The Venice Project Beta-Test – Take 2

So, last night I tried to the The Venice Project Beta to work, but ran into a Vista-related issue (software conflict). It was stuck in my mind, so this morning I woke up early to figure out what the problem was before I went to work.

So, first of all, what is the AppPatch folder that Vista uses. Well, it’s a folder where Windows stores a database of known DLL issues and their fixes. Here’s the official word on how Vista deals with Application Compatability:

Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003 resolve application compatibility problems by dynamically matching application problems with solutions. The matching mechanism is controlled by a dynamic-link library (DLL) that starts and runs the matching mechanism whenever a user installs or runs an application. However, the matching mechanism is transparent and does not significantly affect the performance of the operating system or installed applications.

The matching mechanism relies on several database files to match problems with solutions. The database files contain a list of applications that have known problems and instructions for resolving those problems. The database files are saved in the \systemroot\AppPatch folder in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003.

Okay, useful but I was no closer to getting the package running. Digging through Google a bit more I found 2 ways to deal with the problem:

The better solution:

  1. Find the C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll file.
  2. You need to have Administrator permission, AND do this first to claim your right back in Vista to modify the file…
    Right click on file Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner>Edit..>Other users..>Advanced..>Find Now>
    YOUR_ADMINISTOR_USER_ACCOUNT>OK> ok to all boxes.
  3. Now rename this files to something as “1AcGenral.dll”.

The quick and dirty solution:

  1. Rename \windows\appPatch to appPatchOLD

I tried the quick and dirty solution (knowing full well that this might affect Windows’ ability to automatically resolve application compatibility issues), but I wanted to see if I could get Beta up and running .. and

Voila’ The Venice Project Beta is now running! Have to run to work now, but I’ll give it a spin tonight and report on whether it’s any good!

One comment

  1. I renamed the AcGenral.DLL to orig-AcGenral.DLL with the help of dell tech..now the popup doesn’t appear when I click on microsoft works..but when I try to download and install It still wont let me install new downloads..so guess will have to wait for a patch from microsoft to resolve that problem

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