Outpost v2.7 Release Highlights

While not the biggest release ever put out, Outpost v27 does deliver some interesting changes for the user community including the fix (final?) for the Windows Vista, 7, and 8 users, a selectable profiles, and a PC Time Check feature for those forgetful PCs.  See the Release Information for a list of other changes included in v2.7. 

Installation for Windows Vista, 7, and 8 
Windows' User Access Control feature tightly manages where you can and can't write data.  We partially fixed this problem with v2.5, but it was subsequently found that the selected data directory Outpost currently uses -- c:\ProgramData\Outpost -- is also tightly controlled.  To get around this, users had to either run Outpost in Windows XP Compatibility Mode or with Administrative privileges. Either approach required a manual change to the Programs settings.

The v2.7 release changes where Outpost stores its data, and resolve the Administrative Access problems that has plagued us for years. For Windows 98se, 2000, and XP users, Outpost data is moved from this old location to the new location showed here.

For Outpost v2.5 and v2.6,

• Windows NT, 2000, XP, the data path was
            c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Outpost
  
• and Vista and Windows 7 and Windows 8, it was
            c:\ProgramData\Outpost
  

For Outpost v2.7,

• Windows NT, 2000, XP path is now
            c:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Outpost
  
• For Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, it will be
            c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Outpost
  

Considerations.  Because the data is now associated with a specific user, if you install Outpost from one account (must install from a user account with administrative privileges), and try to run it from a different account that does not include administrative privileges, you will get a read-only data error.  There is a work-around that can be put in place to let multiple users run Outpost on the same PC and from different accounts and access only their own data.  However this may negate the benefit of a shared platform in an EOC or other emergency situation where the continuity of the messages in the system is needed.

Until we understand the size of this problem, if the above is your situation, I recommend either sharing the install account login with Outpost users, or create a generic user account from which Outpost is installed and run.

Selectable Profiles
Outpost now lets you create different collections of the general settings into something called profiles.  Profiles are best described as follows:

When you install Outpost v2.7, Outpost will rename the Outpost.ini file to Outpost.profile.  This will be displayed on the Profile drop-down on the main program form.  To create a new profile, use the Setups > Profiles option and enter in the profile name.  This new profile will inherit the last loaded profile, and any changes made from this point forward will be saved under the new profile.  To delete a profile, use the Setups > Profiles option.

How will you use profiles?  I have set up 2 profiles, one for casual use, and another for emergency use.  Another user wanted to set them up for different BBSs and response locations.  How you use profiles is totally up to you.

PC Time Check
Occasionally, users find that their Packet PC has lost synch with the time.  This is a problem when your messages need accurate time stamps to be reconciled at the end of an event.  PC Time Check is an option that you can set to run at Outpost start-up to as a prompt for you to confirm the correct date and time of your Outpost PC.  If the date/time needs corrections, you can make the corrections here as well.

KISS OFF / HOST OFF
Because Outpost assumes the TNCs are in Command Mode, there are other programs that may leave the TNC in KISS mode, which is sometimes tough to reset.  Not any more.

Ipserial.exe now has an option to reset a specific TNCs out of KISS or HOST mode back to Command mode.  After running Ipserial.exe, go to Tools menu, and you will see these new options...

Connect to the TNC, and select the KISS off command for your specific TNC.