Why it isn't just about the browser

There is a lot of confusion about terms such as "cloud-based" and "web-based" software.

Most users probably are thinking of a web browser when they think of these terms.   Even the term "tech" in the software industry tends to be linked to some product or service that involves a web browser.  Misguided approaches that focus on teaching children how to be "coders" often translates really to "how to format and upload a web page" with a few added scripts sprinkled in for good measure, which is really more "formatting" then programming, and in any event tends to focus on processes and tools that "live" solely within the constraints of a web browser. 

(Children should be taught how to read books, how to think and interact with others, how to do things with their hands, how to play a musical instrument, how to hold a pencil and write with it, how to spell, how to use mathematical principles in their daily lives, how to appreciate and care for the natural world, etc. long before any consideration towards using a computer much less than "coding" which should not be thought of as anything ultimately other than a tool to enhance other endeavors and knowledge, and not as an end in and of itself.)

While the definitions depend on who you ask, a web-based application is not necessarily accessed via a web browser (although in most cases, perhaps).

And cloud-based applications aren't necessarily accessed through a web browser either. In fact, very often they are not.

And "clouds" might be privately hosted (which further blurs the distinction of what has been commonly referred to as a locally run application or in more recent jargon, "on premises" application). A public cloud is hosted by a third party such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services but there are companies now that will host your private cloud which blurs the distinction even more.

The browser remains a relatively poor substitute for programmatic control and validation; and integrated development environments (IDE's) are still light years behind what has been available for the desktop PC now for decades.

Most companies are using at least some Internet or web services and in this respect we have been living in a hybrid world for some time as personal computers morphed into performing a number of chores for which they were not originally designed (they were not designed at first even to network to each other locally, much less to far off destinations).  They were after all "personal" computers. Whether the programs reside on a computer that you own and maintain or whether it is on a computer that someone else owns and maintains is increasingly becoming a meaningless distinction.  Either system could involve accessing programs "from the cloud." A more critical distinction might be whether an application requires a web browser to access it, and also relating to the transportability of that system (can you only access it from the provider's computers, or do you have the ability to run it from a backup copy or a copy placed somewhere else)?

Increasingly users are opting for software that they don't even have the ability to run anywhere but from the provider's publicly hosted computers. In some sense this is like always being forced to drive someone else's custom built car as your sole source of transportation (and each time having to ask to borrow the keys to use it).  There can be advantages in that approach, but also disadvantages.

For many companies concerned with security and the flexibility, the hybrid approach to both local and sometimes occasional access to external resources using a web browser will remain a preferred way of doing business.

Some key considerations include:

(a) Within 18 months, will you have paid more in monthly fees than you could have paid to have access to your own licensed copy of the software, regardless of whether you are continuing to pay a monthly fee or not?

(b) Will all of these monthly fees that you start to pay for anything and everything in fact start to pile up and break the bank despite the allure of nothing up front?

(c) Do you really have incredibly good and constant raw Internet access from all your PC's and from all locations?

(d) If you temporarily do not have Internet access or if the provider who is hosting your application has a problem with a server that goes down, what then?

(e) Even if you have a copy of your data, how would you access that data if the provider goes out of business, or denies access due to non-payment (or due to an accounting error on their part)?

(f) If a software company is advertising their wares as being completely browser-based, are they really? Many things simply can't be accomplished by a web browser and will require the installation of local components. The statement many companies make that their software is "all web-based" (with again the problem of what 'web-based' means) and that no locally installed software is required is often really not true.

(g) Browser incompatibilities are ongoing, rampant problems. Maintaining cross-browser compatibility is a nightmare. You may be forced to use a particular browser and a browser update could at any time "break" the system. Using a web browser doesn't increase reliability/stability nor shield one from problems of future updates.

(h) The devastating malware and other threats that are out there are not somehow removed by using cloud-based systems - in fact in some ways they are even greater. Many of our customers are justified in not putting their accounting systems "on-line" i.e. available from outside of their wired, local network system. In terms of threats from the outside world, there is no better security (other than not turning your computer on at all!) than making them unavailable from outside, "Internet" access. And yes that may be far too dire of solution for many depending on the business and its needs, but it is a decision based on the reality of today's world.  It is through browsers or browser-based systems, that users often are at the greatest security risk (in addition to locally installed software that brings in e-mail with potentially lethal attachments, all via Internet access).

