Windows 8 and 10

The latest version of PAMGuard has been tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10. We expect it to work without problems on Windows 8 and it should work under Windows XP.

Java 8

The default Java version is now Java 8.

PAMGuard Version 1.15.00 is fully compatible with Java 8. However the Microsoft Access Database systemis no longer available. An alternative database interface has been provided in the form of SQLite which has been extensively tested with all PAMGuard modules. Limited connectivity to MS Access databases using the open source UCanAccess database connection is provided in Viewer mode which will allow users to convert old Access databases to SQLite or MySQL depending on preference. See the PAMGuard help file for further details.

http://java.com/en/download/faq/java_7.xml (Follow links to the Java Archive)

Microsoft Access

PAMGuard version 1.15.00 32 bit will continue to work with Microsoft Access so long as a 32 bit version of Java 7 is installed and you have no installations of Java 8 on your computer. Note however that all Java 7 / Acces support is likely to be removed later in 2016. The PAMGuard team recommend that you use SQLite as a replacement for Microsoft Access. A database import / export tool is available within the PAMGuard viewer to convert old Access databases to alternative formats.

Java 7 (32-bit) is currently available from the link below. It is suggested you switch OFF java updates in this case. If you have you will need to uninstall Java 8 and reinstall Java 7 (32-bit) from the link above.

PAMGuard requires Microsoft Access to be installed as 32-bit version to work correctly. This can be checked by finding the Help > About section within Access. This may vary slightly from version to version.

If you are using a Microsoft Access 2013 (version 15) with PAMGuard you should install the 2010 (version 14) engine as well. It is available here


64 Bit Support

Version 1.15.00 is the first release of a 64 bit version of PAMGuard. The 64 bit version of PAMGuard allows access to more memory than the 32 bit version which is important when working at high sample rates or with large number of channels.

As with the 32 bit version a number of C language libraries are required to interface to external sound cards and other data acquisition devices. These have been extensively tested on several different computers, but may not be as stable as the 32 bit versions. Please report any problems immediately to the PAMGuard team.

It is also fine to have both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of both Java and PAMGuard installed on the same machine. The same .psf configuration files will work with both 32 and 64 bit versions.