Delphi/Paradox Database desktop DBD32.exe settings for Windows 7 - delphi

Does anyone have any suggestions on the compatibility setting on Windows 7 for the Delphi/Paradox Database desktop program so that it displays properly in Windows 7 (x64)?
We've tried quite a few combinations of selections on the Compatibility tab on the .exe's Properties screen. But, none of them have eliminated fixed our problem:
It runs fine, but the buttons on the structuring screens are missing their text and are not clickable. The work-around is to use the keyboard shortcuts for these buttons, but obviously, although workable, that's not ideal.
Pre-emptive prose: Yes, we know we're on risky ground and need to migrate away from Paradox, which in some future version of Windows will not be supported. (But, we've got a million+ lines of code and migration won't be easy...)

I can confirm that disabling UAC and moving Database Desktop out out C:\Program Files makes buttons work again.
Before:
After:

A few points:
Try running it with UAC disabled.
Make sure you have all the BWCC-dlls and stuff in the right places too.
On Windows XP, check which fonts is uses, make sure those fonts are installed too.

Nothing worked for me with Delphi 5 Database Desktop on Windows 8, until I realized that I had also installed it through the Delphi 4 setup - and that version of DBD opens fine for me. Hope this helps!

so easy answer :
don't use delphi menu to open desktop database but just navigate to this directory
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Borland Shared\Database Desktop"
and run DBD32.EXE
you can also create a shortcut to it on desktop or quick launch on taskbar
i use delphi 7

Related

Can't find Code Explorer Window in Delphi 6 running on Windows 7 64-bit. How to get it back?

I'm having a really strange problem with the Delphi 6 IDE running on Windows 7 (64-bit edition). I just can't find the Code Explorer window pane. Usually it's docked against the left side of the Code Editor window. If not there, then you can find it by opening the View menu and selecting Code Explorer. But the Code Explorer is not docked to the Code Editor and when I drop down the View Menu the Code Explorer option is simply not there. All the other options are: Project Manager, Object Inspector, Object TreeView, etc. but just not the Code Explorer. Everything else about the IDE works great. Has anybody else had this problem and if so, what can I do to get it back? I rely on that view quite heavily.
Also, once I undock a view it doesn't seem to want to dock again. I hover over the usual areas in the edit window and it won't accept it the orphaned view as a docking client.
-- roschler
I can't reproduce the missing Code Explorer menu item. It works fine for me.
Regarding the non-dockable windows have you tried right clicking on the troublesome floating window and making sure that Dockable is ticked?
One thing to try when Delphi's IDE is giving you grief is to delete any .dsk files.
Finally, Delphi 6 pre-dates UAC and assumes that you can write to the installation directory. Have you made sure that Delphi is able to do this one way or another?
Sorry I don't have a definitive answer, but this is all I can think of.
For the record,
I had the same problem as you Robert.
Configuration:
Delphi 6 Enterprise, installed to a custom location.
Update Pack 2
Several Third Party Components
Windows 7, Spanish and English languages in Regional and language settings, and keyboard layout settings. Default language 'spanish',
default keyboard distribution 'english'.
Issues:
No 'code explorer' context menu item,
In editor, no 'complete class at cursor'.
Ctrl+Shift+C not working
Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down Arrow not working.
I uninstalled Delphi, uninstalled English language, removed keymappings to change keyboard layout (Ctrl+Shift).
Then I installed Delphi again, custom location, execute the installer as administator -> no issues.
I installed the third party components -> no issues
To install the update pack, this time, I opened the exe with winrar, decompressed the file, changed the files 'setup.exe', '_ISDel.exe' and '_BDEL.EXE' to execute always as administrator for all users. Run 'setup.exe' as administrator.
I don't know exactly which step did the trick but now I have no Issues.
I just tried with Delphi 6 on Win64, and have all the windows. And all expected menu items. Sometimes, there is some problems of refresh, but when I restart the IDE, everything is back there.
But I've installed:
Delphi 6 Suite Entreprise;
Update pack 2;
DDevExtension;
Delphi SpeedUp;
CnPack.
All is installed not in C:\Program Files but in a custom C:\Progs directory, which has all security rights set for all authenticated users. You should not install Delphi 6 under C:\Program Files, in all cases.
Works like a charm. Perhaps one of the add-ons fixed the issue.

