OK, let's get going, its' really easy!

A) If you have Ecco already installed, go to B), otherwise start here.
BTW: This (= section A) is my very first contribution ever to a wiki ever on this planet. Exciting. :-) ws

Section A Installing ECCO

(tested under Windows XP Home edition, service pack 2)

• First you need to install the original ECCO installation package. It is available in the file section of the Ecco Pro Forum on Yahoo!.
  • You need an Yahoo Groups account for that and also register for the Ecco group (may take it's time).
  • In the file section of the Ecco Pro Forum look for this: **Ecco Pro v. 4.01** (dated March 23, 2007), klick on it.
  • You will see two links:
    • Ecco Pro from Netmanage site - Setup32.sfx.part1.exe
    • Ecco Pro from Netmanage site - Setup32.sfx.part2.rar
    • Download both files to your computer
    • Start the ...part1.exe. This will create a new file: "Ecco Pro from Netmanage site - Setup32.exe", which seems to be 100% identical to the Setup32.exe mentioned above.

• Now you are are ready for installation. Except if you intend to sync your ecco files with palm device:
  • Then you will need to run the palm software before you install ecco.
  • To install just follow the instructions for your palm device but note that there are some changes you will need to make to ensure that the sync process will work properly after ecco is installed.
  • It is recommended that you follow some of the links and discussions in the discussion groups for more detail on installing palm software.

• Install Ecco: Start the setup file (setup32.exe).
  • If you get an error "Corrupt installation detected" make sure your windows account has admin rights, If you want to use ECCO from a Windows account with only guest rights, I think, it should be ok, if you just change this account temporarily to admin rights, and after installation, you change this back to a guest account.
  • If you're running x64 OS, you'll need the 'pre-install' version. You'll find that at EccoTools.com . Find the 'Single directory' install, and copy it to program directory in the 32 bit program special directory in your x64 system. Take a look around the EccoTools board, and you'll find all sorts of helpful tools and add-ons.
• First it tells you "searching for installed components", this may take some minutes. After that at my (wsws) system the process froze. This solution (which I found via google) worked for me, but please: take care! No guarantee!: closing as much small applications in the tray, and in the Taskmanager looking for "ntvdm.exe" and close down this process (but without guarantee, and I not really know what this means for the rest of your system. do it on your own risk!).

• Next problem might be an error message "Mfc42.dll is in use...." You might just ignore this, or you may try what worked at my system: I stopped the installation process and rebooted windows in safe modus (including network things), and within this safe modus again started the installation. This worked fine.

• At the end there was one more message: ""Installation has been unable to detect a valid installation of the U.S. Robotics Pilot Desktop software. Please install the U.S. Robotics Pilot Software prior to installing the ECCO conduits." This may be safely ignored unless you are intending to sync with a Palm device and if you are and have already installed the US robotics software this message will not appear.

Now your naked ECCO should be working and you should be able to go on with the next steps explained below in section B)

Section B Using eccoext

First, download the latest version of eccoext from the Yahoo! Groups Ecco_Pro forum. (While you are there, also download the replacement default.ect file which should replace your existing default.ect file in the ecco32.exe program directory. The new file fixes a latent corruption in the structure of the original template, and fixing it up-front will keep you smiling as you use EccoPro and can save many a-tear-drop down the road.)

Unpack the .rar file using your favorite compression tool. The latest version of WinZip works well, but there are also free utilities out there, including a nice (and Free) one in the Ecco_Pro forum Files section.

Inside the .rar file is an Ecco file called eccoext.eco It contains release information and everything you *really* need to get started. For what it's worth, I'm expecting that you are already an Ecco "power user", if not, you should go spend some time getting up-close-and-personal with Ecco. Then opening and reading the provided file will make a lot more sense. (A more 'user friendly' file with the rules and explanations is available in the Ecco_Pro file section).


OK, since you are probably in too much of a hurry to wade through the .eco files, here's a beta for you...


FIRST!!! back up your data! This is "bleeding edge stuff!" Work with a test file until you feel comfortable that everything is safe. It is TOTALLY YOUR responsibility to care for your own data! If there is a bug in the code that translates all of your data into Swahili, it's your problem, not any-one elses!!! Back up now!!! (FWIW, I ran it in a Virtual PC until I was comforatable that it was predictable and that I wouldn't @#$% things up...)

• Make sure you are using Windows-2000, Windows-XP, or Windows Server 2003. Windows 95, 98, ME, etc. are not supported by the extension and Vista might work but isn't tested...

• Extract all of the files in the .rar to your Ecco install folder.
  • For me that was C:\Program Files\ECCO
  • (I just moved the eccoext.exe and eccoext.ini there... if you are reinstalling eccoExt.exe, you might want to keep your old eccoext.ini if you have made any customizations...)

• Close Ecco. (since you are reading this in a browser that should be OK... if you were reading the instructions in Ecco things would now become a little dicy...) You should even check that there isn't an "ecco32.exe" process in task manager... (or reboot if that doesn't make sense...)

• Double click on eccoext.exe, or drag and drop a shortcut to your desktop (Ctrl-Shift drag drop) and double click the shortcut.

• An Ecco icon will appear down in your "system tray" (that's where the clock is in the lower right corner of most Windoze screens...)

• Click the icon and use the menu to open Ecco.

• Enjoy!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE update these instructions if you think you can clarify them. Please don't flame me (I'll cry, but I'll get over it...) just make the fixes you think are appropriate...

Make as many bug reports as you can!! (there is a prize for the most bugs found).. Report Extension bug reports at:

http://EccoBug.com


And if you have any burning questions, post them on the ecco_pro forum at Yahoo! or if you have more "deep-geek" technical questions, join the conversation at EccoMagic... also..

You can get & GIVE help in the Extension's help forum at http://SlangHelp.com