Visio 5 Pro Problem

[visiodon]

I know that Visio 5 Pro is an ancient product, but until recently, it has been working great on Windows 7. However, I now have a problem.

When I open a "Blank Drawing.VST", instead of getting a 8.5 x 11 inch page sitting on a blue background, the page extends in all directions, into minus and positive numbers beyond zero and 11 inches.

If I shrink the page, using the zoom function, the numbers just get bigger in both negative and positive directions.

I have attached a screen print to show the problem.

Since the product has worked well in the past, I assume something has changed, but I have no idea where to start looking for a solution.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions on this.

Donald

P.S. A "Print Preview" shows the 8.5 x 11 inch page on a gray (grey ?) background, as one would expect.

[cliff50]

hi

you say it had been working on windows 7 up until recently (then something changed)

I would look in the printer /page setup area... File -> Page setup etc...  not sure exactly the path syntax its been so long since i seen the visio 5 interface

cliff

[visiodon]

Cliff, thanks for your reply. But, no joy.

With the help of VirtualBox and a test install of Windows 7 Home Premium, I was able to determine that one (or several) of the more than 200 updates required for SP1, plus all associated security and system updates, causes Visio 5 Pro some indigestion. A re-install of Visio does not help.

I do not want to run a Windows system without all updates, so, ...

It looks like I finally have to update Visio. Wow, it sure lasted a long time. I really like the software.

Donald

[Paul Herber]

I've heard about this problem over on Microsoft's own forums, but I can't find anything at the moment.

[visiodon]

I have attached a couple of screen prints that perhaps point to a print issue, as suggested by Cliff. The working version of Visio on Windows XP has a printer button that is missing on Windows 7.

As it turns out, Visio seems to work with no problems on Windows 7 before all of the updates, even without that button, but it exhibits the strange "no blue background" problem after all of the updates are applied.

I also had a major problem with Office XP when I first migrated to Windows 7, along with a lot of other people. Microsoft issued a fix, but I decided to upgrade to Office 2003 instead (yes, it is an old version, but it doesn't have the ribbon crap). Of course, I had to re-install Windows 7 first.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.
Donald

[Paul Herber]

Posted just now:
http://superuser.com/questions/821586/visio-missing-paper-background

[visiodon]

Found the problem.

It is associated with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-045, and the fix associated with KB2993651. A search on either of these will show this was a fix with a lot of problems. Since it is a fix for kernel level stuff, it probably should _not_ be un-installed to fix the Visio 5 Pro problem - unless you like to live dangerously.

When it is installed - by itself - Visio 5 Pro exhibits the behavior described in my original post. When it is un-installed - again, by itself - Visio 5 Pro works normally.

What is worse is that Windows 10 apparently has the same changes applied - as one would expect - so Visio 5 Pro barfs on Windows 10 also.

Sigh, ...

Next stop is Visio 2003 for me, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Donald

P.S. VirtualBox is an amazing piece of free software and an excellent de-bugging tool. I used it to find the above problem. It only took about 4 hours.