Using Alpha Five Files in Alpha Anywhere?

[Larry Kephart]

Thank you for your help. I have a much better understanding of the activation process now. I was not able to get my Alpha5 Runtime clients to work but after explaining the problem to a sales rep, I got a Alpha Anywhere Subscription for my situation that we could live with. My Alpha5 application runs in Alpha Anywhere Developer and Runtime without any modification or hiccups. Now, my co-workers want some improvements so I have to dust off my brain and find some time put my developer hat back on.

[Ted Giles]

Glad you got a solution which suits you.
I am sure the technicalities will all come flooding back. You will feel younger for it!
(especially when you read all those notes and comments in your code!)

Any probs, just shout out. You are not alone.

[rickh]

Apologies for opening this old thread. I have a similar situation. Thirty years ago, I coded our company database in Alpha5 Version9. We purchased the "perpetual" development package that allowed installing the runtime version on as many machines as necessary. Now that the activation server has ceased to exist, I can no longer install the runtime engine on new machines.

Now, that I've gotten that off my chest, I've resigned myself to coding a new Alpha Anywhere interface to our Alpha5 company database. I've downloaded Alpha Anywhere community edition to investigate and can't get it to work with my Alpha5 Version 9 database. I've opened the ADB file in Alpha Anywhere but can't view any files. I could use some help.

I've got the go-ahead from my employer to go with the Alpha Anywhere Development platform with Application Server on our Windows Server 2023 machine. This will be serving ten windows desktops, plus or minus, inhouse, with no outside access. At 73, I have no desire to develop applications beyond this one company database. It is crucial to our business. If I can't build a Alpha Anywhere interface around our Alpha5 database, it's a deal breaker for us.

Thank you all

I remain,

Larry Kephart
Vander Ploeg and Associates, Inc.

Larry - Thanks for posting here. I've got the identical issue (& a few others) leading me to search for other alternatives. I just want to continue using what I had paid for.... If Alpha was going to discontinue their activation server, should they not offer some alternative method of activation? I'd be interested in any updates. I would love to continue using this desktop version. It works great otherwise.

[madtowng]

Rick,
There are a few things at issue here.
1. knowing that I still use V10 and V11, I am certain that Alpha Software has not abandoned it's activation server.
2. You are probably running into compatibility issues. (V9 is probably not compatible with current operating systems, and I can almost bet Alpha Anywhere is not compatible with server 2003).

One of the oddities for the ancient versions of Alpha5 is the need to keep the computer name the same when installing the software on a different computer.

Last but not least, make sure the time on the computer is in sync with the rest of the world. Failure to do this will cause the activation check to fail.

[Ted Giles]

OFFS!
The Activation Key is in the Users, Roaming, App data, Alpha folder. You do not need the activation server. The key is linked to the computer name so you cannot just "lift and shift".
Enter the key when prompted.
As long as you have the original License number and can name the computer you want to run it on as the same as the one you installed the original on, it will work.

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Rick, I opened my A5V9 software on my windows 10 machine. Changed the compatibility mode to Windows 7. I then open Alpha Sports.
Didn't do any extensive testing but Alpha Sports did open and clicking on different buttons did work.