Support for Running Altium Designer on Windows 7
Contents
As more companies continue to adopt Windows 7 as their operating system of choice, software packages that have performed contently in the Windows XP arena must also now cater for users of the new system. Altium Designer has been enhanced to better support Windows 7 users, with the aim of giving them uninterrupted access to the rich, unified design experience they've become accustomed to, as they migrate between operating systems.
Folder Relocation
By default, Windows 7 (and Windows Vista) are installed with User Account Control (UAC) enabled. The security-based technologies associated with this feature essentially result in a user account running with only standard user rights. To perform system-level access and actions requires administrative rights – a level of account use typically restricted to a company's IT team.
One key aspect of having UAC enabled is that the system does not allow writing to the \Program Files folder. For files attempted to be saved to this location manually, Windows 7 will display a save error, and Windows Vista will save the file to a 'virtual' location. For files that are automatically generated, Windows employs file system virtualization, which redirects the files to a 'virtual' location. An application is presented with these files and 'sees' them as though they were resident in the \Program Files folder all along. However, where virtualization may work for the most part, it is not a guarantee that the application will always have access to the files, depending on how that access is performed.
To resolve this problem, the following writable dependencies have been moved from their Summer 09 residency in the \Program Files folder, to the \Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Altium\AD <BuildNumber> folder (for Windows XP) and \Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD <BuildNumber> folder (for Windows 7/Windows Vista) respectively:
- Examples
- Library
- Templates
All default library paths, file output generation paths, and the like, have been updated to point into the respective area accordingly.
Dialogs and Panels
Dialogs and panels have been looked at using various display settings available for use with Windows 7 – for example, Smaller (100%), Medium (125%) and Large (150%) – and modified accordingly to support all three correctly, in terms of control appearance and text sizing.
Utilizing the Windows 7 Taskbar API
The taskbar API available in Windows 7 has been put to good use, enabling further productivity-enhancing features to be accessed for Altium Designer from its associated (and pinned) taskbar button.
button, courtesy of the Windows 7 taskbar API.
To take advantage of the features made available through the taskbar API, you must pin the application to the taskbar while Altium Designer is running. To do this, simply right-click on the Altium Designer button on the taskbar, and choose Pin this program to taskbar.
Recent Files
Applications pinned to the taskbar in Windows 7 display Recent file lists – accessible from their taskbar button's right-click menu. Altium Designer keeps this list up to date while you work. This allows you to open Altium Designer with individual projects and documents. You can even pin recent items to the list so they are permanently accessible.
Altium Designer Launch Commands
The right-click menu associated to Altium Designer's pinned taskbar button offers the standard ability to launch an instance of the software. In addition, there are specific tasks defined that allow you to open an instance of Altium Designer with even greater control:
- Run with no documents opened – starts Altium Designer with all projects that you last had opened in the workspace still open, in the Projects panel, but no documents will be opened.
- Run with empty workspace – starts Altium Designer with no projects opened in the Projects panel.
Progress Bar
When performing some actions in Altium Designer, progress is displayed on the Status bar. This progress is also now reflected on the software's associated taskbar button.
Pop-up Previews
Hover the mouse cursor over the pinned Altium Designer taskbar button and you'll see previews of open documents – one preview per unique Altium Designer window. Simply click on a preview to make that window active. You can even use these previews as a method to quickly close an Altium Designer window. To do this, just The right-click the preview for the window you wish to close, and choose Close.