Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

With the release of TNT v. 2.0 the EC Software screenshot program has become a serious application in its own right, so it was high time that it was given its own forum!

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kahlquist
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Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by kahlquist »

Hi,

I have a user who just went from Windows XP to Windows 7.

We are using version 2.1 build 383.

We read the post regarding Vista.

Can you please tell us if there are known issues with the software under Windows 7?

Thanks,
Ken
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Ken,

TNT is about as compatible with Windows 7 as it is with Vista, there are some issues but there are workarounds:

1: The red selection frame may be incorrect if you set Vista's screen fonts to a size different from the standard default size. This can be corrected by returning the Vista screen fonts to the defaults.

However, note that the Aero interface in Vista and Windows 7 cannot be captured with 100% accuracy. In many cases part of the Aero "glow" around some buttons will be outside the capture frame if you capture a window or dialog. As a result, dialog capture may be slightly inaccurate when Aero is on.

Generally, you will not have any problems if you turn Aero off.

2: If you have the transparent Aero interface activated you must minimize TNT to the Taskbar and activate captures with the capture hotkey combination when using the Free Region capture mode. If you don't do this TNT itself will only be partly faded off the screen and will be visible in your capture.

3: Some program windows in Vista and Windows 7, including Internet Explorer windows, cannot yet be captured in Window or Menu mode. You must use free region mode to capture these windows. This is caused by the fact that in all applications with access to the Internet and other security-critical zones now have special security ratings that prevent interaction with other programs, including screen capture programs. Here too, this problem will generally go away if Aero is off.

4: Some elements of TNT's help will not work in Vista or Windows 7, particularly the Capture Wizard and the What'sThis? help displayed when you right-click on controls in the program. You can solve this problem by installing an update from Microsoft, available on this page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

Once this installed all WinHelp features will work normally, just as they do in XP and earlier versions of Windows. This also includes all application calls to WinHelp help files and field-level WinHelp popopups in applications. However, Microsoft does not permit developers to distribute these updates with their products -- every user must download and install them themselves.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Roger Rines
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Roger Rines »

I purchase TNT back when I purchased Help & Manual 3 and have been fan and user since. While I now use Snag-It for many of my screen captures because of its extensive editing features, TNT is the best capture program for documenting menu path selections, drop-down list selection, and some other temporary screen windows because it doesn't create an event that causes the display stream to vanish.

As mentioned above, TNT 2.1.0 Build 383 has some issues when operating within Windows 7. In my case, Windows 7 64-Bit with 64-GB of memory. My experience with TNT in Windows 7 with all the updates added as of this posting date shows that when a TNT capture is attempted TNT seems to stall. A stall changes the appearance of TNT right after the capture and indicates that TNT's ability to repaint the screen is frozen. Frozen meaning TNT's operation is either searching for something, or it falls into a loop that takes an unexpected long time to process. Images shown next displays how the TNT screen appears right after a capture of a portion of the Windows 7 Compatibility Troubleshooter process: Image
http://tinyurl.com/c7r85x4 (<-- Click to see full image )

Once the image has been processed TNT's screen display is cleaned up and the screen capture appears as it had always done in Windows XP Pro for years: Image
http://tinyurl.com/cuykkhr (<-- Click to see full image )

Being on this side of the forum is it hard to know what might be done to bring TNT back to its old quick operation, but if a vote for it might make any difference, please consider this my vote to at least fix how much time it takes to make it work.
Roger...
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Winsteps
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Winsteps »

Roger, perhaps there is some other software on your system intervening to cause TNT to slow down. Please scan services.msc and disable any "started" services that you never use, and the same thing with a "startup" manager . I use TNT almost daily with Windows7 64-bit, and its operation for me is exactly the same as for Windows XP. Very speedy.

BTW, TNT still has the bug I reported long ago regarding black lines with some monitors, but the work around is always to start drawing free areas from the top left-hand corner.
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Tim Green
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Roger,

TNT is a bit long in the tooth and unfortunately it can no longer be updated. That is why it is now completely free. If you want to continue using it (I also prefer it to Snagit, which I also have, for most tasks) you can generally eliminate the majority of problems with it with the following two settings in Windows:
  • Turn transparent Aero Glass off and set the Windows 7 Basic Theme instead. I find that this is also much better for general screenshots, which are generally more legible when they are neutral.
  • Turn off animated opening and closing for Windows windows.
To turn off window animation:

1. type in “sysdm.cpl” (without quotes) in Start menu search box or in Run dialog box and hit enter.
2. Next, in the left pane click on Advanced System Settings.
3. Select Settings under Performance box.
4. option named “Animate controls and elements inside windows”, uncheck the box to disable animation and vice versa.
5. Click Apply.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Roger Rines
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Roger Rines »

Hello Tim & Winsteps,

Changing to a basic theme and reduced animations seems to have TNT working as quickly as I had remembered when in Win XP. If this holds true it will be great as the process of how it would disturb the screen image for a while, and I suspect left problems behind will be a good improvement.

If my TNT life gets more difficult I'll post an update.

Thank you both for responding,
Roger...
Roger...
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Roger Rines
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Roger Rines »

After disabling many of the Basic theme settings the thumbnail images in the image directories were no longer appearing.

This software documentation project has a huge amount of captured images all with similar names. Finding and selecting an image in a timely fashion is very dependent upon thumbnail previews to reduce the image search and selection.

When thumbnail setting is turned back on, TNT uses its delayed capture delay. When this setting is disabled the captures are quickly displayed and be saved right after capture:
Image :frustration:
Roger...
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Tim Green
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Roger,

I'll pass this information on, but as I wrote above, changes to TNT are no longer feasible or even possible. It is currently as-is, and no longer changeable, which is why it is completely free. :|
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Roger Rines
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Roger Rines »

Hello Tim,

Yes -- I agree about your previous message, and I understand why it is being left behind.

TNT's menu-path capture skills surpass those of Snag-It, and make a joke of the Windows Snipping Tool.

Yesterday's posting happened because I like TNT for those task, and because I learned something new on why TNT's capture gets in trouble, so I thought the added detail would be helpful. It might be helpful because having easy access to thumbnail views in folders helps in image selection, but the cost is the TNT capture delay.

Thanks for your presence and advice on the forum.
Roger...
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Roger Rines
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Re: Is TNT Windows 7 Compatiable?

Unread post by Roger Rines »

This is one of those FYI post intended to share a change in how TNT is working, and to boast about how good it is to have it back to normal.

Changes:
Windows 7 updates near the end of October were allowed. Afterwards the video on some software features was often incomplete after moving a covering dialog or other program covering display. Poor image quality in some cases was limiting screen captures without screen display refresh. When it continued for a while it meant a video driver update for my high end nVidia card was required, and that happened late last week.

Yesterday I found the TNT screen capture delay between image capture and image display was gone. For as long as I've used TNT with Windows 7 there has been a delay that has been as long as 2-minutes unless I disabled some Windows 7 features. Today there is no delay. Instead it feels like it is working as well as it did so many years ago when it first appeared.

I don't know it is working so well today, but I don't miss the waits.
Roger...
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