Prism 4 and Vista

Trying to launch Prism 4 under Windows Vista, will produce an error message and Prism will not start. There are two ways to get Prism 4 to run under Vista. The two methods are equivalent for single user licenses.

Alternative A: Set compatibility mode
The easiest fix for people using single user licenses is to set compatibility mode. To do this, follow these steps once.

1. Make sure you are logged in with admin rights.
2. Install Prism as usual. The installer will automatically try to launch Prism, which will provoke an error message 'cannot load GraphPad Prism'. That message tells you Prism is installed OK, but cannot start (yet).
3. Using Windows Explorer, locate the file Prism.exe in the Prism 4 folder, in the GraphPad folder, in Program Files.
4. Right-click on prism.exe and choose Properties from the pop up menu menu.
5. In the Compatibility tab, choose to run the program in compatibility mode for Windows XP.

Alternative B: Patch Prism 4.03
       If you are using an earlier 4.0x release, please update free to 4.03  before trying to patch Prism.   The patcher will only work with 4.03.  

1. Make sure you are logged in with admin rights.
2. Install Prism as usual. The installer will automatically try to launch Prism, which will provoke an error message 'cannot load GraphPad Prism'. That message tells you Prism is installed ok, but cannot start (yet).
3. Make sure that the program folder, and prism.exe itself are not protected in any way.
4. Download  this patching program to your desktop or a temporary folder, and unzip the file within.
5. Run the patching program (PatchPrismForVista.exe)
6. Now Prism will start under Vista (while still launching under Windows XP or 2000).
7. Delete the patching program, which is no longer needed.

You need to use the Patch to fix a network installation of Prism.  

Toolbar issues when running Prism 4 under Vista

Prism 4 runs perfectly under Vista, but there are two minor problems with the  toolbar. 

1. The  toolbar is shifted to the right.  If you have a small monitor, this will push the text tools (bold, underline, etc) off the screen. To change the appearance of text, select the text then use Change...Selected text. Or right-click and use the shortcut menu. 
2. The  dropdown used to navigate between results subsheets does not work.  Instead, use the Navigator (on the left of the screen) or View menu to jump between results subsheets.