Getting InfoSelect v5 to work on Win 7 64-bit Home Premium

[IainB]

(As posted to the InfoSelect Yahoo! user group forum.)

Spoiler

InfoSelect Yahoo! group member  harmonexxray (Bob) had suggested that I post this experience to the group.
He had separately emailed me to say that:
"I noticed that in one of your posts you mentioned that you were able to install IS8 on Win 7 64 bit.
I use IS5 and was not able to get the installer to run on Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I tried changing the compatibility mode but no luck."

IS5 is currently unsupported by Miclog.
After some email discussion with Bob and playing about with IS5 (which happened to be the first version of IS that I bought a licence for in 1998) I established that:

1. If you already have IS5 installed and working in your old XP or other old system, then just copy the IS5 program directory and database files across to similar-named folders (or whatever suits you) on your Win7-64 PC.

2. You could also copy the C:\windows\IS.INI file across, but that may not be necessary, as IS5 will create it if it is not there.

3. If you do not have IS5 installed, then get it installed on  your old XP or other old system using the install file from Miclog:
    http://www.miclog.com/ftp/is/5/is50022.exe
    You have to take this step because that install file apparently will not run on Win7-64.
    What you need are the installed files and folders, that's all. You could ask someone to install it on their old system if you cannot install it yourself, and then copy the files/folders from their PC or get them to email you a zip file containing them.

4. Once this has been done, you should be able to run IS5 OK. It should ask for the Reg. Key on startup, and then continue OK. However Bob had been having the "asks for password every time I start the program" problem.

    I have not been able to replicate the repeat request for Registration Key password that he mentions. I suspect that this is due to the run priority not allowing is.exe to write the Key to the Registry.
    If this is the case, then this problem can probably be avoided by changing the is.exe file Properties: change compatibility to XP SP3 Admin. (Try it and see.)

5. Spellcheck and Thesaurus: The other problem that can occur is that spellcheck and/or thesaurus does not work.
    To have the FULL spellcheck (Ctrl-G) function and Thesaurus (Ctrl+Shift+G) working, you must have these files (listed below) in the is5 program folder. This is what they are/do:
    (established by a process of trial and error)
    151.lex - English Thesaurus.
    171.lex - American-English Dictionary - you select which dictionary you want in the is5 Options.
    271.lex - International English Dictionary (UK-English)- you select which dictionary you want in the is5 Options.
    100.sup - spell-check support.
    200.sup - thesaurus support.
   (Note that the thesaurus only seems to work if you have the American-English Dictionary selected. I currently have no fix or workaround to that.)
EDIT 2011-12-13 0108hrs: As per the IS5 Help file:
       Attn international users: Please note that the thesaurus is only available in American English.

        These files are here for you to download if you do not already have them:
         is - InfoSelect v5 (and later) English spelling and thesaurus files.zip  

And that's it. Let us know how you get on or if you find any mistakes in the above.
By the way, all the necessary files mentioned were obtained from Miclog, so you should not have any difficulty sourcing them directly. You might have to hunt around for them a bit, that's all.

Hope this helps or is of use.