After completing 10 OfficeMate upgrade/installations I have come across a number of items that bear discussing as well as a few questions I have run into from others.
When installing OfficeMate v 10.5 on XP workstations, many times you will get a 2 file registration errors – clicking through these seems to still give a successful install.
After a successful server install, if you have installed the client on the server (which I highly recommend doing if not just for troubleshooting issues), and you cannot connect from a networked client workstation, more than likely it is a firewall issue on the server – disable the firewall on the server to see, and if you can then connect, turn the firewall back on and set the proper firewall rules for your SQL server.
Performance issues: In my experience, OfficeMate should have approx the same performance on a workstation as it did on version 8 even if it is below the minimum requirements. **Note: The performance of OfficeMate/ExamWriter v 10.5 may be severely impacted if you are not running a good enough server. Follow the recommended hardware requirements for the server and understand that those requirements are generally fine as long as you are using your server as only a database and or terminal server – this means you generally should NOT use this server as a Domain Controller, DSN or DHCP server etc as these roles can have a huge impact on OfficeMate performance when the server is under load. Also, if using OfficeMate add-on applications such as ECR vault, make sure that your server Exceeds the requirements. Generally I go for dual quad core Xeon processors, minimum 12 GB RAM, and minimum 3 high speed enterprise class hard drives in RAID 5 (Hardware RAID).
Accessing older access backups once you have converted to SQL server: I have had a few people ask my how they could open up a prior Access based backup once they had upgraded to versoin 10.5 with SQL – in short, the easiest way is to use a virtual machine and install OfficeMate 8 on the virtual machine (Windows 7 Pro has the ability to run a virtual version of XP natively - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/ )
Windows 7 issues – I have run into a few scenarios where the proper Omate32.ini file was not put properly into the user profile. You should have this file in users/%username%/My Documents/Windows/ – if you are getting database errors on startup and are sure your firewall issues with the server have been resolved, check for this file and make sure it is there. (I always keep a working copy of this file on a server share for ease of copying).
Backups: If you are unfamiliar with how to do a SQL dump backup see this article : http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/113461/Schedule-a-daily-backup-with-SQL-Server-Express . You can also use backup services such as IBackup with the MS SQL Server backup plugin which automate the SQL database backup nicely.
* Pensacola Computers is not officially connected to OfficeMate software in any way, and all opinions stated are my own observations and you may experience different results. This guide is meant only as a narrative of my own experiences and is current as of the date posted.
I have been working as an IT consultant with Optometrists that use OfficeMate for over 6 years and have installed OfficeMate numerous times for 9 different practices. I have successfully done 10 upgrades in the past few months and assisted on a few others. Please feel free to contact me via my contact info at http://pensacolacomputers.com with any questions.
Continuing with my posts on OfficeMate installations, I will go over some things I learned doing the actual installations. **Note: Make sure to follow the official OfficeMate guide, though be aware that the official guide has a few mistakes and is misleading in a few places as well. This guide takes in account that you have followed and met the needed pre-reqs for installing OfficeMate such as security setup and hardware/software requirements.
Once you have installed the server (see Pre-regs and Server install) it is time to install the client software. There are a few things I have learned that are not covered in the official installation guide that have helped me through. I had a heck of a time on one of my first installs trying to upgrade the client software, and I found that when upgrading from OfficeMate version 8 to version 10 on client machines that it is often best to first Uninstall the previous version of OfficeMate, then freshly install version 10 (this is not necessary on the server if you are using it as a workstation or remote terminal server, all of my client upgrades worked fine on the servers).
Before installing version 10.5, first make sure you are using the latest version available (10.5.23 at the time of this writing – previous versions had a bad bug relating to insurance claim filing I am told). Also ensure that your workstations have at least Windows Installer version 4.5 or above – Windows 7/Server 2008R2 have version 5 installed by default which is fine. You also need to ensure that .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 is installed on each system. For XP, and Vista, check in your add remove programs, for Windows 7, check in Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off (it is part of Windows 7, but the feature might need to be activated).
