Installing Delphi7 on Win7

This rather old version Delphi, had to be installed on Win7, due to the huge number of older projects written with Delphi7.

the required steps

My original installation media, the D7 CD somehow refused to install. In the subsequent process, the CD got somehow misplaced. Since Borland, meanwhile Embarcadero, keeps the customer records, I was able to download the ISO file of the D7 product CD. The Embarcadero site is not easy to navigate. Currently the old software is found under Products - upgrade & download center, in the footer of the main page. There it says

EDN. If you have previously registered one of our products using an Embarcadero 
Developer Network (EDN) login and password, you can now download the latest 
product versions by logging into your (EDN) account and accessing the 
My Registered User Downloads page.

So login to EDN, go to downloads, go to registered user downloads. Then download the Delphi 7 ISO. Using Winrar or so, the content can extracted to a directory.

steps to install Delphi7

take ownership of the directory - this gives the administrator the right to do whatever with the directory and its content. This step may be omitable. I did it at the first obstuction.
rightclick on the install.exe and select "Troubleshoot compatibility". There select "troubleshoot program". Select "The program worked in earlier versions of windows.." and "The program requires additional permissions". Then after the process, the installer should be able to run.
run the install.exe as administrator. I selected c:\Program files (x86)\Borland\Delphi7 as installation directory.

making Delphi7 ready to run

Of course Delphi7 won't run now. It is not compatible. The following steps are required.

rightclick on the /bin/delphi32.exe and select "Troubleshoot compatibility". There select "troubleshoot program". Select "The program worked in earlier versions of windows.." and "The program requires additional permissions". Then after the process, the delphi7 should be able to run.
if delphi doesn't display correctly, go back to the compatibility troubleshooter and select in addition "the program doesn't display properly".

So, Delphi7 runs now. I selected a different partition, d:\mydata\Delphi7, for my user data, as Win7 doesn't like the programm directory c:\Program files (x86)\Borland\Delphi7 being writeable.

adding the help

The Delphi7 help still by far surpasses the help of the more modern versions of Delphi. Pressing F1 on a component or something brings up a microsoft help form which is empty. But Help-customize tells the files are there. Well, yes, Microsoft changed the help system with version Vista. You need the help viewer for the old style helps. This viewer is found on the microsoft page as WinHlp32.exe for the various further versions of windows. Actually I was required to ask google for "windows help viewer windows 7" to point me to "I cannot open Help that was created in the Windows Help format (WinHlp32.exe)". Never mind. After the "Genuine Microsoft software"test I was allowed to download "Windows6.1-KB917607-x64.msu". a simple doubleclick calls the windows updater, which installs this viewer.
Now, the Delphi7 help is operational.

Feedback is welcome

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last updated 9.jan.13 or perhaps later

copyright Rene Tschaggelar (2013)