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FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) How long has KIDware been in business? KIDware started in 1982 (yes, 25 years ago!) in Idaho Falls, Idaho, developing software for the Texas Instruments 99/4A. Our first commercial product was a Hangman game. Since that time, we have marketed educational software for the Apple II, the Commodore 64, the Apple Macintosh, and the IBM-PC. With each new platform, we have maintained our policy of providing low-cost, high-quality software for both the home and school user. We believe this policy has allowed us to remain in business while hundreds of other software developers have gone by the wayside. Give us a try. We know you'll be happy with our software and our service. I just received my purchased product on CD - how come it's a minimally-labeled CD-R (or burned CD) and not a mass-produced stamped CD? And, why don't I get a big glossy manual? We're asked these questions quite often (that's why this page is called frequently asked questions!). The majority of our product sales are via direct downloads. As a courtesy, we offer CD copies to customers who can't or don't want to download products - these CD's are 'burned' on our computers. There is no discernible difference between a stamped CD and a burned CD. They are both shiny things with software on them. Once you use the CD to install your product, it is put in a drawer and hardly ever seen again. We could stamp our CD's in mass quantities, but the cost would be higher to you. We prefer to burn individual CD's for each order - yes, it takes time, but there are big advantages to you. You get a lower cost product. And, you always receive the most up-to-date version of the purchased product. You may receive a product that was updated the very day it was mailed to you. This can't be done with stamped CD's - with such products, you may receive a very old version of software. Regarding documentation, we could provide printed manuals but, again, it would add to product cost. We take a different approach. Each software product has on-line help that is accessible by clicking any button that says 'Help' or by pressing the <F1> key. And, each product also has a printable text file (look for a file with a .txt extension) with complete running instructions. We design our applications so they should be easy to run without any detailed instructions. What is trial, or shareware, software? Shareware is a marketing concept that allows you to try a product (for a limited time) before you actually purchase it. If you try a product and like it, you can purchase it on-line or through mail, phone, FAX or E-mail order. If you don't like the product, simply remove it from your machine and stop using it. If you continue to use a trial version of any of our products for over 30 days, you should pay for it. See the ordering information for various ways to buy a KIDware product. There are several reasons for doing this. First, it's the right thing to do - you are paying for a product you are using. Second, you will obtain the latest version of the software which includes enhancements not available in the shareware version. Third, your fee allows us to stay in business, developing new programs for you and your kids. How do I download one of your trial products? Click on the desired download link. A window like this will appear:
Click Save and save the file (it has a .zip extension) in a folder of your choice. What is a ZIP file? How do I unzip such a file? When you download a file from our site, it is a zip file (with a .zip extension). This file contains compressed versions of all the files
needed to install a program package on your computer. To unzip this file, you need an
unzip utility. Such utilities are usually on your computer. If not, go to one
of the many shareware sites (ZDNet.Com, Download.Com) on the internet and download
an unzip utility. We highly recommend WinZip - it is low-cost and
easy-to-use. You can download a free trial version at:
http://www.winzip.com I've downloaded a ZIP file and 'unzipped' it. Now, what do I do? What you do depends on whether you downloaded an application package or a programming tutorial. First, make sure to unzip the downloaded zip file to a temporary folder or directory. If you downloaded and unzipped one of our application packages, each package has a program called SETUP.EXE that will take you through the steps of the installation process. To run this program:
A simpler alternative to the above steps is to just click the Install button (if there is one) in your unzip program once the file is unzipped. Once installed, to run the program click Start on your taskbar. Choose Programs from the Start menu. Then, choose the installed program name from the menu. The program will begin. If you downloaded and unzipped one of our Visual Basic, Visual C# , Visual J# or Java programming tutorials, you simply open the document (doc) files using Microsoft Word or Word Viewer. Also included in the unzipped file are the various programming examples you can open in your particular programming environment. When I try to install a program on my Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista computer, I get a message that I have negative disk space available. What should I do? It seems our SETUP program has trouble determining disk space on machines with Windows 2000, XP or Vista. If this happens, just go ahead and install the program, ignoring the error message. While running the installation program, I receive an error message that says "Access Violation Occurred" while writing a file. I have three options - Abort, Retry, Ignore. What do I do? On some machines, if a file already exists and is about to be overwritten, this message will appear. Simply, choose the Ignore option each time the message appears and things should be fine. After I run the SETUP program and try to run the installed program, I get a message that says the executable file (.EXE file) can't be found. What's up? The described problem occurs when you install the application programs in the same directory or folder the SETUP program is in. Make sure you install programs in a different directory or folder than the one where SETUP is located. My computer uses Windows XP or Vista - the program runs for a while then stops with an error report? What's up? There is a problem playing sounds with Windows XP or Vista, which has been corrected. If your computer exhibits this behavior, you most likely have an older version of the software. Send us an e-mail telling us what program you are running and we can send you an update that will work under Windows XP or Vista. I own a Mac. Is there anyway I can run your children's software on my computer? Many users have reported success using Microsoft's Virtual PC product. It allows you to emulate the operation of a Windows-based PC on your Mac. The Virtual PC website is: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc Why are your computer programming tutorials saved in Microsoft Word format? Why not use Adobe PDF files? We use Word format for our tutorials to allow the user to cut and paste code from the documents. This cannot be done using PDF files. I cannot load the projects or workspace from a Java tutorial using JCreator. What's up? Make sure you have the latest version of JCreator (Version 3.0 or later) on your computer. If you are using Version 2.5 or earlier, the workspaces or projects will not load. You can, however, rebuild each workspace and project, by including the appropriate Java code files. |
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