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Technical Notes

Installing and Running Reflection 2011 or 2008 on Windows XP
Technical Note 2370
Last Reviewed 20-Jul-2010
Applies To
Reflection Standard Suite 2011
Reflection for IBM 2011
Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS 2011
Reflection Standard Suite 2008
Reflection for IBM 2008
Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS 2008
Summary

This technical note provides information about installing and running Reflection 2011 or 2008 products on Windows XP.

Support for Windows XP

Reflection 2011 and 2008 are certified and optimized for Windows 7. These Reflection products also support Windows XP (and Windows Server 2003).

For the best product performance and user experience, see Technical Note 1939 to help determine which product family is appropriate for your particular workstation and host environments.

Installation Time

When you run the Reflection installer (setup.exe), the wizard determines whether certain required system components are present, and will automatically install them if necessary. This prerequisite software is distributed with Reflection:

  • Microsoft .NET Framework Runtime (version 3.0 Service Pack 1 for Reflection 2011 or 2008, or version 3.0 for Reflection 2007)
  • Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) version 3.1

Windows Vista already includes .NET 3.0 and a later MSI version. On Windows XP, installation time may be longer if the prerequisite system software needs to be installed.

To reduce installation time, temporarily disable anti-virus software real-time scanning features.

Startup Time

Reflection 2011 and 2008 are built with Microsoft .NET technology. When launching any .NET application, a number of factors can affect startup time, such as hardware capabilities (as described in Technical Note 2324).

Reflection 2011 and 2008 Startup Performance

To reduce startup time of the Reflection Workspace frame, Reflection 2011 R1 and Reflection 2008 R1 Service Pack 1 (SP1) include performance enhancements that optimize assembly loading. Depending on the environment and application usage, cold startup time for the Workspace may be reduced up to 50%.

The original Reflection 2008 R1 release also includes the pre-loader and NGEN improvements described in the next section.

Reflection 2007 Startup Performance

To reduce the startup time of Reflection for IBM 2007 on Windows XP systems, the following additional approaches are available. Note: Reflection 2011 and 2008 already include the following features.

Pre-Loader

To improve Reflection 2007 cold start time on Windows XP, pre-loader functionality is included in Service Pack 3. After the service pack is applied, a portion of Reflection for IBM 2007 (the Workspace) goes through the JIT compiling process at boot time. Depending on the environment, application cold startup time may be reduced up to 35-50%.

Native Image Generator (NGEN)

The Microsoft .NET Native Image Generator utility (Ngen.exe) pre-compiles the application at install time, slightly improving the warm and cold start times.

A hotfix can be applied as an MSP patch to an Administrative Installation of Reflection 2007 prior to application deployment. For more information on applying a patch to an Administrative Installation, see Technical Note 2255.

Pre-Loader and NGEN

The pre-loader and NGEN fixes can be combined. In some Windows XP system configurations, this may provide the best cold and warm startup performance. Reflection 2011 and 2008 already include both startup performance improvements.

Related Technical Notes
1939 Which Windows-Based Emulation Product Should I Use?
2255 How to Apply a Service Pack/Patch to Reflection 2011 or 2008 Products
2324 Startup Performance of Reflection 2008 or 2007
2434 Reflection 2008 R1 Service Pack 2: Release Notes, Fixes and Features
9985 Technical Notes for Reflection 2008

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