A web browser is great for being able to interactively and quickly view documents and images from more or less anywhere (although this can also be accomplished without a web browser); it is less than ideal for heavy data input nor validating that input nor for complicated reporting and related data analysis nor necessarily handling the needs of complex, integrated multi-user systems.

Browser-based capabilities continue to greatly improve and most of us will continue to use those resources to access information and communicate with others. But they are in no way the "one" piece of software that is required.  They are not effective "runtime environments" that were designed to be universal in scope, and they lack the power and capabilities of true programming languages that were designed to run programs at a machine language level on today's computers as well as all connected devices.  It was no one's intention to some day do everything from a web browser. To do that will require something much better than what we have today, and will involve some thinking outside of  the browser box.

Meanwhile, we believe that hybrid systems (locally run programs with the capability to access certain Internet services as required) will continue to prove to be very attractive for many businesses, both small and large, or in combination with browser-based systems that are designed to interface with desktop, i.e. local, systems.

Impact of 2018 federal income tax withholding tables: what will they mean for your employees?

Starting by February 15, U.S. businesses should be implementing the new federal income tax withholding tables while continuing to use the 2017 tables for January (see our January 11, 2018 blog post for more information).

Accordingly, a payroll update for 2018 for Advanced Accounting users is now available. Our 2018 update is now available that includes implementation of the new federal tax tables discussed below plus changes for about 10 states along with the new federal supplemental wage rate, some 941 related changes, and a new payroll tax calculator option.  

More information:  Advanced Accounting year end and latest payroll information

Because several of our accounting software end users attempted to initially implement the tables prior to our releasing an update for them (Advanced Accounting has the ability to enter federal and state tax table changes directly, although typically there may be other computational changes that require an update for certain states), prior to releasing our 2018 payroll tax update, we decided that because of reported difficulties two users had plus in light of all of the publicity surrounding the new rate changes, it would be prudent to analyze what the changes actually can be expected to mean, and to also determine the relative impacts of martial status and dependents with respect to a range of wage amounts.

Our analysis (embedded below; an external link to the document is contained below the embed) focused on monthly wage amounts simply because most household budgets are month oriented.  The monthly wages assume that they are net taxable wages.  We then made a comparison of what the monthly withholding amounts were for the same wage and marital status for a range of monthly wages with withholding allowances ranging from zero to four.   We then computed the monthly increase and the percent reduction in comparing 2018 to 2017.   And we then also took an average increase and percent reduction for wages in the $2000/mo. to $7000/mo. range for each marital status and exemption combination.   All withholding calculations were made by Advanced Accounting's payroll tax calculator.

Results:  employees will see a fairly significant reduction in their federal income tax withholding once the new tables are implemented.   For employees in the $2K to $7K range, the reduction will be typically in the roughly 18% range in most cases.

While the percentage reductions are fairly consistent across most wage limits and regardless of marital status, Single status results in higher monthly savings (on average in the $35 to $40 month range for the $2K to $7K ranges) because of the higher withholding amounts assessed to employees with that status.

We noticed some odd/inconsistent results in comparing Single status withholding differences in higher monthly income ranges (i.e. with nominal differences compared to all others analyzed).

2017 to 2018 FIT comparison document link 

Commentary:  the new tables use the same sort of withholding allowance logic as in the past.  Yet personal exemptions have been eliminated for year end individual federal income tax filings.  More changes may be coming as the year proceeds and we would advise all employees to review their tax withholding status by the end of the third quarter of this year to see how close the new withholding will be approximating their tax liability.  Many states have made changes and more will likely do so.   Some states that have not made changes are realizing that the change while not impacting current withholding tax logic will in fact change individual tax liability for year end filings, causing more taxes to be payable than last year (Utah is one example) or there may be some where the reverse could be true.

2018 early release notice 1036

An early release notice was published by the IRS on January 9, 2018 providing an initial look at the upcoming federal income tax withholding rate changes.

