Fund Manager files in Windows Vista

[Giancarlo]

Hi,

can anybody help me with this:
I am using Fund Manger version 8 (8.4 and tried upgrade to 8. with Windows Vista Home Premium. How can I see and manage (copy or move) *.mm4 and *.dat files in Windows ?

In fact I can only see portfolio and investment files that were created with previous FM versions.
Investment and portfolio files that I created with version 8.4 are not visible using window tools, although Fund Manager opens them and says they are there !
This is a bit of a hassle because, while upgrading to 8.8, I wanted to move all data files to a public directory.
Is there some trick ? Are they hidden files ?
Thanks a lot,
Giancarlo.

[Mark]

Hello Giancarlo,

Where does Fund Manager say your files are located? You can see this by including "Location" in the Portfolio Editor, or creating a Custom report with "Path and filename".

I'm guessing that the problem is you have your files stored under the "Program Files" path somewhere. Under Vista, when older applications try to write into the Program Files area Vista automatically redirects these files to a "virtual store" folder for that user. Version 8.4 falls into the category of an "older application" here. Versions 8.5 and later are now Vista compatible, and if you try to write into the Program Files area with one of these versions, it will just fail (it won't be automatically re-mapped to the virtual store). This all means that under Vista you want to store your files outside of the Program Files area.

If your files were written to the virtual store, you can browse there, and copy them out of there to wherever you would like to store them. You can find the virtual store here:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files...

You may also want to read an FAQ we have on this subject here:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/vist ... sions.html

[Giancarlo]

Hi Mark,
Thanks a lot for your prompt answer. As you suggested all files created by version 8.4 are in the Virtual Store directory and I found them all. But it was real hard for me to find that directory location.

I have also noticed that using the Portfolio editor "save investment as" function I can save investment files, one by one, to a public directory, so I can share them between users. Basically I only use admin to install Fund Manager, then I log as a standard user to do my daily work.
And I have seen that version 8.8 is allowed to write in the public area. So I think I am all right now!
Thanks again,
Bye.

[Anthony Marshall]

"But it was real hard for me to find that directory location."

I agree - it was necessary to type the address into the address bar as browsing using Windows Explorer did not show the "AppData" folder and all the subfolders of it.

Its taking a while to get to know Vista.

Thanks

Tony

[Mark]

Hi Tony,

Glad you were able to find your files. Just as another tip... The "AppData" folder is usually marked as "Hidden" by default, so you won't see it in Windows Explorer unless you have the display of hidden files/folders turned on. You can do this under "Tools / Folder Options... / View / Show hidden files and folders". To complicate matters further, Vista doesn't turn on the menu bar by default either, so to see the "Tools" menu, you have to select "Organize / Layout / Menu bar".