Vista Application Compatibility: FrontPage 2003
FrontPage, works in Windows Vista, but it is not without issues. If you make use of the hyperlink feature by right clicking text and choosing "Hyperlink" or pressing "CTRL-K" to do the same crashes the program in Vista pretty reliably. It is frustrating because it is such a common task, knowing it is going to crash if I hit CTRL-K does not stop me from doing it as a matter of habit. I've finally broken myself of it now, and using FrontPage in split code/design view, I just go up and type the hyperlink tags manually:
<a href="where_you_want_to_go"> text to display</a>
It has been suggested that this problem is more reliably encountered when editing a remote website, so you might try publishing your web locally and working on it offline.
The frustrating thing is that this but does not appear to be documented anywhere. Not at Microsoft and not at any of the many community and MVP websites out there. Despite some conversations recommending that this is an installation order issue, it is not. It does not matter if you never install Office 2007, if you reinstall, uninstall or the order it is installed. As installation order goes, if in your installation order you install this thing called "Windows Vista" you will encounter the problem.
I first wrote about this problem in a discussion about Windows Vista's feature where it looks for a solution after a crash,
I've seen it reported that Microsoft has acknowledged the problem in phone conversations with users saying a fix will be out in a month or two, but these are all old reports and no fixes have surfaced yet. Why could boil down to the fact that FrontPage is on its deathbed. The new "Web Expressions" software is taking the place of FrontPage after nine years of use.
Update: A helpful member of the realtime-vista community pointed out a registry update that corrects the issue! Here is the simple way to implement the change:
From a command prompt running as administrator run the following command:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Application Compatibility" /v Frontpg.exe /t REG_DWORD /d 1
Second Update: At least for me, this fix appears to have worked only temporarilly. It will again crash for me reliably. Now I just type my own hyperlinks in code view. -bk 8/22/07
Final? Update: It appears that the new Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 corrects this problem. -bk 9/21/07
I personally don't use the FrontPage extensions in my code-- though they are obviously used to connect to remote sites for editing. Skipping the use of these FrontPage features makes it little more than a simple WYSIWYG editor for web pages. That is how I, and I'm sure many of you, have used it for quite some time. While it is surprising that a product with such a long history and user base would be scrapped, it really does not compare well with the competition.
Does that mean you should move to using Microsoft's Expressions Web product? I submit that this is really a good time to do some looking around and examine the competition. Expressions web is a pretty big change from FrontPage and is more of a developer tool than its user-friendly predecessor. So if you are going to have to learn a new program, take the time to look around and see what is available. There are programs out there with a long history and user base that are not trying to reinvent themselves.
If anyone has some good suggestions, please chime in, here is a short list to get you started:
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Aptana
CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2007
Expression Web
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Comments
The Regedit fix does not work. Its a pure Vista issue. I have been dealing with clients having this problem. You are right, Vista teams are just not that interested in this fix for Frontpage right now.
So I went a got Expressions Web. It is missing things and buggy too. Expressions does not seem like the answer for a person who has a high learning curve for new programs.
Dreamweaver is like learning learning another language. super steep curve. Things like uploading, creating a new site, CSS and so on are tripping up old Frontpage users.
Ohhh well. The market is at lost for useful, easy web design tools right now for the non-tech Savoy. Wish I was a programmer, there is a $$$ in the company who makes it right.
CoffeeCup is easy, but limited.
hmmm...its an odd issue really.
Posted by: Shawn Roop | June 12, 2007 4:11 PM
This fix worked for me on multiple systems. Anyone else?
