Things to know before installing a new GP client

Every once in a while I have to install a GP client in a new workstation.  This is the kind of customer who has a very simple setup and I don’t hear from for a while. That means I don’t know much about their GP environment, including their version, the products that are being used and if they have any customized forms or reports. In such a situation, this is what I usually do.

Before starting the new client install, I will log onto another workstation where GP is installed and working properly with all the modules and reports. Once logged on, here are the things I will make note of.

GP Version. GP makes it very easy to find out the version information. Just launch GP and on the very first screen where we put in our username and password, we can see the version of GP. Once I find out the version number, I know if I need to apply any service packs. The next step here is to locate the service pack executable somewhere on a network drive or log onto PartnerSource to download the service pack.

Other GP Products. To find out the other GP modules that have been installed, I go to Control Panel >> Add Remove Programs (or Programs and Features) and click on Microsoft Dynamics GP (9.0 or 10.0 or 2010) and then click on the Change button.

On the window that opens, I would click on Add/Remove Features.

On the next window, I would scroll through the window on the left and make note of every product that DOES NOT have a red X mark against it. These are the GP products that have been installed on this workstation.

Modified Reports & Forms.  To see if there are any modified forms or dictionaries, I would log into GP and go to Tools >> Customize >> Customization Maintenance.

If I see any forms or reports listed, I make a note of all the products (last column) and whether reports or forms have been modified (2^nd column).  I will then need to know the location of the reports and forms dictionaries. To find out this location, I would go to Tools >> Setup >> System >> Edit Launch File. Once here I make a note of the location of the necessary dictionaries from each product I made note of on the Customization Maintenance window.

Obviously, we have not addressed any 3^rd party products or customizations. You can start to get an idea about them by looking into the Dynamics.SET file. But that is beyond the scope of this post J.

You can follow any installation documentation to do the GP client install but you will notice that you now have enough information to answer any questions you will have to complete the installation instructions.

Once you have completed the install and logged into GP, you should go back to the Edit Launch File window (last screenshot) and set the paths same as the workstation that you took notes from.