Foxpro, Windows 8

Visual FoxPro on Windows 8

56 Comments

Want to know if Visual FoxPro 9 will run on Windows 8?  Well, find out below…

I downloaded the Windows 8 Developer Preview the first evening that Microsoft made it available to the public. I had watched the BUILD keynote during the first day of the conference on September 14, 2011, and I was impressed with most of what Microsoft has done on the developer platform for their new OS. So, sure, Windows 8 looks all cool and I am sure we’ll all have some fun building these new “Metro” style apps for it. I’m looking forward to it, just as I’ve looked forward to every new programming journey I’ve tackled lately, like learning C#, WPF, ASP.Net MVC, and Ruby on Rails. I love it all. Bring on more!

However, I am a long-time FoxPro developer, and I imagine I’ll still be developing and maintaining my primary corporate app in FoxPro for a few more years, so I wanted to make sure that Visual FoxPro 9 SP2 + HotFixes would install and run properly in Windows 8. Let’s see if it does (I’ll give you the answer now…. It does!)

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According to http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~CurrentVersion~SoftwareEng , the latest, fully patched version of Visual FoxPro 9 is 09.00.0000.7423.

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So, the answer is YES, Visual FoxPro 9 SP2 works in Windows 8.

Now, I’m just waiting for the release of the “Metro for FoxPro” framework on VFPx. Anyone?

 

Anyone?

56 thoughts on “Visual FoxPro on Windows 8”

  4. And we’ll be glad to let you come over and demo all of this at the January AFUG meeting (first available, since we normally don’t do December)! 🙂

    Reply

  6. Only a good set of test will tell if VFP9 is fully compatible with Windows 8. Today VFP9 has just a few visual glitches with Windows 7, but it’s fully compatible (not having into account those functions that are not longer compatible with other apps like the append/import commands with office 2007’s excel files). A Metro framework for foxpro would be great. Maybe this is the last OS supporting Foxpro taking into account the support lifecycle ends at 2014.

    Reply

  9. I’m trying to get this to work myself – when I run it I get a c000005 error right after the splash screen – can you tell me the steps you did to install?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    1. All I can tell you is that I installed the Developer Preview of Windows 8 on a virtual machine using Virtual Box. I then installed VFP9, and applied Service Pack 2, as well as all the HotFixes that have been released for VFP9.

      You can see the hotfix list and links here: http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~CurrentVersion

      Make sure you version says 09.00.0000.7423

      As I recall, the VFP installation installed a few .Net thinhs as well, but I don’t remember the details.

      Good luck, and let us know if you get it running.

      Reply

      1. Matt,

        Thanks for the work you’ve done, and for sharing this. Hopefully there will be FoxPro apps to build and maintain for years to come.

        Maybe we can get together for lunch, soon.

        Dave

        Reply

    1. I don’t know. I have VFP 7, but I do not use it, nor do I plan to test it. Perhaps someone else has or will.

      If it’s truly important to your enterprise, you should test it and let us know. Creating a Windows 8 VM is easy. Give it a try.

      Reply

    1. Of course it will not run as a Metro. No app written for regular Windows will run as a Metro app. Windows 8 will throw off to the old shell to handle all previous generation of apps. This is not a limitation that’s unique to FoxPro.

      Reply

  13. Just do the frontend in jQuery or jQuery Mobile with HTML 5 and the backend code and data in VFP in an mtdll. Simple.

    Reply

  14. Thanks! Thats great news!

    I would love to know if VFP9+All Fixes apps will run on a Win8 Tablet. Any idea?

    Reply

    1. Interesting. I had not noticed that. Who can say why this is happening. What verssion of Win 8 are you testing on? The “Release Preview” version? Maybe this will be noticed in other applications and will get fixed in the Release Candidate or RTM verison.

      Reply

  18. I didn’t see this in the comments, but it’s important.

    There are two flavors of Windows 8. One that runs on Intel processors and one that runs on ARM processors, called WinRT. If you have a WinRT device, you can’t install any application that doesn’t come from the Windows store AND that application must run in Metro mode. The only things allowed on the desktop are preinstalled Office and IE. This means that your VFP app will not run in WinRT and won’t run on an ARM device.

    On an Intel device, it will only run in desktop mode.

    Reply

  20. I didn’t see this in the comments on VFP 8, but it’s important, but VFP 9 the same in the code in program, please explanation on windows 8 grather than.

    Reply

  22. Hi – I want to load VFP 8 on windows 8. Doesn’t seem possible. I was thinking I would load it and upgrade to 9.0. I don’t want to have to purchase VFP 9.0 on it’s own. Can you help?

    Thanks!

    Jude

    Reply

  24. I’m trying to import FoxPro files on my new computer into ms access 2010. It does not allow this. Any help

    Reply

  25. Hi Matt,
    First time to your site. I have an older version of FPW, namely 9.0
    My latest version is 09.00.0000.3504.
    My computer is slowly bowing out gracefully. Will this version run on Windows 8?
    Thanks for any help you can offer.
    david

    Reply

  26. I think it is running much better than it did on Windows 7
    There don’t appear to be any of the memory problems

    Long live the Fox!

