Windows 7 and MLS 3.3

[greenwoodkl]

What fixes did you apply to get user accounts to show up? Which wiki page are you referring to?

[crislapi]

What fixes did you apply to get user accounts to show up? Which wiki page are you referring to?

No fixes, just had to skip the instructions about setting up the admin account. I just created the clerk account. The instructions have you first set up the admin account and after a reboot add the clerk account. Windows 7 does not work that way. The account you are setting up the first time is the clerk account. You never see the hidden admin account.

As for the Wiki pages I am referring to, they are hyperlinked in the post. Click on "wiki" and it will take you to the associated page.

That's good to know, but no one should draw any general conclusions from that statement. It has definitely been the explicit policy in the past that an entire stake had to upgrade to a beta version at the same time. If an exception was noted to one stake for one MLS version, that statement applies only to that one stake for that one MLS version.

Item 2 of the beta download page:

2. Every unit in the stake, including the stake, must have the pre-release version installed.

Makes me wonder if I might have been told wrong. It wouldn't be the first time... DJC, any thoughts? Should I just hold off until the general release?

A final comment. I heard back from the FM group today. To the best of their knowledge, it should have come w/ XP pro. They are sending us a disk to downgrade it, but they may not be aware of these recent changes (see DJC's post).

[greenwoodkl]

If our stake wants to keep on Windows 7, what version should be installed if we only have a license? I'm sure we could obtain an install if we just need to enter a key. Enterprise?

[crislapi]

Ours came with Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)

[russellhltn]

Supposedly the FM group received the new computers direct from the warehouse. I have not had the opportunity to see them yet, I assume there is no image on them and the Church doesn't have the OEM install the image and the FM group would usually do that.

While I'd never say never, I don't think the FM group would normally do anything more then transport the box from their doorstep to the stake's. I doubt if they get involved in imaging computers.

[lajackson]

I would highly recommend that anyone else in this same situation work directly with Local Unit Support to make sure they are specifically directed to use this early beta. Also, as has been mentioned before, the stake president has to authorize use of beta versions of MLS.

I do not know if Local Unit Support knows this and forgets to remind folks, or if one the assistant ward clerks in our stake chose to ignore it (he claims he was never told), but after he was instructed by LUS to load a beta version and did, his unit dropped off the reporting system for over two months until we finally figured out what had happened and did an emergency load of the same beta version on the rest of the units (14) in the stake.

The sad thing was that the beta did not fix the problem he was trying to solve, and everyone knew it would not (except, I guess, the help desk). We went through a lot of effort to get our stake quarterly report straightened out because of the "help" he received.

We have instituted even more training that the wards should not do anything to their computer software without speaking first with the assistant stake clerk for technology.

[crislapi]

I do not know if Local Unit Support knows this and forgets to remind folks, or if one the assistant ward clerks in our stake chose to ignore it (he claims he was never told), but after he was instructed by LUS to load a beta version and did, his unit dropped off the reporting system for over two months until we finally figured out what had happened and did an emergency load of the same beta version on the rest of the units (14) in the stake.

I raised the concerns you mentioned and was told that this should not affect anything. They'd heard of it happening, but think it was in an earlier release. I'll continue trying and, if they drop out, will then institute your fix

[crislapi]

Ok, I finally got MLS working. Let me start by saying the folder structure with MLS 3.3 completely changes. Unfortunately, that means a lot of the support pages on the wiki will no longer worked (I've tried several of them today).

From the beginning, then, I tried to do a clean install of MLS 3.3 on a brand new Windows 7 machine. However, when I tried to restore from a back up created from 3.2.2, it would log me off as part of the process, but when I tried to log back in, all the user names were erased.

I tried the wiki's approach of copying the old data.properties file. That at least got the names to show up again, but it would not recognize passwords. As an aside, for MLS 3.3 on Windows 7, the path has changed to:

C:/ProgramData/LDS Church/MLS/data/units/<unit #>/data

and ProgramData is a hidden folder. To view you need to navigate to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options > Show hidden files and folders

We even tried creating new backups from the old computer. No luck. The next attempt was to upgrade the old computer to MLS 3.3 (install OVER the existing MLS; i.e. do NOT uninstall the previous version of MLS first). This will automatically migrate your MLS database to 3.3. We created a new backup, tried to restore, same problem. I think I only ever tried copying the OLD data.properties folder and not the new one... that might have worked. Oh well. As an aside, backups are now saved by default to C:/data-backup

As another aside, to get MLS back to the setup screen (option to restore from a file) without uninstalling and reinstalling MLS, just delete the Units folder from

C:/ProgramData/LDS Church/MLS/data/

At this point LUS had me zip up my data folder and mail it in so the programmers could look at it. However, on the old computer I could log in just fine. Weird. So I tried copying the entire MLS folder over and, guess what? That worked! The new MLS folder on an XP machine exists here:

C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/LDS Church/

I'm sure it could be accomplished by copying less, but I also wanted to preserve my confidential forms and financial statements. Up to MLS 3.2.2 those were located in the following folders

C:/Program Files/LDS Church/MLS/data/<unit#>
C:/Program Files/LDS Church/MLS/Units/<unit#>

After the upgrade, these folders have moved/no longer exist. Rather than spend a lot of time looking for it, this was an easy solution.

One analyst I spoke with mentioned the change in paths was to make MLS run on limited use accounts. In other words, MLS should no longer have to be run by a user w/ admin privileges. In the same breath, however, in discussion with another analyst about how to set up Windows 7, he mentioned that I just had to make sure the Clerk account had admin privileges. Just a little more info to put out there for you...

[childsdj]

The program paths have changed because of the way Windows 7 works. If you have specific issues or questions around this, please post a question, but crislapi is right on in his previous post.

As far as admin goes, the way I understand it is MLS will run fine with a standard account, but the when any changes are made the UAC will prompt to log in as admin to make the changes.

For this release, I would say if just one unit has a Windows 7 box and needs MLS 3.3 before the rest of the stake, it wouldn't hurt anything to just install the one unit, understanding that some functionality will not flow between the stake and ward as well until both are on 3.3.

[lajackson]

For this release, I would say if just one unit has a Windows 7 box and needs MLS 3.3 before the rest of the stake, it wouldn't hurt anything to just install the one unit, understanding that some functionality will not flow between the stake and ward as well until both are on 3.3.

Be careful, though. Our stake president sent two proposal to CHQ with erroneous data because of this.

If 3.3 is going to come down the pike before the next quarterly report is due, putting it on one machine now should not hurt, as long as the rest of the stake gets it before the end of the quarter.

But, be careful. And check you data carefully if it is to be used for important decisions. The Help Desk continues to say that there "should" not be a problem. Trust me. There is.