You can no longer start Microsoft Greetings Workshop 1996 you get an error message you are having trouble with a database you have reinstalled the program and still get the error message What shd I do?

Answer 1

the following answer sucks if you dont know how to set the memory size to 786 or less and if you ask wiki how to set the memory size you get an answer "you cant you should set the memory you should just add more." Well its not working because theirs not enough memory .... I have now seen this question on several sites posted as long ago as 2 years. I LOVE greetings Workshop and have had great success with it these several years. Only in the last 2 weeks did I start to get this message--I have removed,reinstalled, etc. to no avail. All I know is that the problem only began for me after using a D-Link wireless to hook my 2nd computer to the internet via the main one--then both computers began showing this error message. Hmmm NOTE: My solution relies on the use of Virtual PC (free from Microsoft) to create a virtual instance of Windows XP. With Virtual PC you can "dial in" any memory setting that you want for your virtual session (using the "settings" screen for that session). How to install Virtual PC and then create a virtual instance of Windows XP is a discussion that is well outside the scope of this WikiAnswer resource. Microsoft has sufficient documentation to lead you through the steps. The only way that I am able to get Greetings Workshop to run is to use an instance of Windows XP within Virtual PC using the memory settings "dialed in" that are described here. For me... here is the beauty of using Virtual PC... Your Windows XP session is stored in two files... a hard drive file and a settings file. You can create a clean install of Windows XP, then close down Virtual PC and make a backup copy of these two files before continuing. Using this method, it does not matter if your Windows XP session begins slowing down, gets "messed up" or becomes virus laden. Exit Virtual PC, copy the two files from your backup and start again with a clean newly installed Windows XP. My backup copy of Windows XP has all of the programs that I use installed but is otherwise in an unused state... so copying from my backup always produces a clean ready to use version of Window XP with all of my application ready to go. One caveat... when you first create your virtual instance of Windows XP select a really big hard drive setting. This maximum size cannot be changed after installing Windows XP. The actual size of the hard drive file on your computer starts small, then grows dynamically as needed until it reaches the maximum size that you selected when creating the Virtual PC instance of Windows XP. Clearly to use Virtual PC you need a reasonably fast computer, lots of memory helps, and lots of hard drive space. If you have a slow computer or limited memory then your Virtual PC instance of Windows XP will probably run very slowly. This is, admittedly, a rather complicated solution... but it is a solution with lots of unexpected benefits and is the only way that I can, among other things, get my venerable copy of Greetings Workshop to run. If your version of Greetings Workshop does not run with this setup, then try "dialing in" other memory configurations. ============= You can run Greetings Workshop (at least my old version) in Windows XP or Windows Vista Basic if you run Windows XP or Windows Vista Basic as Virtual PC sessions with the proper settings. Virtual PC lets me "dial in" the memory available to the OS. For Windows XP:

set memory size to 786mb or less works, set to 787mb or greater does not work. For Windows Vista Basic:

set memory size to 903mb or less works, set to 904mb or greater does not work. You do not need to use any compatibility settings with Greetings Workshop... just control the amount of memory available to the OS. I have no idea why this works, but this does explain issues like "I upgraded my Windows XP computer and now Greetings Workshop no longer runs". Best of luck... I have no idea why this fixes the problem, but am happy to say that I now have a new solution to an old problem.