I'm getting a permission denied error when saving my data under Windows Vista?

Starting with Windows Vista, normal applications can no longer write files inside the "C:\Program Files" folder.  For this reason, you should store your investment (*.dat) and portfolio (*.mm4) files outside of the Program Files folder.

If your data files are stored inside the Program Files folder you will get a permission denied error when trying to save using Fund Manager version 8.5 or later.  To fix this, move your data files outside of the C:\Program Files folder.  A good location is somewhere like "My Documents\Fund Manager".

Advanced:

Alternative Solutions:

The recommended solution to this permission denied problem is to move your data files outside of the "Program Files" folder as described above.  There are 2 other possible solutions:

1. Run Fund Manager as an administrator.  When starting Fund Manager, right mouse click on the shortcut, and choose "Run as administrator".
2. Turn off User Account Control.  Go to "Control Panel / User Accounts" and select "Turn User Account Control on or off" to turn it off.

These 2 methods will allow you to write into the Program Files area.

Why could I save into Program Files with earlier versions of Fund Manager?

Windows Vista supports running older programs, that expected to be able to write into the Program Files folder.  It does this using a technique called "virtualization".  The result is that when these older programs write into the Program Files area, Vista automatically re-directs these files into a different folder, outside of Program Files.  This different folder is located at:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files

So, when writing your data files into the Program Files area, they were really being re-directed to this other directory.  As of Fund Manager 8.5, Vista knows that Fund Manager is Vista compatible, and will not virtualize, but instead will return a permission denied error when attempting to write into the Program Files area.