Planning on Making Changes to Your Computer? Read This First!

Do you reimage your computers over the summer? Do you reimage your computers annually or even more often? Schools and banks often do this to ensure that their computers stay free of worms, viruses, and other harmful malware and remain secure.

Trainer Tip: If you are planning on reimaging your computer this summer, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible. You see, whenever you reimage your computer, you will have to re-download and install Venus 1500 V4, as well as get it re-licensed.

By doing so now you can avoid longer hold times in the fall if you need to call Daktronics support for help with any of that. Like you, we tend to get very busy during the fall when the school year kicks off.

Another bonus for reimaging now is you can upgrade your operating system at no charge if you do this before July 29. The Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends July 29, 2016.

For those of you who have decided that you are going to go ahead and reimage your computers now so you can take advantage of the free Windows 10 update while it lasts, not so fast! There are a few things we need to do first to ensure your success.

1. Save the Venus 1500 V4 backup file to a flash drive or other external device by following, Can I save/copy the Venus 1500 V4 automatic database backup externally?
2. Take a note of which Schedule Mode you are currently using in Venus 1500 V4, because you will want to make sure you are in the same Schedule Mode after you re-download Venus 1500 V4, before you load the aforementioned backup file.

Now you can go ahead and reimage your computer. Once you are finished with that and have your computer powered back on, you can update to Windows 10. Even if you didn’t upgrade to Windows 10, you’ll want to download the correct version of Venus 1500 V4 for your operating system.

If you are in fact using Windows 10, you will want to download Venus 1500 Version 4.22. If you have your original installation CD, odds are it is not compatible with Windows 10.  Please use our online download file listed below.

If you are using another operating system, please read our June 22, 2016 blog post, Which Version of Venus 1500 V4 are you using? that will direct you to the correct version.

Once you have confirmed which Version of Venus 1500 V4 is compatible with your Windows operating system, you can begin the download and backup process by following the below steps.

1. Download and install Venus 1500 by following, How do I update or download Venus 1500 V4 software?.
2. Load the Venus 1500 V4 backup file onto your computer, starting with step 7 from How do I transfer my Venus 1500 V4 database?,
3. Download the Venus 1500 V4 Media Kit by following, How do I download the Venus 1500 V4 Media Kit?.
4. Register (Re-License) Venus 1500 V4 by following, How do I register or license Venus 1500 V4 software?.
5. Restart your computer and take a break my friend, because you are finished, and you earned it!

Important: If you are using Venus 1500 V4 for a sporting application, then DO NOT update to Windows 10.  Please read the March 28, 2016, Daktronics Control Panel blog, Windows 10 Compatibility for Live Event and Spectacular Customers for more information.

For those of you who plan on updating to Windows 10, but are not going to reimage your computer(s), you will just need to make sure that you upgrade to the latest version of Venus 1500 V4 as well. You can do this by reading and following the steps from, Windows 10 Compatibility Is Here.

If you have any questions about Windows 10 in relation in the Venus 1500 V4 software, or if you have recently upgraded to Windows 10 and are experiencing issues with Venus 1500 V4, then please feel free to contact us via the Contact-A-Trainer request form.

If you can’t find your answer there, you can request an email response or a callback from one of our professional trainers in the morning or afternoon if you have a busy schedule to work around.

We hope you found this week’s blog helpful! If so, then be sure to subscribe by clicking on the orange “Receive Email Updates” button on the right side of your screen so you never miss another post. Thanks for reading!