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Windows XP Service Pack 2 Issues

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 is becoming more prevalent in use. However there are a couple of issues for which you need to be aware. These issues have to do with the license manager and the display of the online help. This note gives solutions to problems that may be encountered.

Licensing Firewall Issues

If you are experiencing license problems and your license server is a Windows XP machine with Service Pack 2, there may be firewall issues on the server system. This particular platform has a built in firewall that will not allow client machines to use the license server. To get around this there are 3 options:

Turn off the firewall
Allow programs lmgrd and pam_lmd to pass
Allow the license port to pass.

The panel for this can be found under Control Panel -> Windows Firewall. You can add the programs or port under the Exceptions tab as shown below:

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Problems Starting Application Help

There are two items that will prevent the online help from starting properly. The first is a Windows XP Service Pack 2 setting and the second is popup blocking software.

Windows XP

There is a built in option in XP Service Pack 2 that will prevent the online help from launching. To get around this go to Internet Explorer and select Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced. Here you will find an option for "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer". Select this feature as shown in the following image:

Popup Blockers

This is not related to any specific operating system, but some computers have popup blockers that will not allow the online help to start. If you have any of these programs there are a few options:

Turn off the popup blocker.
Look for an option in the blocker program that will allow the online help to start.
Start the online help manually. For CFD-ACE-GUI the online help is generally located in C:\Program Files\ESI_Software\ACE_GUI_2004\webhelp\ace and can be started by double clicking ace.htm in Windows Explorer. Similar files are available for CFD-GEOM, CFD-VIEW, CFD-CADalyzer, CFD-Micromesh, SimManager, and CFD-VisCART.

If you have any questions about this topic or would like us to discuss some other topic in the future, please let us know.

Perry Daley
Manager - Customer Support
ESI CFD Customer Support

Adding Items to the Start Menu in Windows XP

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From everyone here at ESI Group, we would like to wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season.

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