Workstation Tuning Tips for AccountMate

AccountMate/SQL and AccountMate/Enterprise are client-server applications, thus the majority of the data processing is done inside the Microsoft SQL Server – but client configuration issues can still impact stability and throughput so here’s some helpful hints.

Just another benefit from NexLAN to maximize your AccountMate experience!

1. AccountMate relies on an un-interrupted connection to the SQL server at all times. To help maintain that connection:

• Set your PC to “High Performance” in the power options under the system’s control panel so internal hard drives (where temp files are stored) won’t shut down when idle.
• Make sure the option to put the workstation to sleep is set to “Never.”
• Check the power settings of the NIC (Network Interface Card) to ensure the device never gets shut down to conserve energy. Shutting down the card severs the link to the server, which will cause AccountMate to crash.
• Avoid running AccountMate on a PC that’s connected to the SQL Server via Wi-Fi or a VPN… AccountMate is a very network-intensive application and is more susceptible to minor losses of network connectivity that doesn’t effect simpler applications like Microsoft Word or Excel.

2. Configure Anti-Virus correctly:

• Do NOT scan network drives from the workstation! Anti-Virus for the server drives should be installed and running from the server. There is no need to have every user’s workstation scanning the same files as AccountMate attempts to access remote files, mostly at the same time numerous other users are accessing the identical files.
• Add AccountMate folders and associated file extensions to the trusted list of files.  The file extension for AccountMate screens is .SCX, the same as Visual Basic scripts and thus anti-virus tools consider them a high threat.

3. Clean out the “temporary” file folder:

• Not to be confused with the folder c:\temp, you can view the location and contents of this folder by looking for “%temp%” in Windows Explorer. AccountMate, and other programs, write numerous files in this folder as they run, but if the program crashes then these files aren’t deleted so the number of files can grow over time—into the thousands or tens of thousands—which makes the directory too large to search quickly. So the program doesn’t respond in time and you’ll receive “alias not found” messages in AccountMate.
• We recommend adding a line to the domain login script to remove all temp files upon every user login—hit us for details!

4. Keep plenty of free space available on your local hard drive:

• As your hard drive fills up, Windows becomes inefficient at both reading and writing files (remember those local temp files?) and a single file is spread across many physical areas of the drive, slowing down performance.
• Also, make sure to set up an automated hard drive defragmentation process on the workstation and all servers to keep them operating optimally.

5. Install and configure client runtime files correctly:

• All versions of AccountMate require “runtime files,” which install DLLs to the local system.  Ensure those are installed with a <right click> on Setup.Exe and then “Run as Administrator”  (not by just double clicking on the Setup.Exe file).
• Updates to Microsoft Windows may impact client configuration, so be sure to subscribe to our monthly NewsLine here so we can keep you updated with developments like the Windows 10, Build 1809 release which resulted in a “Connection #0 is busy” error, for which we provided the fix in our February 2019 NewsLine.

For more tips, see the AccountMate Technical Note, Article #1205: Tips for Optimizing AccountMate Performance.