Once you have the client pre-reqs installed, it is time to get ready to install OfficeMate 10.5 client – this will be the OM_Suite_Programs.exe file (unfortunately OfficeMate again did not properly make their install program and there is no real way to tell the version of the program from the installation file – checking the file details just shows a product name of InstallShield version 12 – fyi, this is a HUGE security issue as there is no way to tell if the file is legitimate prior to installing as it is not properly named, nor does it have a valid digital signature – complain to OfficeMate about this!). Prior to starting the installation, you will want to make sure that you have properly mapped your shared network drive for the OfficeMate Data folder as this will be needed during the installation. Before installing, also ensure that you have turned off your Antivirus and any screensavers. Although not required, I always right click on the installation file, and if there is an Unblock button I click that, I then right click on the install file again and select run as Administrator.
Once all of these things are done, follow the instructions in the official Upgrading to OfficeMate 10 pdf guide to start your installation.
The installation is pretty straight forward so I will just cover a few of the differences and issues I have run into during various (though not always all) installations.
Once OfficeMate 10.5 client is installed, you need to make sure it works! If you click on the OfficeMate link and nothing happens, go to your taskmanager and look for Login.exe (not omate.exe) – if that is running, but nothing is happening, then you need to first check your networked drive. If you can see all of the files in your network drive, but OfficeMate will not open, then you probably have a firewall issue on your server. Even though you can see the shared files on your server’s shared drive, the server firewall could be blocking the SQL ports which causes this problem. If this is the case, go to your server and turn off your firewall there, then recheck to see if you OfficeMate client will start (it probably will now). If this is the cause, you just need to check your SQL ports on the server and add a firewall rule for them, then turn your firewall back on and check again.
The client installations are fairly easy to accomplish once you have gotten everything set up properly such as the pre-reqs, mapped drives etc. I highly recommend downloading a copy of Windows Installer 4.5 and .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 to a shared folder on your server if you are doing many XP, Vista installations to save time. Also it is a good idea to follow a checklist for each workstation as you are installing so you don’t forget anything.
While the OfficeMate software definitely could use some tweaks to bring it up to standards, especially in the compilation of the installation files and having install file security digital signatures and proper names etc, the actual installation of version 10.5 seems to be a bit better than earlier updates and upgrades.
If you have any questions or issues, feel free to contact us via our contact information at http://pensacolacomputers.com
* Pensacola Computers is not officially connected to OfficeMate software in any way, and all opinions stated are my own observations and you may experience different results. This guide is meant only as a narrative of my own experiences and is current as of the date posted.
I have been working as an IT consultant with Optometrists that use OfficeMate for over 5 years and have installed OfficeMate numerous times for 7 different practices. I have successfully upgraded 4 practices in the past couple of months to OfficeMate 10.5 and am currently working on getting 4 more done in the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Continuing with my posts on OfficeMate installations, I will go over some things I learned doing the actual installations. **Note: Make sure to follow the official OfficeMate guide, though be aware that the official guide has a few mistakes and is misleading in a few places as well.
First, ensure that your systems meet the software pre-requisites (for hardware requirements see my first post: OfficeMate v 10.5 Software Upgrade and Installation – First Impressions) A couple things to note on the software pre-requisites – you must have ‘at least’ Windows Installer 4.5 (version 5 is fine and the guide note is wrong in saying that Windows Installer 4.5 is included with Windows 7 – it is version 5 – I had someone call me and tell me that they were trying to install version 4.5 on Windows 7 because that is what the guide said it needed). Also, note that you must be running at least SP2 on XP to install v4.5 of the Installer (SP3 is recommended of course).
.Net Framework 3.5 SP1 must be installed on the server and each workstation – .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 is included in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, though you should make sure that it is enabled (once again, the official installation guide is wrong in how to do this in Windows 7, the correct way is to go to Control Panel>Programs> Turn Windows features on or off, and ensure that there is checkbox next to the .Net Framework 3.5) If you need to install .Net framework 3.5 SP1, be aware that the link that is supplied in the OfficeMate installation guide is the link to the bootstrapper file which will download the reset of the file from the internet – if you are installing on multiple systems, I recommend getting the full install file then sharing it out on the network – you can get the full installation file here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/0/e/20e90413-712f-438c-988e-fdaa79a8ac3d/dotnetfx35.exe .
