TAP6 and Windows Vista

Q: Will the Terrain Analysis Package (TAP)™ software run on the Vista™ operating system?

A: TAP6 has been tested with Windows Vista (Business Edition). We have found no problems running path profiles, coverage studies, maps, or any of the rf engineering functions.

Note that installation of TAP for 64-bit systems must be release 2315 or later. Earlier builds will usually generate an error message, such as "Error 5 - Access Denied" or other errors during the setup process on 64-bit systems. You can download the current TAP Demo and install it, or you can request a current TAP Software Setup Disk. Also, be sure that the Windows user account has full Read-Write-Modify permissions for installing and running TAP.

Testing was conducted on an existing TAP installation under Windows XP, and the Vista Business upgrade was applied. The TAP software ran correctly after the OS upgrade.

Testing was also done on a machine with Vista installed first, and then TAP was installed. Again, the TAP software ran correctly on the Vista operating system.

We recommend you search on the web to find other information about Vista and its effects on various hardware and software configurations. For example, in our research, we found warnings about significant performance slowdowns under Vista. Those opinions are those of the writers and not necessarily of SoftWright LLC. We have not tested the performance of TAP running large scale coverage studies under Vista, but you should consider that factor as well.

Users of the TAP6 3DDisplay module should be sure that the software drivers for their hardware acceleration graphics cards are available under Vista before upgrading. 3DDisplay requires hardware acceleration for the graphics functions. Because of the changes in graphics drivers required using the new operating system, some hardware acceleration graphics are not yet supported. Check with the manufacturer of your graphics card before upgrading. (The Google Earth export function for maps and path profiles in the 3DDisplay module does not depend on those graphic functions and is not affected by Windows Vista.)

Note that even though the other graphic functions in TAP6 (besides 3DDisplay) do not require the graphics acceleration hardware, if video drivers are not yet available for your video card operating under Vista, all graphics may be displayed at a lower resolution. As suggested above, check with the video hardware manufacturer to find what drivers are available for their products used in the Vista environment.

Previous versions (TAP5 and earlier) are not supported under the Vista OS. Our testing has confirmed that the earlier versions (written for use on Windows XP) will not run correctly under Vista.

See also the section on Windows Virtualstore related to TAP installations on Vista and Windows 7.