FIT and Vista at home.  Windows 7 combines the upgraded features of Vista with the speed and reliability of XP.

Windows 7 also worked seamlessly with Office 2010 which I hope to be teaching in the Fall semester.

No problems yet.  I am grading current student work and developing next semester's assignments using Windows 7, IE8, Angel and Office 2010.  The new Paint will be very helpful for my students.  

I will continue to work through the full semester to see if anything pops up on the different assignments or interfaces or portals we use.  I will develop new assignments for the Summer / Fall semesters and see if anything pops up while I am working on them.  So far, so good.

2/24/10

Windows 7 OS

Internet Explorer 8

Office 2007

Casual use by Library Staff has met with smiles and encouragement. This copy of Windows 7 comes with IE 8 so they played with IE 8 and Firefox 3.6 and liked them both. Office 2007 seem to be fine.

From a technical standpoint on FIT's network Windows Firewall does interfere with plenty of the required legacy applications the Library needs to use. UAC is quite the annoyance with the legacy apps and negates the security it might provide with enough roadblocks and popups asking to allow or deny that most users seem to just click allow and not read the popup warnings. I would advise disabling UAC / Firewall on FIT Campus computers because this user behavior is almost universal and kills almost any added benefit.

Problems:
The company that created Aleph 500 client (Exlibris) has not yet certified version 18 as Windows 7 compatible and there is no news of a service pack at this time.

So far almost all functions seem to work after making exceptions for the Aleph modules in McAffee or disabling Access Control. Also the Windows Firewall has to be disabled or Exlibris has to make a list of internal modules that Aleph needs to have external network access so that exceptions could be added.

What doesn't work in Windows 7 is a function of the Aleph 500 client Cataloging Module converting external cat records by applying a filter to Convert MARC records to Aleph records which is done over the internet on the Aleph Server.

This is still being researched so results may change.

no problems with casual use

See Oracle and Sungard positions Below:
Banner clients,
As you may know, Oracle recently announced Forms support for Windows 7 and IE8. I am pleased to inform you that Banner 7.X and 8.X are now supported on Windows 7 and IE8 as well. As stated in Oracle's documentation, this requires Forms 10.1.2.3 and Sun Java Plug-In 1.6.0_16. I know this decision has been a long time in coming, and I thank you for your patience.

Tester comments:

1. I downloaded Mozilla 3.6 and attempted to open BannerINB.  I had to download the jinit.exe file (oracle jlnitiator 1.3.1.28) and Banner still did not work just disappeared.

2. I was unable to open Banner through the FIT Portal in any browser, and in Mozilla was only able to access program through non-portal entry with the assistance of Help Desk.

3. IE8 was on the computer after logging into the Portal and clicking on the Employee Tab I attempted to open BannerINB but it just closed right out. 

4. Banner 7 and Banner 8 FAILS.

5. It crashed on all browsers I tried (Firefox and Internet Explorer) I'm not %100 sure the problem is specific to the OS (except that I know Internet explorer is incompatible) as I have had the same problem with all other computers on campus except the ones in the registrar offices.
 

no problems

When I try to access Nolijweb I get a box prompting me to open a file instead of the login page. I have never been successful at accessing Knolijweb with any browser other than Internet Explorer 6 on any computer on campus.

Application would not properly communicate with the OCLC database and did not pop up an error dialog box or show any entries on error logs. Had to disable Windows Firewall and manually add entries into the trusted applications list even after the firewall was disabled, found that disabling UAC solves this much easier and faster.

Version 8 is the most recent revision. Version 7.4 has to be installed before you install 8 to migrate settings. The SQL Alias Manager that ships with Version 7.4 returns errors about application permissions and .NET 2.0 when the installing technician tried to finish configuring the logon.dbc file. Skipping that process and installing ILLiad 8 with it's version of SQL Alias Manager fixes this problem as there are no errors and the logon.dbc file is created.

Had to disable Windows Firewall and UAC to do the installation and connect properly with the OCLC ILLiad server.

I was able to get it running on my Home PC but you need to trick the Operating System and some of the new features can't be used. I would not recommend it to be deployed to any server until Oracle certifies it.

At the moment is not supported.  It will be supported with Oracle Application Server 10.1.2.3 and IE 8 using JRE6u16.  We are currently at Oracle Application Server 10.1.2.2 and using Jinitiator 1.3.28.

Tested Oracle Instant Client Version 11.1.0.7 and it works but it is not officially supported by Oracle.

IE8 and Firefox flawless.

On IE 8. We had to set the Internet Zone setting to Low and have IE accept all cookies. All options and functions now work. Firefox is flawless.