Hello, I will keep this as short as possible...

I had a perfectly good working copy of Viewpoint which I used solely on the Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics website, https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/
Although I was only able to use it in IE, this really didn't bother me all that much - although I would have preferred to just use it with my browser of choice, SeaMonkey. Back on April 7th I emailed customer support and asked what I thought was a simple question? Which files need to be in the plugin folder, so that I could try and get it working in SeaMonkey? Simple question...I never did get a response.

Last week I happened to be on the Mozilla plugin's site and noticed Viewpoint listed, so I took a look and low and behold it stated that the installer for Viewpoint would automatically install to Firefox and SeaMonkey. So I thought, well lets give this a try. Since I had deleted the original install file I had for Viewpoint, I went to the website to download another copy, first of course checking system requirements, which I always do now since support for 98SE is disappearing fast. Low and behold, it stated that 98 was still supported. So I downloaded the file. Uninstalled Viewpoint, and then tried to reinstall it...and got the following error message...

TheMTSAXINSTALLER.EXE file is linked to missing export SHELL32.DLL:SHGetFolderPathA.

Which I understand means that since shell32.dll is the correct version for my operating system, and it cannot perform the function SHGetFolderPathA, the error usually indicates that the <filename1> is not compatible with the operating system on which you are trying to use it. To me, that means the installer or uninstaller for Viewpoint, MTSAXINSTALLER.EXE, is not compatible with Win98/98SE.

I did finally get an answer from customer support (Not to my original question), basically telling me that 98 is no longer supported and that they are sorry they hadn't yet updated the website with this information and that like most software companies we cannot provide older versions of our software once the updates have been issued.

OK Great! So you see my frustration! My genealogical research is pretty much finished until such time as I get a new computer. Updating to XP really isn't an option for me...

My last response to support@viewpoint.com reads as follows...

"If you had answered my first request for help on April 7th in a timely fashion, I would not have un-installed Viewpoint and tried to reinstall it. I had a working version and I would have left well enough alone. And yes, I should have kept a copy of the previous version, I know that. This does beg the question? On the type of company you are, where you leave people hanging with no alternative at all."


Sorry for being so blunt and I'll stop here,

Thanks, John

Hello,

If I understand correctly, you only need the old VMP installer so it works on YOUR windows 98 machine, correct? If so, you can use this VMP version 3_0_15_12 installer. But you have to keep in mind we DO NOT support it and we are guaranteeing nothing.

I'm truly sorry, however there's only so long we can support Windows 98 when Microsoft themselves will even be discontinuing support for Windows 2K soon. I do apologize that no one got back to you before you uninstalled your old VMP, but, again, as a company servicing literally hundreds of millions of machines with VMP's, we have to prioritize as far as legacy support.

After you use this installer, you have to keep in mind that your content must not specify use of any components above 3.0.14 in the vmp constructor line in the html file that invokes the vmp. For more info on this, refer to "requiredversions" on pages 180 and 181 in the Viewpont Rich Media Authoring Guide included with the above zip file.

Or you can just make sure you specify no requiredversions in the html constructor line at all. If you do this, then as long as your content is only using older vmp features (i.e. no video, no VETScript, no superview, no texture compositor), then when you view your content, the VMP on your machine will not request newer components that are incompatible with Windows 98.

You also have to keep in mind that if you view Viewpoint content on other web sites or if you use AOL (either AOL client or AOL Instant Messenger), you will be force-updated to components that are not compatible with Windows 98. If this happens, you can uninstall VMP and reinstall it again with the attached installer. Or you can set up a firewall to block access to components.viewpoint.com. However, we don't guarantee the results you could experience by blocking access to this address. Good luck!

Regards

Hello,

Thank you, I really do appreciate this, and to clarify my only use of VMP will be to view content at the Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics website, https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/ I have not run across any other genealogical sites that use it...at least not yet.

I also will not be creating any content myself, I simply need to use the player to aid in my research on the Nova Scotia government site...

I should mention that the last version I had was 3.4.0.67 which I downloaded last November. The one you have provided 3.0.15.12, is a 2003 version?? I'll give it a try and see how it goes...

Best regards and thanks again,

John Reinders
Hubley, Nova Scotia

Ah. I see. Yes, let me know how it goes. But since you will be visiting another site, if they use newer features of the VMP than the installer I provided, you will see a loading bar across the bottom of your VMP window when first viewing their content. You may be updated to the latest VMP 3.5 from their website, depending on how they set up their content. If this happens, you may run into VMP incompatability issues again with Windows 98.

To check what components you have after visiting their website, do the following:

If you see a loading bar at the bottom of your VMP window upon going to their site, wait for it to finish.

When it is done and content is displaying (or perhaps IS NOT displaying due to incompatibility issues), view which components are currently installed on your machine by cntrl-alt-shift-left clicking on the VMP window (you need to hold down cntrl-alt-shift together first and while holding them down, leftclick). You will see a popup window displaying what components have installed and their versions. If you see anything that is 3.5, it will not work with windows 98. In this case, you may want to try blocking components.viewpoint.com in a firewall and uninstalling/reinstalling the VMP. Then see if you can view their website without getting updated.

Hi again,

Just a bit of an update, installed fine and works as well as my previous version. Also, I have answered my own question from April 7th by reading an earlier post and copied the files npViewpoint.dll" and "npViewpoint.xpt to my plugin folder for SeaMonkey and it also works fine. I apologize for my sounding frustrated with all of this; I just wish someone had taken the time to answer my question back in April...Oh Well!



Sincerely,

John

Hi again,

The only 3.5 items are...

3.5.0.36 = NPVIEWPOINT_03050024.DLL
3.5.0.28 = ICOMPONENTMGR

and a 3.4.0.67 = CLASSES/METASTREAM/MTSCURSORS

Everything else is 3.0.15.**

Still working fine...

John

Good to hear! Absolutely no problem on the frustration...nature of the business!

Hi there,

Back again... I've finally updated to a new XP machine, but still am not able to download the most current version of Viewpoint. I still use SeaMonkey as my browser of choice and I still don't understand why it is not supported and Firefox is. Viewpoint will work on SeaMonkey, I guess I just need some help on how and a link to download the viewer. I must admit I still find your website the most frustrating I have ever visited. Sorry...

I installed the old version I had, which works fine in IE - but I don't remember now how to get it to work in SeaMonkey...

Thanks, John