Upgrading to W10 breaks Act! v18 due to .NET

[thecomputerguy]

I have a client with a bunch of W7 computers were upgrading and I figured it would be a super easy money job (Thanks M$). I just download the newest Windows 10 1903 ISO and perform an in place upgrade and everything usually works out fine.

However, when I upgraded these computers Act! would display a startup error on all 4 computers that were upgraded. Upon looking at logs I saw that .NET was crashing then causing Act to crash. We called their Act rep and he suggested they upgrade to Act 21 which is more recent but also about $4000, which isn't an option because they are actually dumping Act very shortly, but they will need it to continue working as an old database.

So I spent about 3 hours trying to get Act working on all these computers and couldn't do it so I ended up having to do a roll back to 7 and I was pretty irritated. I decided to try and install Windows 10 v1809 to see if that made a difference.

To my surprise the older W10 v1809 did not cause Act to break I was ecstatic now that I'd be able to charge for this Job until I ran the computer through updates. After fully updating all the way up to but not including v1903 Act broke again. I was able to track it down to KB4486153 which is the .NET installation for .NET 4.8

Before KB4486153 .NET is version 4.7 so basically 4.8 breaks Act v18.

I can exclude that update from installing but when a computer gets pushed up to 1903 the KB4486153 is baked into v1903 so it cannot be excluded. Then once you install v1903 you can't go back and install .NET 4.7 because it says you already have the same or newer version installed.

Just discovered this because a computer unrelated to the 4 I upgraded that was already on W10 just borked on Act after going to v1903.

Any help here?

 

[Porthos]

1809 does not automatically update to 1903. You can do other updates but be aware, .net 4.8 is being pushed to 1809 as well.

 

[Sky-Knight]

You may not have a choice but to upgrade Act! The irony here is I have Act v5, yes that's right ACT! 2000! Running on Windows 10 1903 just fine for one of my customers.

But if the younger version you're working with is dependent on .NET, and it's busted... you're kinda hosed.

The only other thing I can suggest is to try it on a fresh Windows 10 installation. There are certain circumstances that can break .NET, and the only known way to fix .NET on Windows 10 is a nuke and pave. Nothing else will quite work.

 

[thecomputerguy]

You may not have a choice but to upgrade Act! The irony here is I have Act v5, yes that's right ACT! 2000! Running on Windows 10 1903 just fine for one of my customers.

But if the younger version you're working with is dependent on .NET, and it's busted... you're kinda hosed.

The only other thing I can suggest is to try it on a fresh Windows 10 installation. There are certain circumstances that can break .NET, and the only known way to fix .NET on Windows 10 is a nuke and pave. Nothing else will quite work.

I did a fresh re-install on one of the 4 workstations I upgraded because the roll-back to 7 sent the computer into a boot-loop. I installed v1809 fully updated it, brought it back onsite same day, first thing I did was install Act and the program was DOA. I uninstalled KB4486153 and the fresh install + Act started working again.

Ultimately I think part of the issue is with MS baking .NET into their newer revisions of W10 whereas before you could uninstall or reinstall a particular version of .NET ... well that and the clients being cheap-o's and failing to keep their primary contact database updated when it should be.