Install D7 PE on a new machine

Hi

I have had Delphi 7 PE (a PC Plus cover disk) running on an old laptop for years now, but the machine is dying. I have tried installing on a new laptop, but the installer asks me for a couple of codes which I no longer have. I did register the original product with Borland. I have searched the Embarcadero site for any way of (re-)registering an old product but can find nothing that helps.

Is there any way of reading the required codes from my current Delphi 7 installation ? Or of just copying files over from one machine to the other ? (XP to Vista 32, unfortunately).

I'm only an amateur occasional programmer, and my programs are all written to perform specific personal tasks. They use add-ons like Disqlite, so one of the more recent personal editions of Delphi wouldn't be any use - add-ons don't work with them. I did take a look at Lazarus, but it all looked far too complicated - I've got far past the Homer Simpson stage where every new thing I learn pushes some of the old stuff out, I'm now at the point where the old stuff leaks out of its own accord and the new stuff heads straight for the exit.

This is all very annoying, as the only benefit Borland ever had from making me register to get the codes was my email address for trying to persuade me to buy something I could never afford. I can't ask Embarcadero for help through their Support page because a serial number is a required field.

Many thanks.

Caravelle

Embarcadero does have a phone number you can contact that can be found here .

Good luck.

Thanks. I'd still like an answer to my question though:



Caravelle

I think I have discovered the answer. Never one to give up a search, I checked an old CD backup of a dead computer's HDD (now I know why I kept it !). When Borland accepted your registration they sent you an email with a file attached, the filename being a three digit number + ".txt". The file starts:



At the end there is a block of coded text.

So, the next question is, where will Delphi 7 look for this file on a Vista machine ? I assume C:\Users\<MyName>. I'll let you know if it doesn't work. I'm installing D7 to "C:\Delphi", which I've read avoids all the Vista problems associated with putting it into Program Files.

Caravelle

Unfortunately, that file is for one-time use only, so if you were to install again, that registration file would not work to register Delphi. Borland then and Emb. now limit the number of times you can install the application to ensure that anyone buying one copy doesn't have a full team of developers using that one copy. Thus the need for a different registration e-mail from them to unlock the installed application.

You may however, be able to use that e-mail as proof that you are a registered user, and convince them to provide the codes you need.

Again, good luck. I have, on several occasions, talked with their technical help desk on install issues, and they have always been very helpful, but obviously, I cannot tell how they handle cases such as yours, but then again, I cannot believe you are the only one this happens to.

It installed fine, as it did the second and third times I moved it across the PC Estate, without any hint of a further registration request . It had started on Win98, moved to Win ME then XP. It was at the ME to XP stage that the keys went adrift. Now it's on Vista, the only problem being the annoying pop up that says it's incompatible with Vista. Maybe they don't worry about a full team of developers using a program version that was given away for free in the first place - they're not losing any money.

Now all I have to do is get the 3rd party add-ons working. Some of them were pretty hard to get working in the first place.

Many thanks

Caravelle