How to run old version of CR ?

[former_member1035396]

Hello,

I'm trying to edit a few .RPT that were created quite a few years ago. Unfortunately, the developer passed away in a motorcycle accident (M. Blairon, creator of WinIris, owner of Ilicom informatique), and he hasn't left behind any sort of documentation about the program.

I've noticed there is a whole bunch of .DLL files in the system32 folder, which leads me to think that there is a version of Crystal Reports that's installed on the computer (Windows XP environment).

The PC also has working ODBC connections (SQL and BTrieve), and so I'd like to ask for some help running the crystal reports in order to edit the existing .RPT files.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

If you don't have an icon for it, you can look for crw32.exe under Program Files (32-bit OS) or Program Files (X86) (64-bit OS). If you can't find it, then Crystal is not installed and you may be seeing files from the Crystal Runtime.

-Dell

[former_member1035396 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your answer.

Indeed there is no crw32.exe file anywhere on the computer.

[ido_millet]

You need Crystal Reports Designer (from SAP) in order to change the design of the reports.

[former_member1035396]

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunately, the latest SAP designer appear to save the RPT file in a version that can't be used by the original program, most likely because the original RPT file is very old (dating back to 2001).

[DellSC]

Florin,

Do you know which version of Crystal was used to create the reports?

-Dell

[former_member1035396]

The SAP Designer says it's a version previous to CR9, but I don't know which exactly.

I've found a program called .RPT Inspector which seemingly is made for CR 8.5, with which I was able to edit an .RPT file and still have it work in the original accounting program.

However, this .RPT Inspector is quite limited in functionality.

[DellSC]

8.5 is VERY old and you may not be able to find a copy of it. It was produced by Seagate Software in the late 90's.

There were major changes to the underlying structure of the .rpt file at version 9, so you cannot edit your reports in newer versions of Crystal and have them still work in the runtime version that you're using.

-Dell

[ido_millet]

Update from the "original" program to a newer one or get an old Crystal Designer version (e.g. locate an old version for sale on eBay).