Posted by: Bob | June 13, 2007 6:59 AM
6/13/07 I agree, "The Regedit fix above does not work" - I just tried it on my Windows Vista Business machine... as soon as I select some text then click the "link ball-and-chain" icon to browse for a file to link to, as soon as I navigate to a folder the application closes. I'm REALLY anxious to find a fix as I edit dozens of sites live using FrontPage 2003 and I can't use Vista machines as long as this bug exists. I also tried running FRONTPG.EXE in Windows XP (SP2) Compatibility mode, and as Administrator, all to no benefit. Mike at mikebaird.com
Posted by: Mike Baird | June 14, 2007 1:25 AM
Having similar problems and looking for a FP replacement too. Aptana is mentioned above but no user comments, is this any good? Also, how limited is Coffecup?
Posted by: Sergio | July 13, 2007 2:14 AM
This fix worked on my laptop but not my desktop ... odd.
Posted by: Justin | July 14, 2007 7:01 AM
Sergio, they all have demos available so I would definitely start there. Which is best is very subjective; it really depends on what is important to you and what is easiest to use (for you). Still, if anyone has experience to share, please do!
Posted by: Bob Kelly | July 16, 2007 3:56 PM
I'm looking for an editor to do very simple pages, Are there any issues with FP2003 when using a machine running XP?
Posted by: Chris | July 17, 2007 5:29 PM
It really only has this one issue on Vista. It may be a matter of opinion, but I'd say that FP 2003 is quite solid in XP.
Posted by: Bob Kelly | July 18, 2007 4:27 PM
First, I had to install Firefox as IE 7 was locking up my computer, then I had to uninstall Office 2007 and reinstall Office 2003 because re-training costs were too high and now I need to look for a replacement for FrontPage. In addition , a number of my old programs no longer work. I have had a number of retraining issues for people with Vista in just trying to even find files on their computers. Vista has been a very expensive upgrade for this small business.
I also do not think the crashing on hyperlink insertions is the only problem with FP and Vista. I have had a number of problems with tables that I did not previously have, very weird re-sizing problems that I have to ask a friend without Vista to fix.
I am going to try the Coffee Cup editor. I have had very good experiences with their other products,
Posted by: Diane Harman-Hoog | July 19, 2007 9:57 AM
I have been a FrontPage user for a long time, but also use Cute-FTP to do a lot of uploading - both FrontPage files and non-FrontPage, such as .cgi and .js files.
CuteFTP has a very friendly interface for editing your code, and if you want to see what your code looks like as an HTML page, you can use the Tools, view in Browser option to see what the page would look like.
Check it out at http://www.globalscape.com
Posted by: Ali | August 16, 2007 9:39 AM
I found another way of getting the hyperlinks with FP2003 working, and it works. when the window (for choosing your link) opens, donc clic on the page you want to link to, but choose it on the left side, where it says last visited links or pages, whatever in english, its faster than writing down the whole link .
hope it helps someone
Posted by: Manuela teixeira | August 17, 2007 7:12 PM
With respect to the last post, I have tried this, but once the dialogue box opens up to select where to point the hyperlink, the program does not let me select anything outside the dialogue box. Any suggestions?
Posted by: Adam Goren | August 22, 2007 10:23 AM
Alis post which is 2 posts up worked for me as a workaround. Thank you Ali.
Posted by: Joseph | September 3, 2007 11:21 AM
Fixed by SP3 for Office!?!?
Posted by: Bob Kelly | September 19, 2007 2:02 PM
Isn't it about time we gave up on Microsoft and started using another OS. I just spent the better part of a week thinking that this was an issue on my machine. because it only happens on my laptop. If Microsoft can't even be compatible with its own products with all the updates they do then its time to move on. I'm thinking Ubuntu. If I have to hand code the html then I may as well like the environment.
Posted by: Russ Bishop | September 20, 2007 3:45 PM
I have this issue and was told by Microsoft it "could" be because I have Office 2007 installed, or "possibly" expression, or "perhaps" Visual Studio 2005. I was then informed that it was "probably" something to do with the AJAX extensions.... with well over 200 sites built with FP I am finding the learning curve for expressions and vs very hard ... I'll get there but a bit more help from ms would be nice!
Posted by: Nick | September 25, 2007 9:20 PM