ANALOG DEVICES EE-330 Service Manual

Engineer-to-Engineer Note EE-330

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Technical notes on using Analog Devices DSPs, processors and development tools

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Windows Vista® Compatibility in VisualDSP++® 5.0 Development Tools

Contributed by Glen Anderson Rev 1 – August 16, 2007

Introduction

The VisualDSP++® 5.0 development tools
release has been tested against, and is supported
under, the following 32-bit versions of the
Microsoft® Windows Vista® operating system:

 Windows Vista Business Edition
 Windows Vista Enterprise Edition
 Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

While every effort has been made to maintain a
consistent user experience under all supported
Microsoft Windows versions, certain changes to
the security model in Windows Vista operating
system may impact select operations in the
VisualDSP++ tools. This EE-Note describes
these changes and suggests workarounds where
applicable.

 Building and running example programs
 Installing a license
 Logging text from the Output window to a

file

 Modifying processor .XML files for use with

custom hardware

When logged into an account that has UAC
enabled, all files written to the

Program Files

directory will be automatically redirected by the
operating system to a special VirtualStore
directory specific to that user. By default, this
directory can be found at:

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Virt
ualStore\Program Files

where <user_name> is the user name of the
currently logged in user.

Although file virtualization is transparent to the

File Virtualization and User Account Control

With the release of the Windows Vista operating
system, Microsoft introduced a new security

VisualDSP++ application itself, you will need to
browse to this virtual store directory to access the
files directly through Windows Explorer or a
command prompt window.

feature known as User Account Control (UAC).
When enabled, UAC provides a more secure
operating environment for the user by prohibiting
the modification of critical system directories
and files. One of these directories is the

directory into which the VisualDSP++

Files

Program

tools are installed when using the default setup
options.

In the normal course of use of the VisualDSP++
tools, there are a few cases in which files may be
created or modified in the installation directory:

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Building and Running Example Programs with UAC Enabled

VisualDSP++ code examples are located in one
of the following subdirectories:

 21k\Examples
 211xx\Examples
 212xx\Examples
 213xx\Examples
 Blackfin\Examples
 TS\Examples

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When UAC is enabled, any files created as a
result of building one of these examples will be
transparently redirected to your VirtualStore
directory. To access these files, do one of two
things:

 Manually browse to the appropriate

Examples folder under your VirtualStore

directory, as listed above.

 Browse to the ‘real’ directory under

C:\Program Files and click on the toolbar

link titled Compatibility Files to go
directly to the corresponding VirtualStore
directory.

Figure 1. Compatibility Files link in toolbar while
viewing the directory in which the application files
would normally have been created

Installing a License with UAC Enabled

Licenses in the VisualDSP++ tools are stored in
a file called
System directory of your VisualDSP++
installation folder. When installing a new license
with UAC enabled, changes to this file will be
redirected to your
Because VirtualStore directories are specific
to each user, this has the added side effect in that
other users on the machine will not have access
to these licenses when using the VisualDSP++
tools.

If you would like to install licenses such that they
can be used by all users of the computer, you will
need to install them using account credentials
that have administrator rights on that machine.
This can be accomplished as follows:

1. Click on the Windows Start menu and

browse to the Manage Licenses icon for the
VisualDSP++ installation for which you wish
to manage the license.

2. Right-click on this icon and select Run as

administrator

3. When prompted, enter the user name and

password for an account that has
administrator rights on the machine.

license.dat, located within the

VirtualStore directory.

from the context menu.

Follow the normal steps for installing or
validating a new license, as described in the
VisualDSP++ documentation. The
file will be created in the Program Files
directory, which can then be accessed by all
users of the computer.

Figure 2. Clicking the Compatibility Files link opens
the corresponding folder in your VirtualStore where
the example results can be found

Windows Vista® Compatibility in VisualDSP++® 5.0 Development Tools (EE-330) Page 2 of 4

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If you will be the only user of
VisualDSP++ tools on this particular
computer, no further action is required.

license.dat