Support

Vista and Windows 7/8 Specific Issues

This page contains information relating to the use of Presenter on the Microsoft Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 operating system.

Running FXTheme Tutorials or Demos

Because our FXThemes (and associated demo and tutorial PowerPoint files) are located in the Program Files folder, Vista/Win7/Win8 marks them as read-only. This means that Presenter cannot open them for editing via the "FXEdit" button on the Instant Effects Presenter toolbar. Rather, to view these files in Presenter you must choose one of the FXShow options.

Alternatively, you can copy or save the examples to a new location, and full editing access via the FXEdit button will be restored.

Licensing Presenter / FXThemes Installation Workaround

When Presenter or any FXThemes are licensed or installed, we have to access the Presenter program folder, which is usually located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Instant Effects\Presenter". Under Vista/Win7/Win8, by default, the Program Files area is not accessible when users are running with normal user (non-admin) privileges. This causes the licensing or installation to fail.

To get around this issue, we suggest you turn off User Account Control (UAC) in the Control Panel Users applet. Once turned off, licensing of Presenter or installation of FXThemes proceeds without incident. But please note that turning off User Account Control disables the operating system's access control mechanism for all applications, so if you take this approach, you may want to turn UAC back on after Presenter and/or any FXThemes have been licensed or installed.

For a simple method to turn UAC off/on, follow this link.

Note: Dongle-based licenses work without any problems on Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 systems.

Performance / Display Drivers

Presenter is a full-time 3D application that pushes the graphics system fairly hard. Thus, it is important to use the latest display drivers available for your system. Display drivers are constantly being updated by the major display hardware manufacturers, and performance improvements are substantail in some cases.