I have recently been asked to solve a problem in which some CAD software for an Architectural office will not install on a new office Vista laptop.

The program in question is Graphisoft Archicad 9, their website suggests that the version of software is compatible with Vista if you uninstall the Java version as standard on Vista which was Work Environments 6.0 I think. I uninstalled this and installed the version of Java 1.42 that comes with the CAD software.

So far so good, the installation starts, and I hit the License Agreement screen, nothing is visible, just a grey blank box with Back, Next (blanked out), and Cancel. This is where it stops; I can’t get any further with the installation.

I assume there is something wrong with the display options preventing me from seeing the licence text, Vista changes the display to Vista Basic during the installation, would this have anything to do with it? Or would the old Java application be causing display issues?

Anyone who knows a fix or reason for this would be much appreciated.

Try to install newest Java (against CAD recommendations), and see what will happen.

Hi Broni, thanks for the reply.

The original Java application installed on the machine causes the CAD installation to ask me to manually install version 1.42.

Both versions have been installed at the same time and the newest version seems to take charge over the older version, as it asks to install 1.42 when it is already actually installed.

Let me get it straight. I'm little bit confused.
Originally, you had installed the latest Java version, which is 1.6.2, right?
Then, when you try to install CAD, CAD installation asks you to downgrade to version 1.4.2?

That is correct Broni!!!

For some reason Archicad 9 does not recognise the new version of Java that comes pre installed with Vista.

http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/vista/

The version i am trying to install is compatible with vista, and as far as i can tell from other CAD forums no one else has had the problem of the install stopping because they can not read the lisence agreement.

OK...how about if you install version 1.4.2 straight from Sun's web site:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

There is not much in Google save the Java issue.

Windows Vista - ArchicadWiki

You might try their forum:

ArchiCAD-Talk :: View Forum - Installation / New User

Also note if you get it installed go back and install the latest version of Java.

Running old versions is a definite security risk.