Once you have all the pre-req’s you will need to get the installation files from OfficeMate. **Note: The OfficeMate installation files are NOT digitally signed and you might get a warning when downloading and trying to install that the publisher could not be identified – IMO this is a serious security breach and there is no reasonable excuse why they don’t digitally sign their files!
You will need to download both the server and workstation installation files. I highly recommend sharing out the workstation installation files and copying it to each workstation and running it locally – I do NOT recommend running over the network, nor do I recommend what the OM official guide states about running it from a USB flash drive or CD/DVD – either one of those can cause issues if the installation stalls due to IO errors on the device.
As OfficeMate states “Prior to upgrading to OfficeMate Suite 10.5, you must set up security preferences. Security is required in OfficeMate and ExamWRITER 10.5.” This is NOT an option and is required! Follow the guide in regards to how to do this.
Prior to installing OfficeMate, ensure you have a validated backup of your Access or SQL database – if you are currently using a SQL database and are using SQL Express 2005, I highly recommend upgrading to SQL Express 2008 R2 (this allows a larger database size as well as includes a number of other enhancements). Also, ensure that your Server is running the latest patches and upgraded from Microsoft prior to proceeding with the server install. I would highly recommend that you take a full financial and inventory report prior to doing the upgrade and then rerun the report after the upgrade and do a compare before you start using OfficeMate again.
From my prior experiences with OfficeMate upgrades, I would personally recommend doing a full server backup prior to attempting the upgrade (bare metal or image) just in case something goes wrong and you need to roll everything back. If you are using an Access Database, you need to run the Repair utility (usually in C:\Omate32\repair.exe) – this will help correct any potential errors in the database that could cause the upgrade to fail. Once that is done, or if you don’t need to do that, restart your server. After the restart, you should disable all antivirus and screen saver programs. Also make sure that UAC is disabled (another security risk – I can’t believe that these software companies don’t know how to write a program that doesn’t make you disable a Windows security feature). To disable UAC in Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2, go to Control Panel > User Accounts > Change User Account Control settings > put the slider to the Never notify position (once again the ‘official’ guide is wrong – there is NO checkbox – do these people even try to do an install following their own guides???).
Once all of this is done, navigate to where you have saved the OM_Server.exe file, right click on the file, select properties, and then click the button that says Unblock. Once that is done, right click on the file and select Run as Administrator (though this may not be required, it can help eliminate some potential causes for failures). At this point, follow the official guide’s instructions, however be aware that you may or may not see all the screens they say that you will depending upon the type of install/upgrade you are doing.
Depending on the size/type of database you are using, as well as the server hardware, the upgrade process could take anywhere from 30 minutes to many hours – you can see what the upgrade is doing, but don’t be alarmed if something appears to freeze or not move for a few minutes at a time. Make sure you stay at the computer until the actual OfficeMate upgrade starts just in case there is an error in the SQL install/update part.
In the next post I will go through the Client installation as well as service releases and patches.
Feel free to contact me through my contact info at: http://pensacolacomputers.com – leaving comments here could take me a while to get back to.
* Pensacola Computers is not officially connected to OfficeMate software in any way, and all opinions stated are my own observations and you may experience different results. This guide is meant only as a narrative of my own experiences and is current as of the date posted.
I have been working as an IT consultant with Optometrists that use OfficeMate for over 5 years and have installed OfficeMate numerous times for 7 different practices. I have successfully upgraded 4 practices in the past couple of months to OfficeMate 10.5 and am currently working on getting 4 more done in the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Contact info is available at: http://pensacolacomputers.com
OfficeMate is an eyecare practice management software used by a large number of area eyecare offices. I have been working with OfficeMate software installations and upgrades for the past 6 years and have done quite a few new installations, upgrades and conversions. Just recently released, OfficeMate version 10.5 has been certified as a Complete EHR cy CCHIT and is part of what is needed to achieve the ‘meaningful use’ neccessary to receive federal stimulus money.
