Installing Software and then Switching User

Installing Software

When you install Amphis Customer Contacts Management Software, by default it is installed just for the current user.

To ensure that Amphis Customer works on Windows Vista and Windows 7, data and documents are stored by default in user folders, though this can be customized so that data and documents are stored elsewhere eg on a different server so that multiple PCs can share the customer details.

Also, Amphis Customer is licensed on a per user basis.

So, what happens if I install Amphis Customer as user Fred on my PC, but then logout and login as a different user Mary ?

First of all, you'll notice that the Amphis Customer icon isn't there on the desktop or on the Start Menu. Although if you go to c:\program files\amphis software\amphis customer v3.0 you'll find the Amphis Customer.exe file. (On a 64-bit PC, the Amphis Customer.exe file will be in c:\program files (x86)\amphis software\amphis customer v3.0)

But, unless you have customized the configuration to store the database, documents and templates somewhere special, if you run the Amphis Customer.exe file you will get an error saying that it cannot connect to the database. This is because it is trying to find that database in Mary's user folders but the software was installed to use Fred's user folders. The error message tells you where it is trying to find the database. Try running Amphis Customer.exe and make a note of the folder it is trying to find the database in. That is Mary's (or whichever user you are using) user folder. If you change the username to the original user the software was installed as, that will tell you where the Amphis Customer data folder lives. It's the folder than contains customer.mdb and the subfolders documents, templates, exports, reports.

So, how can I configure Amphis Customer so that 2 different users can use the software on the same PC ?

First, you'll have to choose a folder somewhere that both users can access. This is similar to if you were sharing customer data between multiple PCs. Then you would store the shared database, documents and templates in a shared folder on a server somewhere. You can do the same for multiple users using the software on the same PC or you can choose a public folder on the PC itself.

So, you could create a folder c:\amphis and move the entire Amphis Customer data folder there like this. (Note: actually a better option on Windows Vista or Windows 7 is to create a folder c:\users\public\amphis instead because that doesn't require administrator privileges to access).

Then, you need to edit the amphis customer.exe.config file to match the new location like this. To be able to do this, you'll first need to edit the permissions of the file. Right-click on the file and select Properties. Click on the Security tab and click Edit. Select the Users Group and select Full Control and Modify. Click OK twice.

Then run notepad and drag the file into notepad to edit it. Edit the file making the changes in yellow and save it.

Now when you run Amphis Customer logged in as Fred or Mary it will access the data, documents and templates etc from the c:\amphis folder. If the program crashes on start-up when run as the new user, try using a different folder that both users can access without Administrator privilege eg c:\users\public\amphis (on Windows Vista or Windows 7). Alternatively, you can try running it with Administrative permissions.

You can create a shortcut for Amphis Customer by right-clicking on the Amphis Customer.exe file and dragging it to the desktop and clicking Create Shortcut.

Note that Amphis Customer is licensed per user so although Fred may have had a license, when the software runs as Mary, it may run as a 30 day trial which will require another license.

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