Notice 1036: Early Release Copies of the 2018 Percentage Method Tables for Income Tax Withholding

These are not the official tax tables.  Publication 15/Circular E has not yet been released.

In a related updated 2018 statement, the IRS has indicated that:

Employers should begin using the 2018 withholding tables as soon as possible, but not later than Feb. 15, 2018. They should continue to use the 2017 withholding tables until implementing the 2018 withholding tables.

Some initial changes besides those outlined in a prior recent blog post include:

The annualized withholding allowance is now $4,150 (it was $4,050). This corresponds to the Advanced Accounting US0 tax code that users will need to update in due course.

The supplemental wage withholding is now 22% (was 25%). This is the first year that rate has changed in quite some time. This change is not end user configurable but will be available in our 2018 payroll updates that will be released later this month as the dust continues to settle.

Comments:

A curious aspect of these tables relate to withholding allowances.  Since personal exemptions have been eliminated, why then are there still withholding allowances?

While we have not yet seen a specific answer to this question, because the IRS wanted to allow employers to continue to use existing W-4 forms and due to the last minute nature of the new law, the rate calculations are presumably attempting to take the elimination of personal exemptions somehow into account.  It is hard to see however how well that will work by year's end, at least for some employees.

Other miscellany:

A new form W-4 will ultimately be forthcoming but existing W-4 forms can continue to be used.

Yesterday we made some changes to the 941 worksheet option to synchronize it with the numbered lines on the IRS 941 form including the currently released draft form for 2018.  That update will be included in the payroll updates to be released later this month for Advanced Accounting.

Preliminary 2018 payroll tax changes and 2017 year end

As another calendar year end approaches, some preliminary payroll related information is outlined below:

2017

There are no W-2 nor 1099-MISC changes for 2017. It is not too late to order W-2/W-3 and other tax forms from Dynamic Systems.

We plan to have W-2/W-3 federal and state e-filing testing phases completed within the next few days, and that option will again be available for Advanced Accounting 7i users.

(Postscript:  our annual W-2/W-3 federal/state e-filing interface testing was completed successfully on Dec. 27, 2017.)

2018

Social security including OASDI rates and limits:

The new social security wage maximum for 2018 is $128,400 (not $128,700 per some initial reports). The 6.2% and 1.45% rates remain unchanged.

See:

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/prog_highlights/index.html

FUTA:

There are no FUTA changes:  the wage limit remains at $7,000 with a net rate for most employers of 0.6%.  The quarterly deposit threshold of $500 also remains the same.

California and Virgin Islands were both expected to have increased FUTA taxes for 2017, resulting in an additional 2.1% tax increase over the normal 0.6% net rate.

SUTA:

Many states will have SUTA wage base increases.  SUTA rates typically vary based on experience.  You should have hopefully received notification of your state's new wage base and your new rate if it applies.  Those changes need to be implemented in the Advanced Accounting software after your final 2017 payrolls are processed and before your first 2018 payroll (see recommendations).

Federal income tax withholding:

The IRS initially indicated on Dec. 13, 2017 that payroll withholding guidance for the coming year would necessarily be delayed and that taxpayers would not begin to start seeing any changes until early February. In short, Congress waited far too late in the year for anyone to expect a smooth transition into the beginning of a new year. On Dec. 26 the IRS updated their prior statement to indicate basically the same thing, that guidance was forthcoming in January and that they were "encouraging" employers and payroll service providers to implement those changes in February. While there were some other reports indicating that form W-4 might change, the IRS is now clarifying that no W-4 changes are expected.

See:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-statement-withholding-for-2018

Accordingly, end users should not yet fret about making federal tax withholding changes:  use the same tables that are already in place for your upcoming January 2018 payrolls.