OfficeMate has had quite a history with version 10, and its release date has been changed quite a few times, and in addition its hardware requirements have also changed massively since even last July: http://web.archive.org/web/20110723232816/http://www.officemate.net/officemate_sys_req.aspx
In July, there were minimum requirements for workstations an Intel PentiumE5800 or better, and minimum Dedicated Database Server requirements of a Quad Core Xeon 3100, 4 GB RAM and a 250 GB SATA 7200 RMP Hard drive (no Raid). Since that time, OfficeMate has radically changed its requirements, they eliminated the minimum requirements and instead made the new minumum what was previously the ‘recommended’: http://www.officemate.net/officemate_sys_req.aspx
What these official changes in hardware requirements mean to the average practice is quite a bit of money $$$$, and pity any practice that based their hardware on the previous requirements (not really, but officially according to OfficeMate). The new workstations have a minimum requirement of a Core2 E8400 processor which is a bit heftier requirement than a Pentium E5800, but where the big difference lies is in the server requirements – the drive requirements change from a single SATA drive (about $100 or so for a good quality drive) to 3 15k SCSI or 10k Enterprise SATA drives which means about $750 for the drives, another $200 or so for the needed RAID controller card, plus another $100 or so for the needed power supply upgrades. This of course assumes you don’t need extra imaging storage which would of course raise the price substantially more.
Now OfficeMate information states: Failure to meet hardware and system requirements may lead to an unsuccessful upgrade, including the inability to install or run v10.5 on your computers in your office.
The Upgrade guide actually states: “You will not be able to install the software on computers that do not meet the stated requirements” – somewhat false, basically for the server, if you have 4GB of RAM, regardless of anything else, it should install. I actually installed the server version on a $400 i3 single hard drive system with 4 GB of RAM that I bought from Office Depot to use as a test and it installed fine (I wouldn’t recommend using it for more than a few clients, but it did install) – in addition I have installed it successfully on a number of Virtual machines using 4 GB of RAM and as little as a single core of processing power. I also installed the client software on a number of older Pentium 4 single core machines (purely as a test, I got it to install on a system with only 512MB of RAM and it actually ran no slower than version 8 had on that same machine).
**NOTE: I would of course advise coming as close to the stated requirements in order to have an optimum experience, but it should be noted that if you have hardware that is close, you ‘should’ be ok.
I have done a number of full start from scratch test installs as well as a number of ‘in production use’ upgrades for clients, and so far I have not had any complete failures, although there have been some issues with firewalls, one database conversion that failed on the first attempt (not really sure why, but it worked on the second attempt – thankfully I had a full server backup to roll everything back!). The official guides from OfficeMate are not completely accurate, nor do they deal with all the issues properly. My next post will detail the issues I have had, as well as steps to take to ensure a proper upgrade experience: OfficeMate version 10.5 Software upgrade and installation guide – dealing with real world OfficeMate installations and upgrades for hardware and software.
For questions, please contact: Pensacola Computers at http://pensacolacomputers.com
* Pensacola Computers is not officially connected to OfficeMate software in any way, and all opinions stated are my own observations.
The Android tablets are swamping the market and people are loving that they now have choices and alternatives to the Apple iPad. While some people swear by the iPads, in the end the iPad is just a bigger iPod and is hampered by its lack of Flash, it’s inability to easily connect to other devices, it’s lack of external media, and of course its price. While other tablets like the Motorola Xoom are similarly priced, they also have better specs generally than the iPad. Don’t get me wrong, the iPad does have a great looking screen and it is also pretty smooth running – although Steve Jobs trickery does fool people into believing his products run so much better (even notice how Apple apps never crash? well they do, it’s just that unlike Android which tells you when something goes wrong, when most iPad apps crash they just disappear which makes many people believe that they accidentally closed the app).
