The bottom line is that you can install and run pbsw24 under Microsoft Vista without any problems. One early user of Vista had told me that PBS was crashing, but that was probably because Vista's access settings had not been set to permit PBSW2 to run on it. Subsequent users of Vista had no difficulty.
The one problem that Vista users do have is with the Help file. Microsoft decided to use a different format, which now requires me to create the help file in two versions, with extensions HLP (the old version) and CHM (the new one). I decided to distribute both versions, which are named pbsw24.hlp and pbsw24.chm, and which you can find in your pbsw24 folder along with the exe. PBSW24 should automatically use the chm file with Vista. If not, you can insert a command line parameter of CHM to force it. (More below on how to insert a command line parameter.) You also can force use of the HLP version, but that is more difficult, as described below.
How to Insert a Command Line Parameter: Look on the desktop (or in the Start button menu) for the yellow icon you use to start pbsw24. Click with the right mouse button, and a context menu pops up; select properties. You will see a dialog box and halfway down, there will be an editable field named TARGET, which should contain something like "c:\pbsw24\pbsw24.exe". Change that to read "c:\pbsw24\pbsw24.exe HLP" and then click Ok.
How to Force Windows to Use HLP files:
Windows recognizes help files by their hlp or chm extensions, and pops them up with a small program in the Windows folder. HLP files are processed by a program names WinHlp32.exe. However, in Vista, that program is not a help processor; all it does is show you a dialog that says HLP doesn't work. In order to use HLP files on your Vista machine, you have to get a WinHlp32.exe program from an XP machine or from the internet, and substitute that for the file currently in the Windows folder.
Vista makes it hard to do that substitution. First, you must use Windows Explorer to find the current WinHlp32.exe in the Windows folder. Right click WinHlp32.exe and select Properties from the context menu. This dialog box has three tabs; select Security and give yourself full permission to edit or change the file; then rename it as WinHlp32-Stub.exe. Once you have done that, you can copy the substitute Win32HLP.exe file to the Windows folder.
Windows 7 may or may not use that same process, but the following (from a Windows tech blog at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/c7fac561-3b97-4580-9de2-62862e05f9c5 ) has been found to work fine to enable the use of HLP files in Win7.
Windows Help Program (WinHlp32) installer for Windows 7 x64 and Windows 7 x86 by Komeil Bahmanpour:
Blog entry
Direct download link
WinHlp32 installer for Vista/2008/7
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send email to info@blumenthalsoftware.com