[RESOLVED] Groupwise and Vista

[BOB IROC]

Not sure if I should post this here or in the Novell forum so will put it here. One of our Superintendents just got a new laptop and it came with Windows Vista Business Edition. Intitially I was going to downgrade it to Windows XP, but he threw a fit and wants to keep Windows Vista on there. I was able to get a Novell Login Client that works with Vista so he can get his Novell mapped drives, but when I tried to Install Groupwise 6.5.7 I get all sorts of problems. I searched Novell and all I can determine is that the Groupwise 7 client should work, but I do not think I can install that on the computer as our Post Office is running 6.5.7

The error I get is "Either there is no default mail client or the current client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Office Outlook and set it as the default mail client." After clicking through this error GroupWise launched and showed the mail in the inbox, but you cannot open or send any mail.

I am thinking the problem has something to do with the Windows NT Messaging client that is being installed when I run GroupWise setup but I am not sure what to do about it. Somebody please help because I am not sure telling the Superintendent that he cannot have Vista is an option.

[NooNoo]

How about circumventing the problem entirely by giving him web access to his mailbox?

[Ferrit]

Sometimes not everything is installed when you click setup. I found that by right clicking the setup you can choose Run as Administrator and it does sometimes complete the install better.Not sure if this will help but its a thought.

[BOB IROC]

How about circumventing the problem entirely by giving him web access to his mailbox?

He does have web access and to him that is not acceptable.

[NooNoo]

Then he is going to ask the company to upgrade to gw7??

If you want to go the extra mile, try using gw7 client with your existing post office... worse case is that it won't work

Then if it doesn't work you write a memo explaining this is a limitation of GW 6.5 and explain that web access is all that can be offered until the company upgrades. Then he has the choice of upgrading the company, downgrading the laptop or living with webmail.

[BOB IROC]

Actually come this June we are migrating to Exchange 2007 and he is retiring this year so I don't think he cares either way. I tried the GW7 client and it will not connect to the 6.5.x POA. I guess WebAccess will have to do unless there is something else I can try

[BOB IROC]

I finally got an answer from a Novell forum post. Here are the steps if anyone is interested.


1. Start with a clean installation of Windows Vista.
2. Enable the Administrator account, and login as Administrator.
3. Rename/delete the following files;
- c:\windows\system32\mapisvc.inf
- c:\windows\system32\mapistub.dll
- c:\windows\system32\mapi32.dll


For the DLLs, it's not straightforward.
a. Make the Administrators group the owner
b. Grant the Administrators group Full Control permissions.
4. Copy GroupWise 6.5.7 installation files to the local drive.
5. In the installation folder, browse to WIN32\WMS\NT\US\WMS.EXE.
Right-click and click Properties, then on the compatibility tab, set
to "Run this program in compatibility mode for - Windows XP (Service
Pack 2)"
6. Repeat this for WIN32\SETUP.EXE
7. Install WIN32\WMS\NT\US\WMS.EXE. Reboot after installation.
8. Verify that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MAPI32.DLL is dated 1996.
9. Install GroupWise using SETUP.EXE
10. After installation, choose not to run GroupWise.
11. Restart
12 Run GroupWise.

[NooNoo]

Wow, that's some fix!!

[BOB IROC]

Wow, that's some fix!!

Thats what I said. I wish I could take credit for it, but I cannot. But it does work and I have not run into any issues as of yet. But even if there are a few minor bugs, it still beats using Groupwise Web Access.

I redid my laptop back to Windows Vista, but I think I will keep the superintendent on XP for now.