To use Notepad2 as your default notepad application, follow the instructions found at http://www.mattberther.com/?p=828. Much easier than making things work in XP.

1. Download and extract Notepad2.
2. Rename Notepad2.exe to notepad.exe.
3. Find c:\windows\notepad.exe and c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe and set the owner to ‘Administrators’, and grant Administrators full control.
4. Using Windows Explorer, drag and drop the renamed notepad2.exe to c:\windows and c:\windows\system32.

Whether you are using Inmagic CS/TextWorks (v.9 or less) or Inmagic DB/TextWorks (v.10 or less) on Vista, you will see something like the following error message when you try to use Help.

Why is that? Well, it's a long story* but the gist of it is, the help file was created in a format that is not, by default, supported by Windows Vista.

Fortunately, you *can* go and download the software which will let Vista use these older-style help files. (Anything that has the *.hlp filename extension.)

Get WinHlp32.exe for Windows Vista: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148.

* Okay, fine, here's the long story (taken verbatim from Microsoft site): "Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) is a Help program that has been included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with the Microsoft Windows 3.1 operating system. However, the Windows Help program has not had a major update for many releases and no longer meets Microsoft's standards. Therefore, starting with the release of Windows Vista, the Windows Help program will not ship as a feature of Windows."

How Microsoft can get away with the cussed irony of condemning their own software for not meeting their standards is beyond me.

Inmagic WebPublisher PRO depends on classic ASP for its out-of-the-box web data entry. Vista does not, by default, enable ASP. You must enable it through the Control Panel:

Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on or off > Internet Information Services > World Wide Web Services > ASP - Check!

Once you've done this, the IIS Manager will add ASP as an allowed ISAPI and CGI Restriction at the machine level, and add a new feature called ASP at the machine level. 

Of course, this does not absolve you of the necessity to set up the right permissions for WebPublisher to update the textbase via the web, but at least you can follow WebPublisher's setup instructions knowing your IIS 7 webserver is ready to handle ASP.

A short time back I described how to get Inmagic WebPublisher 10 running on IIS 7 in Windows Vista. Everything I said there still holds true, but now I must warn you about Vista virtualization.

Webpublisher accesses parts of the file system and registry that are now locked in Windows Vista, and is therefore subject to Vista's answer to backwards compatibility for legacy applications.

If a legacy application such as Webpublisher tries to access protected portions of the file system and registry without the right permissions, Vista's UAC (user account control) virtualization services silently and automatically redirect read/write operations to unprotected user-specific locations.

For instance, say Webpublisher wants to write the location of a textbase to dbtwpub.ini located at:

%Program Files%\Inmagic\WebPubPro\dbtwpub.ini

Vista detects that Webpublisher does not have permission to save to that location and copies the file to:

%Users%\<your account>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Inmagic\WebPubPro\dbtwpub.ini

Subsequent read/write operations access the VirtualStore version of the file, even though Webpublisher will still think it is accessing the Program Files directory. Poor deluded Webpublisher.

So now the textbase location additions are tied to your user account, and worse, some applications will see the virtual file, while others see the original. And they're not synced.

So like, today I edited dbtwpub.ini with Notepad. Hours later I opened it with UltraEdit. And blinked about 14 times at the complete disappearance of the textbase locations I could have sworn I added. But Webpublisher still worked, searching textbases it couldn't possibly know the locations to. Huh?

Turns out Notepad sees the VirtualStore version, like WebPublisher, but UltraEdit sees the original version.

Yikes. Looks like Inmagic has their work cut out for them next version. And I'd better start reading up on Vista UAC.