windows7 service pack 1 issue for dummies part 2

[gretrader]

With all due respect...
Now, allow me to vent my frustration at these restless developments. I find extremely difficult to adapt at this pace of constant upgrading and enhancements. It is coming from all sorts of places: other platforms and various brokers and third party software etc. Perhaps it is unfair to single out NT in particular, but NT has been very active in those “enhancements” (the NT7 mini-revolution, for example) and several techie issues like the TWS version (no NT fault?) or this Windows 7 issue (again no NT fault?) . By the way I have to say that so far I have not yet heard of any similar Win 7 service pack 1 issue from other platforms or brokers services (maybe it is too early to say?) ….. I like NT . It is a very good product, but perhaps it is too sophisticated for their (our?) own good?
Plus all these "changes" are costly. Let alone the amount of time involved in understanding what is going on. One of the reasons I still use NT 6.5 is that some of the third party providers "needed to cover the costs" of extra programming development to make their stuff usable on NT7, with a $$$ price tag, for example. Now, not only I may have to spend extra money to "update" these products, but I have no idea how many times I will have to do it in the near future.
Obviously it is just me, and I may well have become old and grumpy, but I was and am quite satisfied with NT 6.5 and did not feel the need of any enhancement except reliability. Basically, I am a trader and I want to have reliable tools to help me in my trading. But I have spent almost more time trying to figure out and implement all this software "enhancements" than trading and this cannot be good.
I will re-trench into my old NT6.5 run on win XP for the time being and hope it will last for long.

Regards

[NinjaTrader_John]

We at NinjaTrader understand the pressures of trading and the frustrations that can take place so a venting email every now and again is expected and likely good therapy for the poster. Since this is a venting email I will not go through every part and will instead address it more generically.

NinjaTrader serves a large and diverse trading and technology audience. As a result we have to take steps to address many items and do not get to select the timing in many cases (such as MS OS changes, TWS changes, etc…). In some cases people can't understand why we didn't do something, why we didn’t do something sooner and others simultaneously wonder why it was needed at all. What I can tell you is NinjaTrader takes into consideration every user before making a decision to add, remove or change features as well as introduce new releases. It is our intent to limit the number of releases but unfortunately this is not always possible as we have to respond to changes in the market. In addition, even if a change is specific to one technology or feature, we must provide a new release for everyone even though only a small subset may require it.

Please be aware we understand your concerns and do our best to minimize changes that impact our users.

Sincerely,

John

[gretrader]

Thank you for your reply.
I was actually trying to give you some feedback rather than seeking good therapy. I do understand the pressure for constant improvement and new features and I have certainly benefited form it. I also appreciate the many challenges that software vendors face.
At the same time I have an interest in being able to keep using a software like NT that I like and in which I invested a vast amount of time. I thought it may be useful for you (and perhaps other people that feel like I do) to know. Of course if I am the only one, I apologise for wasting everybody's time.
As I said, I will re-trench in the old world and hope I will be able to use NT6.5 on XP for a pretty long time.
Thank you for your understanding and best regards.

[JulieC]

TOFTT and lost. Service Pack 1 vs. NT7

Meanwhile, the trading day moves along while i have no tools. . .
The team i refer to is a small group of friends/family using Microsoft, NT7, & PFG. We are not early adopters of change but try to be timely in our upgrades.
We all got the new NT7.04 going (with loss of a day of work each, at least). Then, when seemingly stable i installed Service Pack 1 over the weekend. Now NT7 won't run - locks up "Not Responding". So I UnInstalled NT7, uninstalled PFGAPI, reinstalled all, no good, read the forum notes for a couple hours. Nice way to spend the day. Still no Ninja. Should i uninstall Service Pack 1??
---------
Totally losing confidence in the combination of NT7 and Microsoft and PFG (PFG has not had proper Historical TICK Server connection for at least 6 months).
Do i throw away my new PC and go to apple? Go to new broker? go to eSignal?
What combination will be reliable??

Seeking input from other users as well as Ninja staff.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello JulieC,

Sorry to hear about the issues you experience. Can you please send me your latest log and trace files so I can investigate why NinjaTrader does not start. NinjaTrader 7.0.1000.3 and later are compatible with Windows 7 SP 1.

You can find log and trace files at the following locations.

Start Menu--> My Documents--> NinjaTrader 7--> Log--> log.20110321 for today. (log.yyyymmdd for any other date)

Start Menu--> My Documents--> NinjaTrader 7--> Trace--> trace.20110321 for today. (trace.yyyymmdd for any other date)

Please send them to support[at]ninjatrader[dot]com. Put 'Attn Jason' in the subject header and reference this forum thread.

[JulieC]

Update for Forum readers who may have the same problem (NT7 "Not Responding") :

Jason searched the log and trace files and found the problem to be in launching the Workspace. With NT7 not running, I removed the workspace from the workspace folder, and then started NT7 without problems. Then i rebuilt the workspace. Apparently the workspace was somehow corrupted.

I am now running with Windows 7 SP1 and NT7.04.
--------------------
I continue to wonder about switching to Apple Mac and would like input from others about their experience with Apple.

Thanks Jason and the Ninja Team.