State income tax withholding:

Because many state income tax withholding formulas are in part based on federal amounts withheld, we expect to see more states than usual making state withholding tax changes in 2018.  In fact, we are already aware of ten (10) states that have published withholding tax tables effective January 1, 2018, plus Washington, D.C.   Since we expect even more to follow, it is premature to put out any updated tax tables just yet so we plan to wait to update those tables and also provide any required program updates once the federal changes become fully implemented and related "guidance" is provided. Most jurisdictions have implementing language that indicate end users are to implement tax table changes "as soon as practical."   We believe the unusual current circumstances justify delaying implementing changes until all of the new rules are fully known and at a time when changes can be smoothly implemented on both a state and federal basis.  Income tax withholding is after all a game of rough estimation.  If you have, however, received a formal notification of a state income tax withholding change, see our recommendations below.

Recommendations

Remember that year end routines and payroll year end processing are different and mostly not connected: they are only connected in that your year end routine needs to be run before you will be able to process payroll checks into the new year but ONLY if your fiscal year is based on the calendar year.

Use the PR option G "Clear employees/process W-2s later option.  This MUST be done before you start processing 2018 payroll checks.  Order forms that you expect to need now.  You do not, however, need to rush and print your W-2's before your first 2018 payroll as long as you use this option.

Enter the new social security tax wage limit in SY option D either before your first 2018 payroll or by sometime in January.

Make any required SUTA changes that go into effect on January 1 based on notices you may have received from your state in SY option D before your first 2018 payroll.

Withhold federal income taxes in January 2018 based on the same tables you are currently using.

Implement state withholding income tax changes in PR option K if you have received a specific notification from your state that clearly indicate the changes are effective January 1, 2018.

Watch our year end payroll update link for more information and which will be updated for new developments:

http://www.addsuminc.com/advyearend.html

New credit card interface now available for Advanced Accounting

A new fully integrated credit card option is now available for Advanced Accounting.  This new update replaces the previous interface that has long existed in the software and involves a new company that we have partnered with that we believe will, in addition to providing more competitive discounts rate and fees, also provide better sales and end user support.

Background:

We first added a credit card interface to Advanced Accounting 5.1 in the year 2000. That interface worked with an off the shelf credit card processing package called PCAuthorize, and for its era, worked well.   As additional regulations and changes in technology evolved, however, the generic card authorizing packages such as PCAuthorize, ICVerify, PC Charge and others began to vanish.  These products were either acquired (PCAuthorize was purchased by the maker of ICVerify) and/or have since had end of life cycle announcements and have been discontinued.

By mid-2006, we had developed a replacement for our PCAuthorize interface, integrating with X-Charge.  That interface was initially available for Advanced Accounting 6.1, but there was also a version for Advanced Accounting 5.1 and another legacy program. Since 2006, the X-Charge interface has remained actively in use. An equivalent interface was also made available for Advanced Accounting 7i.   

Because of a continuous change in corporate ownership of the X-Charge product and other changes including the fact that the X-Charge product is nearing obsolescence, we have over the past several years been analyzing various alternatives.  X-Charge will still be supported for Advanced Accounting 7i users who are currently using it, but new users of Advanced Accounting 7i (and for future releases and updates in the Advanced Accounting series) will instead want to use the new interface that we have now developed working with ChargeItPro and which is now available.

Unlike the early 5.1 interface that relied on an external call to an executable (one that we developed in another language), neither the X-Charge interface nor now the ChargeItPro interfaces rely on having to call any executable files which tend to be blocked and in general can create processing delays. The ChargeItPro interface, largely developed last month, makes completely internally native calls written in the same underlying language upon which the accounting software runs, and using newer techniques that we have developed over the past year.

Advantages of the new interface:

In addition to providing more responsive sales and support and better rates and fees, the new interface supports a wealth of external devices for those users who are swiping cards including support for EMV, and for processing debit cards (without having to process them as credit cards; debit cards in that respect were not supported in the prior interface).  And, as a result of making a tighter integration, we are also now providing a new integrated card/non-check return option which previously did not exist (and which can even be used by users in future releases who aren't necessarily using the integrated interface).    The new interface also records every transaction in a new transaction database in part so that the same card can be used again (in a completely PCI compliant way; the new interface is fully PCI DSS compliant).   Every transaction is also saved in the ChargeItPro web portal.

But I'm already processing credit cards on a standalone basis through another provider.  Why use an integrated approach?

