I have a customer who had version 5.0.11 on his machine and installed 6. All worked fine until he loaded an application that tried to launch version 6, then he couldn’t run version 5. We have un-installed 5 and 6 and re-installed 5 but we still can’t get it to run. When you click on the icon, it flashes up the Notes logo then goes no further. Any ideas?
I did a complete un-install and rebooted the machine in between
Subject: Same here (WAS: my experience has been…)
Although you can launch R5 after ND6 if all you’re doing is executing nlnotes.exe rather than notes.exe.
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Subject: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
Hi!
Maybe the uninstaller “forgot” to remove some keys from the registry.
Check it out using “regedit” on the command line. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software and look for a key named Lotus (maybe there are some subkeys under it). Delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Lotus, reboot the machine and try again.
Also have a look at “old” Lotus-directories residing on the harddisk like C:\Lotus\Notes or C:\Program files\Lotus\Notes - kill them too!
Hope it works - greetings from Vienna!
Philipp
Subject: RE: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
I already did that, I deleted everything under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Lotus\Notes but he has 123, Sametime and SmartSuite installed as well so I couldn’t delete Lotus. Again, on the hard disk, I deleted the folder c:\lotus\notes and c:\program files\notes but not c:\program files\lotus. I also did a search in regedit on “notes” to make sure there were no other keys to be deleted.
Subject: RE: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
OK, you also deleted the file associations under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for .ns4, .nsf, .nsh, .ntf and so on? Maybe that’s the reason…
Try to describe what’s EXACTLY the problem:
you “cleaned” the machine
you rebooted
you made a new install of Notes 5.0.11
you tried to start Notes
…and what happens now?
(Error message, behaviour of the machine)
couldn’t find desktop.dsk?
couldn’t find names.nsf?
maybe an old notes.ini under C:\Windows???
(search for notes.ini on the whole hard disk)
Subject: RE: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
Actually the file associations were the only thing I didn’t delete. this is what I did do
Uninstalled version 6, rebooted machine
Uninstalled version 5, rebooted machine
started regedit and deleted all references to Lotus Notes (apart from the file associations)
Rebooted machine
Reinstalled version 5.0.11 (from a bought cd)
tried to start Notes, the Notes logo flashes up for about 3 seconds then goes away, nothing else happens, no error messages nothing.
Checked the c:\lotus\notes\data directory, all the files required are there, desktop.dsk, names.nsf etc etc.
I have searched the hard disk, the only notes.ini file is in c:\lotus\notes.
After I try to launch Notes, the icons in the data directory change to version 6 icons so it must still think its version 6 installed somewhere along the line but I can’t figure it out at all.
After your last post, I made a note of all the keys in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus and deleted them as you suggested, and tried uninstalling Notes, rebooting and re-installing but it did the same thing so I have no put those keys back.
Subject: RE: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
I tried to reproduce your problem on my test-pc… and i accomplished!
Let’s have a look at notes.ini. There is a parameter called ‘Directory’ (at the top of the file) - pointing to the Data-Directory. I set this to C:\whatever, saved, tried to start Notes and got the same result like you (logo for 3 seconds and back to the desktop).
Conclusion: Notes can’t find the Data-Directory and refused to work - sounds logical to me. Check this parameter!
In addition check the PATH-variable on this machine… maybe there is another notes.ini on a connected network-share who’s set in PATH.
Subject: RE: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
No that’s not the case, the directory parameter points to C:\Lotus\Notes\Data which is where the data directory is. The path has c:\lotus\notes;c:\lotus\notes\data in it and the machine is currently not on a network. The only other things in the path are c:\windows;c:\windows\command;
I copied all the customers notes files to a directory called olddata and did a complete new installation so the only lines in the notes.ini are:
Directory=C:\Lotus\Notes\Data
KitType=1
InstallType=2
Subject: RE: Version 5 and Version 6 on same machine
Hi All,
had problems with 5 & 6 interoperability as well, btw it wasn’t much different between 4 and 5 neither.
The easiest way I have found of setting everything up is to always install the newest client first when doing a fresh install. As that way you will never be prompted to upgrade the existing Notes and nothing seems to be overwritten by accident, unless of course you specify the same directory path…
Hope it helps,
Dave
Sunny in Brussels 
Subject: my experience has been…
You have to launch R5 first and then ND6. It won’t work the other way around. I am not sure if anyone else has experienced this.
Howard