    Reply

  27. On a PC with Windows 8 64-bit on the ODBC driver does not show VFP9. Does anyone know how to solve?

    Reply

  28. Here’s a start 🙂

    Not a framework for windows 8 but….

    http://weblogs.foxite.com/bernardbout/2013/02/24/windows-8-live-tiles/
    http://weblogs.foxite.com/bernardbout/2013/02/27/windows-8-live-tiles-update1/
    and
    http://weblogs.foxite.com/bernardbout/2013/03/03/windows-8-live-tiles-get-easing/

    The last one uses my Easing Class library for different easing styles.
    Read about it here:
    http://weblogs.foxite.com/bernardbout/2013/03/02/ease-into-vfp-controls/

    Reply

  29. HI Matt
    I am running my VFP application of windows 8. It runs well, but the images don’t show, all I see is a grey box. The methods seem to work, the pictureVal is correctly set, but the graphics don’t appear. The same software runs fine on Windows 7. What has happened, do you know the problem?

    Kind regards
    Peter Halbherr

    Reply

  30. Windows 8.1 Pro, VFP 9.0 SP2 09.00.0000.7423
    Printing to file with “SET PRINTER…” seems to be broken:

    SET PRINTER TO testprint.txt
    SET PRINTER on
    ?”123″
    ??”456″
    SET PRINTER off
    SET PRINTER to

    results in “123456” on screen, but “123 456 ” in file.

    Help!

    Reply

    1. I get the same results with VFP 9 SP2 on Windows 7, so this is not unique to Windows 8. You’ll need to seek help on some FoxPro Help forums.

      Reply

      1. Interesting- I had been running VFP 9 SP2 on Win 7 for more than a year and did not have the issue. A couple of programs I run broke when I installed Win 8.1, so I assumed that was the cause. I just tested on a laptop with VFP 9.0 SP2 9.00.0000.5815 and Win 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit, and the program works correctly.

        If you see the issue under Win 7, then maybe it’s a setting – perhaps a font or DPI setting in Windows? I looked through many VFP options and properties, but didn’t see anything obvious, and I don’t think I changed anything in VFP when moving from Win 7 to Win 8.1 anyway.

        Thanks

        Reply

  31. Do the runtime libraries go in the same location as Win 7? I am not installing VFP just want to run an exe on Win 8.

    Reply

  32. Hi,

    Maybe another issue…

    In to load of a bare form I have,

    CLEAR
    aa = JUSTpath(SYS(16))
    ?aa && Returns “PROCEDURE FORM1.LOAD R:\PROJECTS\VFP\STANLYN\AP_IMAGERENAMER”
    ?FULLPATH(aa) && returns “R:\PROJECTS\VFP\STANLYN\DRI_DEV\PROCEDURE FORM1.LOAD R:\PROJECTS\VFP\STANLYN\AP_IMAGERENAMER”

    Note that it is pre-pending “PROCEDURE FORM1.LOAD” to the actual value.

    This is on Windows 8_64 with VFP 09.00.0000.7423 (this is latest).

    Is this truley broken?

    Thanks, Stanley Barnett

    Reply

    1. I can confirm that I do get the same result on my machine which is the same exact setup as yours.

      However, what I cannot confirm is what it returns on a Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, as I do not have FoxPro installed on any machine with that OS

      I think you should play it save strip out all the preceding text from the beginning of that string, and get to just the real filename part so that FullPath() will return the correct value.

      But I understand you concern is to figure out if VFP on Windows 8 is returning a different value.

      You need to post this on Universal Thread or Foxite or StackOverflow where you will get better community response to help you analyze this issue.

      Reply

  33. Would you be able to send me the hotfixes or post them for download? I am unable to locate a download for them.

    Reply

  34. I’m having problems using ink controls on a vfp app on Windows 8.1, which gives an ole error, but the app works fine on both Windows 7 and 8.
    Any ideas?
    Thanks in advance.
    lee

    Reply

  35. Matt

    I’m attempting to install VFP 9 via CD and It seems as if it is hung up on the prerequisite installation. Everything seems to install fine for the setup files and the SOAP toolkit, but it always returns to the prequisite install.

    thank you for your time and response.

    Mike

    Reply

    1. Sorry, but I have no idea what the problem could be. I suggest posting your question on Universal Thread, or perhaps Foxite, or Stack Overflow.

      Reply

  37. I figured it out and thought I’d pass the info along to you.

    Once I’d mounted the ISO, I executed the setup.exe at the root level of the ISO. This is the one that loaded the setup files and the SOAP Toolkit, but it would never advance to the Install Visual FoxPro option.

    So, I drilled down into the Setup folder on the ISO and executed the setup.exe found in the Setup folder.

    It was no problem from that point on.

    Thanks again.

    Reply

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