Does the standalone run on 64bit Windows?

vadb
I have Windows 7 x64 and the standalone executable runs but no actual functionality is there, i.e., window opens with top File/Edit menu but nothing else. Is this the case for others?
  • ketchell
    If someone could confirm current compatibility with Windows 7 64-bit? Or timeline by developers to make it 64-bit compatibile in the future? If in the future, what the projected timeline might be (3 mo, 6 mo, a year)?

    The compatibility details would be great for those of us still in the process of moving off 32-bit and entirely into the 64-bit system. Thanks.
  • Simon
    It was tested on Windows 7 x64.
  • vadb
    I have zotero 2.1b5 installed and running just fine in firefox (3.6.13) on Win 7-x64 but when I try running the standalone, all I see is this:
    http://i.imgur.com/DQs99.jpg

    Since there was no installation process for the standalone, just an extraction from the zip archive, am I doing something wrong by simply running the zotero.exe?
  • ketchell
    I'm running standalone on WinXP-SP3. Got just the extracted folder as you indicate. I double-clicked the zotero application in that folder after also extracting the translators and styles folders. It runs. I cannot import my Endnote file, but I can manually add records and most but not all of the functions work as expected. That doesn't answer your question re: 64-bit W7 however.
  • hartvig
    Well, you at least get a window. I get nothing at all heh.

    Also Windows 7, 64bit. Program never shows up in taskbar, its like it never really starts.
  • vadb
    Is there any news on this? Does the standalone require the use of specific resources/services that certain installations of win7-x64 don't have?
  • Simon
    Standalone has exactly the same requirements as Firefox 4. Are you sure you extracted the entire contents of the zip file?
  • vadb
    The entire contents of the Zotero_win32 folder is in shown in the screenshot I posted in my original post: http://i.imgur.com/DQs99.jpg

    ketchell mentioned extracting the translators.zip and styles.zip files. I've tried extracting them as folders in the same main directory but with no luck. Do these need to be extracted into a special subfolder?
  • dstillman
    No, don't touch those.
  • vadb
    Dan and Simon, thank you for your responses. One thing that I found is that if I login to my pc with the default Adminstrator account, the standalone seems to run with full functionality. But running the application on my regular account presents the blank window described above. My regular account is part of the Adminstrators group in user accounts control so I'm not sure what the issues is. I've tried running the standalone as adminstrator through the right-click menu "Run as adminstrator" with no luck. Any insight would be helpful.
  • vadb
    To test whether the issue is related to administrator settings, I created a standard (non-administrator) user, logged in and was able to run the standalone. So the issue is then local to my regular windows account, i.e., there is either a conflict with another piece of software (why?) or something else entirely. I did notice (running ProcMon) that the standalone creates a local "Profiles" folder in the windows local user folder (%Username\AppData\Local\Zotero). This means that the standalone runs a different instance of itself for each user. Why is this? Wouldn't it be simpler to make the application more "portable" so that everything is run out of the same folder, not to mention the ability to use it as a mobile app?
  • Simon
    edited February 14, 2011
    To test whether the issue is related to administrator settings, I created a standard (non-administrator) user, logged in and was able to run the standalone. So the issue is then local to my regular windows account, i.e., there is either a conflict with another piece of software (why?) or something else entirely.
    How are you extracting the zip file? The only thing I can think of that would cause this is a file permissions issue.
    I did notice (running ProcMon) that the standalone creates a local "Profiles" folder in the windows local user folder (%Username\AppData\Local\Zotero). This means that the standalone runs a different instance of itself for each user. Why is this? Wouldn't it be simpler to make the application more "portable" so that everything is run out of the same folder, not to mention the ability to use it as a mobile app?
    Once Zotero Standalone has an installer, it will reside in C:\Program Files (x86), which is probably not where you want to put your data. It seems preferable to have different Zotero libraries for different users on the same computer, rather than forcing everyone to share a library.
  • Simon
    Oops. I re-read your post and saw that "Run as Administrator" doesn't work under your normal account, so it no longer seems like a permissions issue to me. I guess this leaves some kind of incompatibility with something else on your machine, but why this would affect Zotero but not Firefox is a puzzle to me.

    Do you have any kind of anti-virus/security software installed? If so, have you tried disabling it?
  • vadb
    I tried disabling Microsoft's Security Essentials but that didn't help. Also, Security Essentials runs in all the other windows accounts so it doesn't seem like this would be the issue.
  • grubs
    FWIW I'm running the standalone on Win7 x64 and I have Security Essentials running. For me it runs OK. I just unzipped to the deskop and dbl clicked the zotero.exe. I'm also running as a user account that is a member of Administrators.

    I've now copied the win32 folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\zotero and created a new storage location (d:\zotero).

    A few times when I tried running it without the database set I got no window at all. I blew the folder away (c:\users\myname\AppData\zotero) and let the program re-create it and that got everything working. In the preference when I moved the database location to d:\zotero without moving the database I again got the no window a few times but I think I was clicking too fast while zotero was still setting up the database as it came good a few seconds later.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Instead of commenting here, you should start a new discussion. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.