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Lotus smartsuite and Windows - This works for me under Windows 10; will it, should I upgrade to Windows 11?

Anonymous
2022-02-05T21:18:26+00:00

On my home desktop pcs, I have been using my Lotus Smartsuite - specifically Word Pro (which when I hit "Help" within it, shows designatory details such as "LOT0207" and "N99.8.0208.0800" and says "Copyright IBM Corporation - 1988, 2002" "so far as I can tell is and Lotus Organizer 6.1 - for many a year. Anyhow, I have just bought a new desk top pc (Dell Inspiron, running home Windows 10), and I have now got the Lotus programs and data functioning happily on it. The pc is reminding me to upgrade to "Windows 11", which I am tempted to do to keep "current", BUT I am concerned if the Lotus programs still will function if I perform this upgrade. I really could not do without the Word Pro documents, nor the Organizer data that I have been using for many years.....so, please, does anyone know if Windows 11 ("Home", presumably?) will still support ongoing use of my much loved Organizer and Word Pro???? I cannot see who to contact "officially" about Organizer / Word Pro, as the Microsoft support site suggests that BEFORE adopting Windows 11, any "third party software provider" that is intended for use, about whether their software will run under Windows 11. Is anyone out there happily running Organizer / Word Pro under Windows 11 - and if so, were there any difficulties encountered to get to that state (and how were they overcome?!?!?!). Thanks in advance.......

UPDATE Added 7th April 2022: A few weeks ago, I took the nuclear response and decided to sift through every single Lotus Smartsuite file I have, individually, and either delete it or convert it, individually, to a Microsoft format file. I am still progressing along that road, but once I complete this time-consuming (understatement) exercise, I will delete Lotus Smartsuite and then upgrade to Windows 11, hopefully having future-proofed all of those converted files.

I don’t have a job, so this time-eating route should be doable, and became my preferred route in the face of the “forever” fiddling and uncertainties associated with maintaining my use of Lotus. So, I no longer seek responses to this post, but I am not deleting it, in case any responder may in fact have helped others, or will help others.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Install and upgrade

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  1. Rodrigo Queiroz 77,250 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-02-08T06:02:32+00:00

    Hi WilliamChristie2,

    I'm Rodrigo and I will help you.

    I downloaded and opened the Lotus Smart Suite on my Windows 11 test machine and it worked well. I did not make any extensive testing because I never used this software suite, but I did not see any error.

    See the screenshot of Lotus Organizer and Word Pro open on the Windows 11 device.

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-18T08:22:17+00:00

    If you want to retain the full functionality of Lotus Smartuite the best option is to use VirtualBox (free for personal use) and install one or more virtual machines for the OS you need. You can then install your applications into the OS they were designed for confident that they will run without unnecessary issues. Virtual machines can be configured to share folders and other resources such as printers. You can also enable sharing the clipboard between the host and guest. Whilst it is possible to expose any virtual machine to the internet it is best not to do that for security reasons.
    Using VirtualBox enables me to retain fully functional access to some very ancient applications and is highly recommended.

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2022-03-27T22:59:15+00:00

    I had some success installing Lotus Smart Suite Millenium Edition on my Windows 11 computer. This Smart Suite was designed for Win 95, Win 98, and Windows NT 4.0. My computer is a Dell XPS8940 running Windows 11 Home Edition 64-bit version 21H2 OS Build 22000.556.

    I put the Lotus CD in the DVD drive. Don't run Autorun -- it led to this message: "This app may not work correctly" ; instead, right click on the DVD drive icon and choose "Open in New Window".

    I think Install.exe and Setup.exe bring you to the same place. At some point I needed to click on the blue and yellow Windows Shield and "Allow... unknown publisher."

    The first time I clicked on Install, I chose the network option -- that gave me trouble. To undo the trouble, I had to delete all the files Lotus made, and I had to go to Task Manager to" End Task" a file called "remind32.exe". I rebooted and Installed again, this time without the network option.

    When given a choice of what stuff to install, I chose not to install the "Screen Cam". After installing Lotus, I rebooted. At first, I had a problem saving a Word Pro file to the desktop -- so I saved the file in a Documents subdirectory -- but after another reboot this problem seemed to clear up.

    I hope that helps.

    March 27, 2022

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2022-04-07T14:06:32+00:00

    I have been using Approach to run my business since it came out. I have just recently updated my server to RDS 2016 and my companies laptops to Windows 11. To get Approach to work on either platform I had to do the following

    1. compatibility mode - Windows XP (service Pak 3)
    2. Use 'Cutepdf' as the default printer. Without this printer I could not print (in many cases a crash occurred) crosstabs and reports.
    3. the only function that does not work is the send key macro or lotus script.

    I am now good to go till Windows RDS2016 or me goes end of life ;-0

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. John DeV 161.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-02-05T22:13:31+00:00

    Hello WilliamChristie2,

    Good day! I'm John Dev a Windows user like you and I'll be happy to assist you today. I know this has been difficult for you, Rest assured, I'm going to do my best to help you.

    If your non-windows software worked with Windows 10, they should work with Windows 11. If you want to be sure, please check with the software website if they now support Windows 11.

    Note: It's always a good practice to backup your important files first before performing any Windows upgrades or reinstallation.

    If you experience any issues after the Windows 11 upgrade, please check Kapil Arya's tutorial guide below on How to Downgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 10.

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

    Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.

    Kind regards,

    John DeV

    Independent Advisor

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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