It has always bothered me that the iPad can’t run flash and doesn’t have USB ports etc (for the fanbois, I bought one of the first iPads in Pensacola and used it heavily for the first few months so I know what its strong and weak points are first hand). Ever since I got my Xoom, my iPad has gone mostly unused. I love that Android offers a choice, and I love that there is such a strong development community behind it. The G-tablet is the perfect example, and with its current price @ $279, it is quite appealing for many as a first tablet. I got my Gtab back around Thanksgiving of last year, and have loved using it and playing around with it. It has many custom ROM’s available (a new one just about every week), and they even have an early port of Android 3 Honeycomb running on it.
Rooting most Android devices, and/or installing a custom ROM is generally as easy as either installing an app, or copying a couple files from your computer to your device then rebooting into its recovery mode. While there is always a ‘small’ amount of danger when messing around with a devices software, devices like the Gtablet are just about unbrickable (you can easily soft-brick it, but after installing literally hundreds of ROM’s on mine, I have always been able to recover from any problems).
If you want to play around with your Android device, it is much like having a ‘work’ in progress automobile – you know the kind that you are always adding something to, improving, changing. The most important thing is to invest a little time and read and watch the tutorials available before jumping in. Rooting and swapping ROMS is actually easier than it may seem. I have taught an 80 year old grandma how to root her Gtablet, and she is now enjoying custom ROMS on it. If you can copy and paste files on your computer, you should be able to swap out a ROM on your Gtablet. With new roms like ‘Century Eyes’, ‘Brilliant Corners’, and ‘Mountain Laurel’, the G-tablet has some great alternatives for software – Android unlike Apple is very much about freedom of choice.
Having Flash on your tablet is a great thing, allowing you to view the full web, not just the iPad web. While there has been a push to move some things to HTML5 in terms of videos etc, Adobe Flash is not going anywhere and is still running on fairly large slice of internet sites.
There is no doubt in my mind that it won’t be long before the iPad is overcome by the wealth of other tablets on the market because in the end, freedom of choice wins out. Apple does make impressive products, but they are limited by both function (what Steve Jobs decides you should have) and by price which is usually much higher than they should be (Apple’s profit margin is HUGE compared to most other companies).
At Pensacola Computers, we offer help with the Gtablet and Xoom and provide services for Rooting and custom ROM installation on the Gtablet. Check out the tutorial videos on the Pensacola Computers Youtube Channel
There are more Android tablets coming out every day, and I have been lucky enough to own a number of them. From my first Archos 5 internet tablet, to the Gtablet I have had since last November, to my latest, the Motorola XOOM, Android is poised to take a huge chunk of the tablet market away from Apple. Not that the iPad is worthless, it has its place. The iPad is a wonder of fine design and it definitely sets the mark in some areas for what others should strive for. Of course it is overpriced and limited in some critical areas, which is why Android is going to be able to whack away at Apple’s current domination of the tablet market.
I love how you can easily tether the Gtable and Xoom to an Android phone. With the gtablet, it is as easy as Rooting (or installing a pre-rooted custom ROM) and then running one of the better tether apps - my personal favs are wifi-tether and barnacle( see Viewsonic G-Tablet Wireless tether to Droid 1 via Barnacle video). The XOOM is even better as it has native Bluetooth tethering and I can easily tether it to my DroidX phone and use the Droids data plan (the XOOM does not have to be rooted to do this either!).
The thing I really like the most about the Android devices is the amazing community of developers and helpers that it has spawned. There are numerous forums devoted to making these devices better with custom ROMS and tips and tricks to get them running great! The people are amazing and so helpful. My favorite site is xda-developers.com, which has an incredible number of amazing people who thankfully post a great collection of How-to’s for a huge number of Android devices. Want to know how to Root your Xoom? Want to know how to flash a custom ROM to your Gtablet? Want to learn how to tether your Xoom or tether your Gtablet? xda-developers has how-to’s for every one of those topics. I myself have made a bunch of video tutorials on how to do things on the gtablet and the XOOM, but almost everything I have learned has started with things I read on xda-developers.com. Super thanks to everyone there! Android Rocks!