Missing Right Click menu in Windows 7

We have a few different programs all compiled together in the same suite, recently we had a bug reported that "The Right Click Shortcut Menu was missing."
So as with any bug I tried to reproduce it and couldn't. No matter what I did the right click menu appeared on my system.
My first guess was that this was an OS issue. We know it works on Vista and XP, but on Windows 7 it doesn't. Unfortunately this issue only affects one of the programs in the suite and seemingly only on this one machine. AFAIK there isn't any code we've written to allow or prevent the default menu appearing so I'm not sure why it only affects one program.
The machine with the issue is a 32-bit machine running Windows 7. There was another issue to do with the regional settings (we have noticed backwards date formats even though the OS thinks it's UK it had been displaying MM/DD/YYYY format, but this was fixed when changing the regional settings to something else and back again). This did not resolve the issue.
Besides writing a new context pop-up, does anyone have any idea how I would even start to diagnose this issue? Is there an API I can call to pop-up the default menu so I can monitor its behaviour? some windows message I can intercept the check its all running as it should be?
Download Delphi 2007 December updates to fix this problem
or andy Context menu popup delay bug fix unit

Where does CodeGear Delphi 2009 store settings

I'm running windows 7 ultimate (32bit) and have a very anoying problem with my installation of delphi.
The problem is with the feature "Code Insight" and with "Code template completion", it is very anoying when it every time i write something and it wants to complete some piece of code for me (for example i hate it when he completes the for condition). The problem is that i can't shut it down since i think it has a bug when installed on windows 7 that when i turn those features off it works once and then it turns on again, like it couldn't write in the settings file.
Does anybody know where Codegear Delphi 2009 stores it's setting/configuration file? Or how can i turn off.
I tried running it as administrator in compatibility mode (vista and xp) tried searching for the file but with no luck.
In the registry under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CodeGear\BDS\6.0
Also in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CodeGear\BDS\6.0 but there seems to be no data there of interest.
Also under C:\Users*USERNAME*\AppData\Roaming\CodeGear\BDS\6.0 are some settings stored.

Delphi 2006 Application messing up the GUI on Windows 7

I've been searching the Internet for a solution. Also here on Stackoverflow. But I haven't had any luck so far.
We're having a problem with a Delphi 2006 application running on Windows 7. Some ComboBoxes are not shown. The exactly same application runs fine on Windows XP.
I been trying to locate any patches. Do any one of you know any links or hack to make to GUI look as it should when running a Delphi 2006 application on Vista/Windows 7?
I've found this link: http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/delphivista.html. But it doesn't solve my problems.
Any help are welcome.
/Brian
This may be one of a couple of issues; you haven't given much in the way of details. "Some comboboxes are not shown" doesn't help a lot.
The things I've run across that caused these kinds of problems:
Large fonts when the app was designed with normal fonts
Custom DPI settings (eg., 120 DPI instead of the "standard" 96 DPI)
EDIT after Brian's comment:
That's really strange. I've never seen visual differences between apps compiled in the IDE and command-line.
The only thing I can think of is that the command-line version might have some compiler defines that are affecting the comboboxes (unlikely), or the command-line version is seeing a different version of the .pas and .dfm and that version doesn't have the comboboxes on the form.
You might try making sure that there is only a single copy of the affected .dfm and .pas files on the build machine, and then verify they have the right appearance before compilation. (Use Windows search to check for multiple copies of the source files, and search the entire system just to make sure.)
I've never had this issue with visual controls, but have had it with source changes that didn't seem to take effect, or breakpoints that didn't break because the compiler was seeing a different version of the file than I was... I don't know if that's the case here, but it might be worth checking.

How to set Delphi bookmarks on Vista 64-bit

In Delphi (2007) I'm used to setting a bookmark with CTRL-SHIFT-0,1,2 etc.
Since I've upgraded to Vista x64 the above no longer works. I can still set a bookmark with CTRL-K-0,1,2 etc but I'm habituated to the traditional way (plus it's quicker).
Does anyone know why it's not working for me?
I had the same problem. Some more investigation showed that it is caused by a change in Vista.
Input method editor keyboard shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT+0) switches the input language in Vista. The following link shows how to disable this shortcut and thereby make it available to other applications (including Delphi) again: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967893.
I am running on Windows 2008 Server 64-Bit (which is based on Vista) and I use CTRL+SHIFT+1 to set book marks and it works fine. At home I have Vista 32-Bit and that works fine too.
You might check to make sure your OEM didn't install some crazy keyboard hook on that or something. I've had that happen before where some key combinations were remapped by a background program and it prevented them from working in Delphi.
Programmers use a lot more key combinations then most "normal" users.
Verify that you don't have system wide hot keys that conflict with those. I had the same problem with Trillian hijacking some Delphi shortcuts.
As already mentioned, Vista is using that key combination.
If you don't want to disable it, Ctrl+K CTRL+0 is the old school method to set bookmark 0.

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