If you’re using an old version of Macro Scheduler, especially version 8 or lower, and like many others, you or your company are considering upgrading your Windows operating system to Vista or Windows 7 soon then you will need to consider upgrading Macro Scheduler too.
Windows 7 adoption rates are outpacing those of Vista fast and many companies are planning on going straight from XP to Windows 7. Already Windows 7 has over 15% market share with over 90 million licenses sold as of March 2nd.
Version 8 of Macro Scheduler was superseded before Windows Vista came along. And Vista brought with it some changes that required us to make changes to Macro Scheduler. So Macro Scheduler v9 was the first version that fully supported Vista. The latest version supports Vista and Windows 7 fully and is listed at Microsoft.com as a “Windows 7 Front Runner” application.
One of the things that Vista introduced were the thumbnail windows that appear when you hover over a task bar icon. These have the same title as the application’s main window. So in Macro Scheduler 8.0 and lower you will run into a problem where your SetFocus lines and other window functions find this thumbnail window before the main window and prevent your scripts from working properly.
Starting with Macro Scheduler 9.0 (in 2007) we made the window functions ignore these new thumbnail windows to prevent this problem. We also had to make some changes to the macro recorder. Older versions may not be able to record under Vista without running Macro Scheduler as admin.
So if you’re still running Macro Scheduler 8 or below then even if you have no plans to change your macros, you’re going to need a newer version when your operating system is upgraded to Windows 7.
Furthermore, we can’t support old versions forever and with the release of version 12 we will be discontinuing support for versions 8 and lower. Since version 9.0 was the first version that properly supported Vista and above we can only really continue to provide support for this version and onwards.
Version 12 offers even more Vista/7 functionality including a reliable AutoLogon mechanism that works in Vista/7/2008 to allow you to schedule macros to run even when Windows is locked or logged out.
So now is the time to upgrade. And if you buy or upgrade to v11 now, we’ll give you a free upgrade to v12 when it is released in a few weeks.
So there’s really no need to wait.
For a summary of new features in v12 click here and here.
The best way to upgrade is to log into your registered account and click the upgrade links. Any problems accessing your account email us.
Consider adding maintenance to your order as well. This will ensure you continue to get all future upgrades and new features automatically at no extra cost. Maintenance is the easiest way to ensure your software stays up to date with all the new Windows releases.
Take a look at the Macro Scheduler history list to see how many improvements there have been since version 8:
http://www.mjtnet.com/mswhatsnew.htm
