TRIAL: activation doesn't work, errors in installation

[Sue]

I downloaded the visio trial to see whether or not we should purchase the
software, but so far I'm thinking of trying something else.

a) I got 5 errors when I tried to install the software. They are all error
1919 and refer to MS Access, Excel Files, Visual FoxPro DAtabase, Visual
Foxpro Table and dBASE Files. The errors all look like the following:
Error 1919: Error Configuring ODBC Data Source: MS Access Database, ODBC
Error 6: Component not found in the registry. Verify that the file MS Access
Database exists and that you can access it.
When you select Ignore (the only option that does anything), you get the
same error, but this time it will mention Excel files instead of MS Access.
and then Visual FoxPro, etc.

b) When I try to activate the software it either tells me that the wizard
cannot find a connection to the internet or that the activation database is
not available. Either way I cannot activate the product and cannot try the
product.

Since there is NO SUPPORT for this, I'm stuck with a trial that I've
downloaded but doesn't work.

This might be the product I need, but I'll never know because it does not
work.

 

[johnf7994]

I was able to load the Viso trial with no problem on XP Home, but ran into
the same wall with the wizard (could not find connection to Internet). Had
one suggestion (take down my firewall), but am unwilling to do that.

I'm beginning a web design biz and after deconstructing a few sites I
admired that were produced with Microsoft .NET tools (many free), I was
seriously considering the Windows path.

But this Visio nonsense reminded me of the months I've wasted just trying to
get the OEM version of XP on my emachines box secured and working smoothly.
Within a month after firing it up, XP began to shut down and crash routinely
because it couldn't find something it needed. Windows crash analysis told me
I had a bad hard disk. But the events were almost random, and could not be
reproduced.

Finally I got a diag program from the HD mfg which told me it couldn't
continue without changing the registry to accommodate the disk's capacity.
Since then its been smooth sailing more or less. I know that my registry is
still loaded with garbage and my event log is still riddled with mysterious
warnings about missing dlls and the unexpected disappearance of phantom
devices. And at least once a week another critical update for one thing or
another shows up. Now I find that using the Office help system puts me at
risk.

Bottom line: I'm outahere. I f I can't code it by hand, I can't code it, and
if my customers are not happy with a Linux server, they go elsewhere. Life is
just too short and I am just too old to put up with any more of Microsoft's
endlessly chainging layers of abstraction (or should I say misdirection) and
its needless complexity.

A nice little training package I developed last year with PowerPoint (which
I converted to a Java applet for use on an Intranet) suddenly began to
misbehave on XP machines last month. Seems a recent XP fix stumbles over the
code, isolates the java display in a dotted line box, and asks users to click
to activate. Same thing happens with each linked file. To overcome this, I
had to go in and retrofit each module by hiding the applets in javascript
files. And only a few months before I had to install the "mark of the web"
hack at the beginning of every file so my client's employees could move from
lesson one to lesson two turning off their popup blocker. There's just no end
to it.

I used to admire Bill Gates for unifying the world around one standard. But
that was then. This is now. There is no way to explain the behavior of an
organization that has become as large and greedy as Microsoft. If you can
escape it, no good reason to become entangled in its web.

I'm going to take good hard look at the Intel powered Mac when it finally
hits the streets.