For a bunch of my tutorials, head over to my site: http://pensacolacomputers.com
Pensacola Computers presents: We show you how to tether your Motorola Xoom tablet running Android 3 Honeycomb, to a Droid X via built in Bluetooth. This ‘should’ work on some other Android phones as well and they shouldn’t need to be rooted in order for this to work.
Visit http://pensacolacomputers.com for the latest updates and support for computers and Android devices.
For those who are still using Windows XP (still quite a few, although that number is rapidly decreasing), here is a short tutorial from Pensacola Computers on how to use System restore in XP Safe Mode. This can be extremely useful when faced with a virus, malware, or any kind of software change that has made using XP in regular mode difficult or impossible. System restore is often the easiest way to reverse the harmful effects of a virus or malware. Always be aware that System Restore, while reversing software changes, does NOT remove files, so even if the virus or malware is not active, the files are still there and must be removed. If you are using System restore due to a virus or malware infection, be sure to run full virus and malware/spyware scans as well as reapplying any needed Windows and software updates. While system restore is not always able to fix a bad virus or malware infection, it is a great first step in attempting to bring your system back to a usable state.
Visit Pensacola Computers Tech Support page for links for the best free and paid for antivirus, antimalware, and antispyware software.
If you need more in-depth help with virus removal, malware removal, computer service, or computer repair here in Pensacola Florida, please give Jeff at Pensacola Computers a call today at 850*390-4242
While Motorola Droid users are patiently waiting for Verizon to push out the latest Android 2.2 which includes such wonderful things as the ability to use Flash Player 10.1 for mobile, tethering, faster web browsing and general faster experience overall, the web is now ablaze with an apparently ‘official’ version of Android 2.2 for the Motorala droid direct from Google, with accompanying instructions on how to install it yourself. I successfully installed this on my Droid this morning, and then installed the Flash 10.1 player. I am including the instructions and links I used, however be warned “This procedure should only be attempted with the knowledge that if you mess it up, it could mess up your phone beyond repair“. I personally had no problems doing this, but that doesn’t mean it will be successful for everyone, or that there isn’t a risk of bricking your phone if you mess something up on the way. Following is the instruction set I used with the website sources I got them from:
“You can download the new update from Google’s servers here (42mb). Instructions for updating are similar to past Android OS releases from Google: Re-name the downloaded .zip file to “update.zip” (without quotes), and place it in the root directory of the SD card. Turn off the phone, and reboot while holding the “x” key on the keyboard. When a screen with an exclamation point appears, press the “volume-up” and “camera” buttons simultaneously to select from available boot options. Select “Apply update.zip” from the list using the D-pad.
The update will be applied, and then return to the boot screen where you can now safely select the “Reboot” option from the list. The first boot after updating will take longer than normal, so give it some time and leave it plugged in to a power source for the duration. Enjoy Froyo!”
Once you have done this and gotten 2.2 up and running you will need to install Flash 10.1 – now I searched myself to find the easiest way to install it, but it seems that trying to get it direct from Adobe.com isn’t supported yet for some reason on this build, however I did find instructions and a download that worked for me here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-installing-android-2-2-froyo-onto-the-motorola-droid **NOTE: only follow the instructions related to installing Flash as I have outlined below:
Download Android Mate. Before you can install Flash, download the Android Mate application from the Android Market 0 it is a free app
Download Flash. Download the Flask .apk file. (click here) – Note: this download comes as a Zip file, I just changed the extension to .apk before copying it to the Droid in the next step
Connect the Droid. Connect the Droid to the computer , and enable the USB file transfer mode. Place the Flash .apk file on the root of the microSD card.
Launch Android Mate. Open Droid Mate, then locate and launch the “adobeflash3.apk” file. This will install Flash 10.1 (beta 3) on the Droid
Special thanks to Droid-Life.com and Onix Concepts
Remember, use this procedure at your own risk. While it worked fine for me, it is still not ‘officially supported’ by Verizon – Unlike many of the ‘cooked’ ROMS floating around out there, this one appears to be more ‘official’ as it comes direct from Google itself.

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