To all:
This post was originally written as a "sticky" post for MW 5.3 (and MW Free 5.1) under Vista. With the introduction of MWP 6.0 I assumed that most of the problems with Vista had been put to bed and the post was "unstuck" and allowed to pass into obscurity.
After some time it became apparent that most of the problems that were due to Vista's security and user's configuration of the OS (Vista's disallowing of MWP to make/maintain data files, etc.) were still present using MWP 6.0 under Vista. I've therefore revived the post and made it a "sticky" again: I expect that it will be needed as a reference/guide for some time until either Micro$oft makes Vista's features more intuitive and user-friendly or people just learn to deal with it!
With Vista's recent introduction, you'd hope that Microsoft would assure that all existing applications could run seamlessly on their new product. This doesn't seem to be the case.
Vista has a lot more "security" in it than older versions of windows. As such, it isn't very friendly to applications that aren't written specifically for it's security features. Sadly, this added security is apparently not well explained and too confusing for the typical computer user who gets saddled with Vista to sort out when installing existing programs.
Depending upon how you've set up Vista, MW can work without a hitch or can suffer specific failures. Firetust's web site says MW Pro 5.3 or later will run under Vista. However, there can be some problems after installing:
1) Apparently older help files aren't compatible with Vista, as Winhelp32 is no longer part of Vista . This is still a problem. Read here:  /p905709-Mailwasher_Pro_3_1_and_Vista.html#905709
2) Where Vista wants to install MW's data files or the permissions Vista allows to read/write those files sometimes isn't compatible. The result is that you'll either get an error on closing MW saying the data file(s) (like blacklist.txt or filters.txt) couldn't be created or find that MW 'forgets' additions to the friends list, blacklist, etc. The fix is found below in the re-posted message from a Firetrust support email:
"Current problems for some users running MailWasherPro 5.3 on Vista -
Microsoft emailed us late last year advising they would be supplying a "shim", a "shim" is a workaround that allows our program to run seamlessly for the user, in this case the "shim" was designed to give MailWasher Pro write access to the Application Data directory. It should be noted that the "shim" is only to be applied to MailWasher Pro 5.3
So in theory this "shim" is applied automatically, no action required on our part of yourself, and it would allow MailWasher to correctly save to the Application Data folder, however this does not seem to be case, and other users are receiving errors that they cannot save their filters or blacklist files. Which indicates the "shim" has not been applied.....even though it works fine on our Vista machine in the office. So we've emailed MS, and posted in their forums as well to try to get this sorted as soon as.
If we can't then it may mean creating a workaround and releasing a MailWasherPro version that works with Vista
The other interim solution, which you can do immediately, is to apply the change that tells MailWasher to use another folder instead of Application Data. Answer as below....
Go to "C:\Users\<login_name>\AppData\Local\" and create a folder called "MailWasher Pro" >> then right click this new folder, select Create Shortcut >> then move this shortcut into your "C:\Program Files\Firetrust\MailWasher Pro\" folder and rename it to "Application Data"
MailWasher will now use "C:\Users\<login_name>\AppData\Local\MailWasher Pro\" to store the data files, and you will not receive problems." Note that as an alternative to 2), above, some users have reported that simply changing the security/permissions on the "roaming" folder has allowed them to use MW with no other changes.
Other threads about Vista and MW that might be helpful:
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