ARM Support on Windows 7 and 64-bit Windows

The recent Microsoft release of Windows 7 resulted in many questions about ARM compatibility with Windows 7. Following are conclusions from GDM testing.

Windows 7

• ARM 8 works well on Windows 7 because ARM 8 was designed to follow Microsoft standards for Windows Vista, which also apply for Windows 7.
   

• GDM does not support ARM version 7 or older ARM versions on Windows 7. For example, ARM 7 was released in 2003 and thus was designed for Windows XP using software tools that do not recognize Windows 7.
   

• When installing and first running ARM, Windows 7 displays some special dialogs to:
  1. Request permission to run Setup.exe and other programs used by ARM. It is quite important to allow these programs to run, otherwise ARM will not install correctly.
  2. Apply settings using the Program Compatibility Assistant so ARM runs correctly.
  See Installing and Using ARM on Windows 7 and Windows Vista for more information.
   

• When Windows 7 recommends a certain action for program compatibility, accept the recommended choice. Using default file locations and compatibility settings for ARM helps avoid issues. For example:
  1. Default Windows 7 permissions do not allow creating new folders on the root of C drive. Storing ARM study definitions in C:\ProgramData\ARMdef folder avoids any issue from attempting to create and store study definitions in C:\ARMdef folder.
  2. Windows 7 expects documents to be stored in the current user's "My Documents" folder. By default ARM stores documents in a "Documents\ARM Data" folder, so standard Windows document shortcuts will guide you to the ARM Data folder.

GDM supports ARM 8 or newer with Windows 7.

64-bit Windows

• ARM 8 versions beginning with May 28, 2009 version 8.2.0 (Third Edition) are designed to install and run on 64-bit Windows 7 or Windows Vista versions. 64-bit Windows versions run ARM 8 as a 32-bit application because some third-party programming tools used in ARM 8 are not available in 64-bit versions.
   

• GDM does not support ARM 7 or older versions on 64-bit Windows versions. ARM 7 does not install or run properly on any 64-bit Windows version!

Typical Client Questions about Windows 7

• Question: When buying a new computer with Windows 7, should I "downgrade" the operating system to Windows XP?
  Answer: No, there is no good reason to downgrade either Windows 7 or Windows Vista to Windows XP in order to run ARM. Windows 7 and Vista are both more secure operating systems than Windows XP, so downgrading to XP makes it easier for malicious software to run on your computer.
   

• Question: What folder permissions are required to use ARM on Windows 7 (or Vista)?
  Answer: A user must have sufficient rights to use ARM, which are rights to:
  - Change (read, write, create, delete) files and folders in the study definition root folder (typically C:\ProgramData\ARMdef) and all subfolders.
  - Change (write, create, delete) registry keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gylling Data Management\ARM.
  - Change (read, write, create, delete) files and folders in the ARM Settings folders, which ARM automatically creates in the Windows "Application Data" folder for the current user. For example, for a Windows user named 'username' this is:
  C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Gylling Data Management\ARM\8.0
  - Change ARM studies (protocols and trials) in the study data folder (which by default is My Documents\ARM Data).
  
  To install ARM updates a user also requires permission to:
  - Download and install ARM updates from ftp://web.itctel.com and http://www.gdmdata.com.
  - Change (write, create, delete) ARM program directory and all subfolders (ARM 8= C:\Program Files\ARM8)
  - Create and update registry keys which are created or modified when installing or updating ARM.
   

• Question: Sometimes I receive messages such as error 57 "Device I/O Error", error 70 "Permission denied", or error 75 "Path/File access error" when running ARM. What do these messages mean?
  Answer: Frequently these errors occur because Windows is not allowing ARM to change study or work files. Try the following:
  1. Close ARM.
  2. Start ARM by right-clicking on the ARM icon, and selecting Run as Administrator?
  3. Select "Yes" button on the User Account Control dialog asking whether to "allow ARM.exe or ARM8.exe to make changes on your computer".
  Windows grants ARM a higher permission level when "Run as Administrator", so ARM can change required work files as needed. If "Run as Administrator" eliminates these ARM error messages, then change ARM shortcut properties to "Run this program as an administrator" on Compatibility tab.

Please contact your computer support resource with general questions about using Windows 7. You may also submit to GDM any ARM compatibility questions you would like added to this page.