Admin Alert: Making Run the Same Run the Same On IBM i Access 7.1 On Windows 7

July 11, 2012 Joe Hertvik

One of my clients is working on a new build for their Windows 7 computers. They are deploying IBM i Access for Windows 7.1 (IBM i Access) on Windows 7 for the first time, and I’ve been evaluating using the product on that platform. Here are some issues and observations I’ve seen with the Personal Communications (Pcom) product that comes with version 7.1.

Run The Same May Not Run The Same In IBM i 7.1

Like IBM i Access for Windows’ predecessors such as Client Access Express for Windows, iSeries Access for Windows, etc., IBM i Access ships with a copy of the “Personal Communications iSeries Access for Windows” program for terminal emulation; a feature that IBM i users have relied on for years. (NOTE: Personal Communications is sometimes also referred to as PC5250, but I’m using the abbreviation Pcom to refer to the program in this article).

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

Pcom contains a valuable feature called “Run the Same.” Accessed by clicking on File→Run the Same from the Pcom menu bar, Run the Same opens another Pcom emulation window using the same communications parameters employed by the current window.

In testing, we had mixed results when we tried using Run the Same with IBM i Access on Windows 7 on Windows 7. Run the Same always started a new Pcom session, but it hardly ever connected that second session to our IBM i partition. Occasionally we could get it to actually connect to our target i box, but it would wipe out the session’s keyboard settings, using the IBM i access default keyboard rather than the custom keyboard we had created for this shop.

After contacting IBM, we found out that the problem was service packs. In order for Run the Same to work consistently with IBM i Access on Windows 7, we had to have the following service packs installed on our Windows 7 builds.

1. We had to load the following downloads from the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack Redistributable Package MFC Security Update Web site.

vcredist_x64.exe
vcredist_x86.exe

According to IBM, these patches should be loaded onto your Windows 7 machine before you install the newest IBM i Access service pack in the next step.

2. Even though we had a recent IBM i Access for Windows service pack installed, we still had to download and install IBM i Access 7.1 service pack SI45664 after we performed the downloads specified in step one. SI45664 was released on May 22, 2012; so many shops may not have it installed on their PCs yet. This is the minimum service pack needed to solve this problem. Also, if you don’t perform the Microsoft C++ downloads first, the service pack install will fail. You can download the latest IBM i service pack at the IBM i Access service pack Web site.

3. We then rebooted our Windows 7 machine.

We tested this fix on two machines running IBM i Access 7.1, and it restored Run the Same capability on each machine. It should work on your Windows 7 builds.

Given this experience, I highly recommend that you include IBM i Access service SI45664 or above and the Microsoft C++ service packs as the minimum installation components for any organization running IBM i Access 7.1 on a Windows 7 machine. If you’re using Pcom for a large group of users, some of those users will need to use Run the Same to create multiple Pcom sessions. These service packs will enable that capability.

If after installing the service packs, you still cannot start a second Pcom session using Run the Same, there could be a problem with your Pcom communication parameters and you may need to change your settings. Check out this tip I wrote about configuring PC5250 to use Run the Same for the most common solution to that problem.

Neat, New Clipboard And Screen Save Functions

I’ve been having fun playing with the new Windows clipboard enhancements in IBM i Access 7.1. Here are some interesting new features that can help you move data from your Pcom screens to other Windows applications.

Copy to Scratchpad— IBM i Access 7.1 now features its own lightweight text editor for saving screen data to a text file. It’s great for easily saving screen data. Here’s how it works.

1. On the screen you want to save, click on Edit→Send to Scratch Pad from the Pcom menu bar. This will bring up the current screen in a Scratch Pad text editor screen that looks something like this

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

2. From this screen, you can click on Save to save this screen information as a text file. The real value of the Scratch Pad Save function is that it saves the data as formatted data, which retains its row and column spacing. When a Scratch Pad saved screen is opened in Microsoft Notepad, the formatting is the same as it was on the Pcom screen the text was copied from. All of which is very nice for saving Pcom screen information for other purposes, such as emailing to support for troubleshooting.

You can also copy multiple screens to Scratch Pad. Each time you send a screen to Scratch Pad, it adds it to the existing screens for that Pcom session. So you can use Scratch Pad to create a text file history of steps taken to perform specific i/OS functions or to troubleshoot a problem.

If you’re running multiple Pcom sessions, each session has its own Scratch Pad work area for captured screens, specified by its own tab in the Scratch Pad window. So you can capture and work with multiple screen shots from different sessions in Scratch Pad.

Finally, Scratch Pad is enabled through the Microsoft .NET framework, meaning you must have .NET installed on your Windows 7 machine for it to work. If you don’t have .NET, the Scratch Pad option will be grayed out and unusable.

Copy as Image–This is also nice for copying Pcom screen data into other applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc. (I used it for this article). To use Copy as Image, click on Edit→Copy as Image from the Pcom menu bar. Then go to the application that you want to paste the screen into and select Paste (CTRL-V). You’ll get something that looks like this.

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

Granted, this is something that can also be done by pressing the ALT-Prt Sc key combination. But the difference here is that unless you’re in full screen mode, ALT-Prt Sc will copy both the screen data and the Pcom session Window containing the data, like this:

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

While you can use either technique to paste screens into applications such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, here are some quick guidelines for when to use each method.

Alt-Prt Sc copying is good for situations where you want to highlight options on the Pcom screen itself, such as showing someone which toolbar options to choose to perform a Pcom feature.
Copy as Image is good for situations where you want to focus on what’s going on in the green-screen 5250 application that the Pcom user is running. It highlights the 5250 screen rather than the Pcom application.

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Check out my blog at joehertvik.com, where I focus on computer administration and news (especially IBM i); vendor, marketing, and tech writing news and materials; and whatever else I come across.

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Joe Hertvik is the owner of Hertvik Business Services, a service company that provides written marketing content and presentation services for the computer industry, including white papers, case studies, and other marketing material. Email Joe for a free quote for any upcoming projects. He also runs a data center for two companies outside Chicago. Joe is a contributing editor for IT Jungle and has written the Admin Alert column since 2002.

When PC5250 Run the Same Doesn’t Run

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