ControlThink Forums

I have an application that was written on Windows Vista (32-bit) and Visual Basic 2008 Express, fully updated.  This application functioned perfectly.  I wiped my workstation recently and upgraded to Windows 7 (64-bit) RTM.  I am still using the latest version of Visual Basic 2008 Express.  My application stopped working...

Curious, I opened the source and through setting some breakpoints discovered that the application is failing when it tries to connect to the ThinkStick (running latest stable firmware, v4.27 I think).  Oddly, I can still run ThinkEssentials and it communicates with the controller and the network nodes great...

I became more curious and pulled out the sample enumerating code that came with the SDK and tried to compile it, it fails when connecting to the controller.  Even a new application from scratch that just connects to the controller fails...

I have even tried changing the advanced compilation options to only target x86 CPUs and not 64-bit...  So...  Am I missing something or is there a known incompatibility with Windows 7 64-bit and the SDK?

Any help would be appreciated.  Failing an answer I think I might revert back to Vista, which is a bummer as Windows 7 is way better.

 We haven't done much testing of the SDK on windows 7, so I can't really give any suggestions as to why this isn't working for you.  Sorry :(

Matt, what are ControlThink's plans for supporting Windows7 with the SDK? 

The RTM version of Windows 7 is already in the hands of developers and general release is next month. I'm sure that you know that.  I develop Windows applications for a living and we have been testing our application and fixing things that do not work correcly FOR MONTHS.

I am planning to upgrade soon to 64 bit Windows 7 (and I am sure that others here are as well).  If my application, the one I depend upon to control my furnace and appliances, is going to stop working then I need to know that so that I can start looking for other alternatives.  The reason I wrote my app in the first place is that ThinkEssentials lacked the features I needed.

I am also concerned that we haven't seen an SDK release in over a year.  The SDK seems to be in "maintenance mode", i.e. you continue to sell it but you provide no updates or support.  SDK users here (including me) have reported bugs and helped you fix them, thus improving ThinkEssentials as well as the SDK.  We deserve better than "We haven't done much testing of the SDK on Windows 7".

-WindowWasher

+1 for WindowWasher.

 My app counts on the Zwave SDK and we have been seeing nothing for the last year about 1.3 SDK.  In fact it is still listed as BETA and we have been promised updates but that forum is pretty quiet.

I was able to correct the problem by wiping my machine and installing Windows 7 (32-bit). Apparently the SDK does not play well with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 or maybe I just didn't find the right tweak to get it working. It works now, no tweaks needed, but my trade-off is that I can't use all of my system RAM (32-bit limit), oh well. I'm just glad I can get back to developing my app.

I'm just about to make the jump to 64 Bit Windows 7 as well.  Does ThinkEssentials now or will it shortly work on this platform?  We need to know.  Thanks, .....

 I have made the switch to Windows 7 6bit and initially had a problem with my app.  It would just crash on startup.  I figured out it is because the applicaiton was using 64bit .NET and it was trying to access the 32bit Controlthink dll.  In VS2008, the project properties, build tab, you can specify the can specifythe "Platform target".  I switched it to  x86 and now my app runs perfectly fine. 

 Don't know if you guys are having the same problem but hopefully that helps.

hobbes487:

In VS2008, the project properties, build tab, you can specify the can specifythe "Platform target".  I switched it to  x86 and now my app runs perfectly fine.

This is the problem and solution for the majority of most application development on .net, especially since very little is actually written to take advantage of 64 bit processing anyway. I'm a supporter of compiling for a targetted platform rather than the grab bag all mode.

 Were you able to get Win 7 64 to recognize your USB key?  Mine is saying unrecognized device and not installing the driver.  On WIndows XP 32 bit it recognized it right away.

I abandoned the 64-bit version of Windows 7 specifically because I could not get any Z-Wave development done properly. I tried setting target platforms and the whole lot, but gave up after about 2 days. Now I'm running 32-bit OS and everything is working smoothly.