Month: June 2016

Microsoft^® Windows^® 10 Upgrade

If you recently upgraded to Windows 10… are your Scheduled Tasks still running?

We have received many calls from stores that discovered days later that the upgrade broke all their Scheduled Tasks. Of primary relevance is the call to run the BSMGR SCHEDULE program for handling backups, multi-store file transfers and data reporting to Parable or EOI.

Since Microsoft initially released Windows 10 as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 almost a year ago, they have gradually become more aggressive in trying to get systems upgraded.

Initially, you could request the upgrade and receive an invitation to install Windows 10. Starting last October, Microsoft changed Windows 10 to a “recommended update” that would automatically download the needed files to most Windows 7 and 8.1 systems. The upgrade program (GWX – for Get Windows 10 with “X” being the Roman numeral for 10) had buttons to install the upgrade or you could click the red “X” in the top right corner to exit the program without installing Windows 10.

Starting in mid-May, we began to get calls from stores that came in to find one or more computers had automatically updated to Windows 10. The pop-up screen that had been shown since October was changed to show a date the installation would happen. Clicking the red “X” simply accepted this schedule, and a few days later you would walk in to find Windows 10 running on the computer.

—–NOT YET UPGRADED TO WINDOWS 10—–

It should be OK to install the Windows 10 upgrade on most computers running Windows 7 or 8.1 in your store, as far as BSMGR is concerned. However, there are exceptions.

1. While Quest ran on early versions of Windows 10, a Microsoft update that was pushed out in March 2016 now prevents Quest from running on the current release of Windows 10. You should block the installation of Windows 10 on computers running Quest.
2. Some older hardware we sold several years ago does not work with Windows 10 due to outdated drivers. Once Windows 10 was released, we tested all the hardware we still had in our office on it. We sent an email (archived at emails.bsmgr.com/windows-10-hardware-test-results) out in November sharing the results of our testing. If you are using hardware on the “Do Not Work” list or on the “Unknowns” list, you need to weigh whether you want to purchase new hardware to replace what doesn’t work or keep using the older version of Windows.

If you have a computer that should not upgrade to Windows 10, we recommend installing the “Never 10” program from Gibson Research Corp. It can be downloaded for free from their site at www.grc.com/never10.htm. Click the green “Download now” button and follow the directions.

 

—–UPGRADED TO WINDOWS 10 AND DOWNGRADED BACK TO WINDOWS 7—–

Once the Windows 10 upgrade is installed, if you do not accept the new EULA (End-User License Agreement), Microsoft will roll-back Windows to the version previously installed (Windows 7 or 8.1). We have received many calls from stores that did this and experienced various problems.

• Scheduled Tasks fail – This can easily be a hidden problem since everything you use on a daily basis continues to work. However, it is serious. One important Scheduled Task on the server is calling the BSMGR SCHEDULE program every night at 11pm (your local time). The BSMGR SCHEDULE program handles critical tasks such as nightly backups and file archiving as well as multi-store file transfers.
• Print spooler fails – The Windows print spooler handles your print jobs, whether from BSMGR or any other Windows program. If the print spooler won’t run, you can’t spool jobs to the printers.
• Windows Explorer becomes unstable – Trying to navigate around in “Computer” or “File Explorer” gives errors or outright crashes.

—–UPGRADED TO WINDOWS 10 AND ACCEPTED EULA—–

With Windows 10, Microsoft has disabled/hidden the traditional Administrator account. If your Scheduled Tasks were configured on Windows 7 to run as Administrator, they probably are no longer working. You will need to re-create them using an account with Administrator privileges (like RMS00). You can follow the steps in our updated tech document (www.BookstoreManager.biz/tutor/SCHED-WX.pdf) to make sure your nightly routines are being called properly.

In addition, the Windows 10 upgrade changes some printer functionality:

1. In the “Cortana” (Ask me anything) box near the new Start button, type in “Printers & scanners” and click on the match in the list. Under “Let Windows manage my default printer”, click the slider to the “Off” position.
2. TSP100 receipt printers get renamed to a default name like “Star TSP Auto cutter”. You need to rename it back to “TSP100”.
3. Zebra label printers have a new driver installed. You will need to re-share the printer (if it was shared), and you will need to rename it back to “ZEBRA”.
4. The built-in Windows 10 driver for the Epson Artisan 725 CD printer (used for QBS to print on burned CD’s) does not have all the printer properties (specifically, the one needed to print on a CD). There is a current driver available from the Epson website.

 

If you’ve experienced any other problems due to the Windows 10 upgrade, please reply to this email and let us know what your experience has been.

Remember, you can view ECN notices and other emailed communications from Bookstore Manager at emails.bsmgr.com.

Your BSMGR Support Team
support@bsmgr.com | (800) 997-6724 (option 2)

For the past couple of years, we’ve held our users meeting on an Internet webinar about a month before the International Christian Retail Show. While at the shows, we’ve received great feedback and suggestions for our next webinar.

We decided to hold our 3^rd annual users meeting after the 2016 ICRS so we can incorporate your ideas into this year’s meeting. We aren’t sending a sign-up link yet, but we want to ask you to plan on joining us Tuesday, July 12^th starting at 1pm Central. Again, as we did the last two years, this year’s webinar will be recorded. If you can’t attend, you will be able to watch it later.

Right now, we plan on covering the following topics:

• Highlight some of the changes made in BSMGR over the past year;
• Introduce features we will release in version 8.10 (such as signature capture for credit card transactions);
• Windows 10;
• Address concerns regarding the impact of the closing of STL Distribution;
• and more*
  (“more*” will be topics requested by YOU!)

We will end the meeting with a customer Q&A time. However, we will first cover the items that are submitted to us before the meeting. Plus, if you won’t be able to attend (or might have to leave early), we can still address your issues during the meeting. This will allow everyone to benefit from the answer, and you can watch the replay to see it for yourself.

Feel free to share your topic ideas with us by email (simply reply to this message) and in Cincinnati at the 2016 ICRS. We look forward to visiting with you in Booth #822!

Your BSMGR Support Team
support@bsmgr.com | (800) 997-6724 (option 2)