Upgrading RSLogix

[Surefire01]

Hi All

I teach at an engineering academy and one of the courses we offer is an introduction to PLC's. I have 8 Allen Bradley SLC-500's and use 8 paid for licences of RSLogix version 7.30.10. I recently obtained a budget to upgrade our old desktop PC's and specified Windows 7 operating system. Can you see what's coming? After a polite conversation with a lady at Rockwell I was informed that the version of RSLogix I have installed will not work on Windows 7. Should I wish to use Windows 7 I would have to upgrade to a later version of RSLogix and stump up more cash for a product I have already purchased.

I know this is common practice among a lot of software vendors but I still think it a little unfair. Does anyone know of a work around for this situation?

Thanks chaps

 

[IRstuff]

Can you test this on a W7 computer? Lots of times, these "incompatibilities" are just laziness on the SW supplier so they don't have to test or support

TTFN
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[controlsdude]

yes Windows 7 wont work. Thats a fair statement.

There is compatibility modes under windows7 but they are a hit and miss to get your old software to work.

Or go this route
Just install a virtual machine engine that mimics the previous windows version and now you can still use your older version of software. I think Microsoft offers it free i think but check on it. There are different flavors of it by different software providers, just pic one that your IT department will support.

This is the route I had to take for all pervious versions of software that windows7 does not support.

 

[catserveng]

I just dealt with this for a customer, used the free download from Microsoft for the XP mode and used Windows 7 Ultimate. A local automation engineer I work with has done this a number of times, and though we can't find a good reason for it, it seems we have much better luck making old software work, especially with serial connections, using the Ultimate version of Windows 7. Once in a while I have run into issues using the Professional version where upgrading to Ultimate has made things work better, but can't tell you why? Maybe someone else out there knows the answer.

RSLogix 500 worked fine, had more trouble getting the USB to serial convertor to wtth with RSLinx, but finally got that ironed out.

Hope that helps,

Mike L.

 

[jraef]

We do it here (at Rockwell) with Virtual Machines.

"Will work for (the memory of) salami"

 

[smavo]

We have 7.3 running under Windows 7. You need to run it in compatability mode and run rslinx not as a service but as a application

 

[dedevo]

Paying for VMs just doesn't seem to make any sense to me...
To avoid paying more for a newer version, we need to pay for a rugged VM system? No thanks.

I have had marginal success using "Windows XP Mode," the free stuff from Microsoft.
Linking your COM port to their VM is fairly easy, but it will disconnect from time to time.

I would recommend strongly against running anything in Compatibility mode...
But, once you install "Windows XP Mode" you can run those programs "natively" on your W7 desktop. The window will look like an XP window, but the programs and all of the DLLs link back to your VM install.

Devon Murray, EIT [Mechanical]
Solidworks 2011 SP 2.0