Forums Bug Reports Windows 7 Compatibility

Windows 7 no longer includes Microsoft Agent.

Therefore, users of Windows 7 will receive an error message that "agentctl.dll used by mIRC is no longer available in this version of Windows."

mIRC functions normally otherwise without the Agent functions.

I would not consider this to be a mIRC bug, as it is due to the removal of an item from Windows, rather than something that is still included but has stopped working in mIRC.

Well, there's no other appropriate forum for the post.

I've already submitted a report to Microsoft over it, chances are they'll just say that mIRC needs to be updated.

When do you get this error? On start? When you try to use agents?

You realize Windows 7 is not yet released, and an OS cannot be judged by what's in a pre-release (not even the official beta). MS Agent might in fact be included in W7. Until it is released, there is no forum for this discussion indeed.

If not, this is still not a bug. If Microsoft removes agents from the OS it makes sense that mIRC would be unable to use them-- neither mIRC or the OS would need an update, we would just need to deal with no more agents. AFAIK though, the solution is simply to download and install MS Agent on your own, from: http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/

It's not an error. It's a program compatibility dialog that pops up after mIRC is closed. It simply states that mIRC tried (even when you never use it, personally) to access a component of Windows that's no longer available on 7. It gives you information on how to to fix it by giving you the download link.

mIRC could just simply be updated to disable the functionality of the agent when it's not detected on a Windows machine. SSL works the same way. In its current form, mIRC attempts to load the agent even when it's not enabled.

I'm sure when Windows 7 is released this issue will be addressed. Until then, the final behaviour is still unknown. It may or may not still be an issue when Windows 7 ships and mIRC is compiled as a native W7 application.

Windows 7 went Beta 1 officially to Technet and beta testers on Wednesday evening during the Ballmer keynote speech at CES.

Today, Windows 7 beta 1 will be available publically to 2.5M people that download it through the Microsoft website.

The OS is feature complete, what it has or doesn't have now is what it's going to have when Windows 7 actually gets released. So the error message received will continue to occur even on the final version.

I've brought it to the attention of Microsoft. Also to the attention of the mIRC developers so they're aware of it and can work out a solution or think of one now for when it's released.

That is all.

"Feature" complete does not mean behaviourally complete. If Windows was not going to change then it would not be considered a "beta" and it would already be in stores. I'll bet that the compatibility warning is *only* being displayed for developers so that they can work on solutions to migrate their software-- I would guess that such a message would not be in the final version and won't be an issue-- but only time will tell.

I have a different problem with the latest Mirc and Win7 beta1, when i minimize Mirc, the program dissappear, i see it on the list of processes but i can't bring the window back up.

maybe i don't understand something, that happen quite often

The program did not disappear. mIRC is set by default to minimize to the tray, however in Windows 7 tray icons are hidden by default. You can expand the hidden tray icons with that tiny little "^" button next to the right hand of the taskbar. I can only assume Microsoft is trying to encourage developers to use the taskbar icon instead of throwing icons into the tray (which current programs love to do).

The fix is to click that little "^" button then click "Customize...". That will allow you to set mIRC to "Show icons and notifications" instead of the "Hide" option. You can also set mIRC not to minimize to the taskbar, which would be the better choice for Windows7.

I really hope they don't plan on keeping this feature, it will likely confuse the hell out of thousands of users since tons of programs have this behaviour. You are not alone in your confusion, I assure you.

I'm using Windows 7 and i don't get any problems with mIRC at all.
The only thing is the return of $os which i'm sure when Windows 7 gets released khaled will update mIRC accordingly.

I just installed windows 7 and it keeps saying no ssl installed. This might have something to do with this.

mIRC does not come packaged with SSL. Visit http://mirc.com/ssl.html to get the installer for SSL and use that. I just tried it and succeeded.

I had the same problem before, emailed Khaled.. Here's a quote of what I get in reply

Also.. in my case it was a system info script that caused it. Scripts like Moo System Info that uses $com on microsoft agent will not be compatible with this. Also some DLL's might cause it.

It's important to differentiate "crash" from "compatibility message". mIRC does not crash due to the agents thing. It merely informs you that mIRC used an invalid and newly deprecated library. As agreed in this thread, it's highly likely that this is only a debugging message and won't exist in the retail version of Windows 7.

mIRC works fine for me in Windows 7 RC. I do see the compatibility message sometimes. It has also just made explorer.exe crash once (mIRC stopped responding for a while when I was restoring a minimized server window).

Can you elaborate on "sometimes"? I would find it odd if the message appeared randomly.

Microsoft Agent 2.0 is extremely buggy with Windows 7... Probably why it's not included... I wouldn't recommend installing it on windows 7 until it is updated... If you press "This program worked correctly" on the compatibility window, it will no longer pop up on exit.

Not really, no.
I installed MSAgent on Win7 RC and I had no issues, no crashes or freezes. And I have a decent uptime for both Windows & mIRC.

Well it may be fixed now I haven't checked... When I installed it back in Jan. on Win 7 beta I experienced a Magenta colored background on all of the labels and some were out of place and there was a weird behavior when I minimized mIRC it left artifacts on my desktop until I would drag a window over those areas.

BTW I just found on the page at Microsoft... Agent is no longer supported and there will be no updated release with the final version of Windows 7.

http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/default.aspx/default.aspx

The agent issue has already been reported. The lack of updates or support doesn't mean much as long as mIRC continues to function properly. Since the compatibility message can be hidden permanently, it's not going to be a serious issue but I imagine Khaled will change the way mIRC loads agents to avoid the message in a future update.

im running the RC now, and it will now have a 1 time popup dialog that asks if the program ran correctly. press yes and you will never see it again

You need to release the next version of mirc without the need of Microsoft® Agent. This is since as of 1 May 2009 Microsoft have stopped the development of Microsoft® Agent and will not use it in Windows 7.

http://www.microsoft.com/products/msagent/main.aspx

As mentioned above, this will likely be done in a future release.

I have been contacted by Microsoft regarding this issue (it appears that mIRC may have been one of the most active projects using Agent) and can confirm that this is not an mIRC issue.

mIRC does not require Microsoft Agent to work. mIRC looks for Agent on startup and if Agent is not installed, all Agent-related settings in mIRC are disabled.

The problem appears to be that Windows 7 assumes that any application that tries to load agent is a badly designed application that will crash if Agent is not present. So it reports this as a potential error, even for well designed applications that cleanly handle this situation.

This is unfortunate because it means that mIRC cannot test for Agent using standard methods under Windows 7 and will have to use a kludge to check whether Agent is installed for users who wish to continue using Agent under Windows 7. mIRC will continue to use the standard method under all other versions of Windows.

Hi

I can not run mIRC 6.35 with NNScript 4.22 without the agentctl.dll

Atm I cant use mIRC because of this Error. Any Ideas How to fix that?

One suggestion is to not use NNScript.

An other suggestion to report this error into the NNScript author , send him/her an email or find a way to contact with him/her.