The benefits of an integrated approach are huge and involve savings of time and expense that can be overlooked in making a full analysis.  An integrated approach leads to fewer errors, faster processing and overall better workflow.  It eliminates the double entries that have to be made when cards are processed "outside" of the accounting system.  And processing cards outside of the accounting system leads to not only extra work but also security concerns.   In short, to best meet PCI compliance responsibilities as well as to implement "best practices" in terms of financial and internal accounting controls, integrated credit card processing represents the optimal solution.
 
More information is available (with more to be added soon) at:

http://www.addsuminc.com/advcreditcard.html 

Feel free to contact us at any time for more information by calling us at 800-648-6258, by sending us an e-mail, or by chatting with us on our web site.

Minimize to taskbar and WinForm changes with TAS Premier r12

Background detail leading to today's TAS Premier 7i release 12

Since the first release of the graphical versions of the TAS language going back to at least 2001, minimized forms loaded by the runtime engine including the main form of the initial main menu program would appear in the lower left hand corner of the Windows desktop with just a portion of the form caption and the restore, maximize and close buttons.  The application itself remained in the taskbar, but clicking that button on/off it would reveal the minimize form in the lower left hand corner, but nothing more. Further, if additional forms were loaded from the main menu program or via a program that the main menu called (in the TAS environment typically via a "CHAIN" command), each minimized form would "stack" themselves horizontally from left to right. The main menu form or these other "child-like" forms could be restored by clicking on the desired form in the lower left hand corner of the screen.  This location remained constant regardless of where the user might have positioned their Windows taskbar.

Example of main window form's minimize button

The behavior described above is obviously not typical Windows behavior; but, it is also not an idiosyncracy or intentional implementation of form minimization within the TAS programming environment.  Rather, it relates to the underlying development language where this is a potential default behavior.  This is then complicated by the modular nature of the TAS language, where forms that are loaded are not necessarily child forms tied to a single application.  In the Delphi language which TAS was ported to from its assembly language beginnings by Business Tools, Inc., the taskbar button belongs to a special application window and not the main form of the application, and only it by default has a special Windows extended style that is applied to it.  Subsequently created forms do not have this style (nor is there a form property on the designed form to give it that style).   Absent applying this style and hiding the main application window and more, subsequently loaded forms do not minimize to the task bar (and are also not detectable by cycling through running programs, e.g. ALT-TAB).   Nothing in the modern TAS runtime engines is trying to minimize forms to the lower left hand portion of the screen.

With TAS Premier 7i rel. 8 that we released in April of 2013, in attempting to resolve some issues involving RUN programs (one of two different types of programs that the runtime engine can process), we were able to successfully make mounted screens (which actually are Windows forms) minimize to the task bar using extended Windows style API calls.   However in trying to do that with the GUI-type RWN programs which load graphical screens (DFM's), we ran into some issues and decided to leave the handling for those alone.

The problem:  Win 10 font display customization

In the past several months, however, a new issue has surfaced (and initially reported by two of our accounting software users) relating to customizing Windows 10 font display size whereby if the main menu form of the main menu program is minimized, the resized lower left hand corner form simply vanishes; and worse, it cannot be retrieved by clicking on the taskbar icon or in any other fashion.

Windows 10 at the standard non-customized 96 DPI (100%) setting: note that when minimized, the small resized form appearing at lower left

Changing the font size in Windows 10:

Windows 10: changing the font size to 125% (120 dpi)

Now running the main menu of Advanced Accounting in its tool bar mode: 

Windows 10 Adv tool bar mode after font change

Now minimize the menu above:

Windows 10 at 125% (i.e. 120 dpi) of standard font size:  minimize the initial program form and it disappears (lower left hand corner of screen is blank); and it can't be brought back by clicking on the taskbar icon, nor via ALT-TAB or the equivalent

Curiously, users have been able to change their font DPI settings in Windows for some time and when increasing them in those prior Windows versions, this minimization issue did not present itself:  the forms were still resized to the same expected, albeit unusual, location.

Windows 7 Pro custom DPI settings:  increasing font sizes did not create minimization issues. Nor did similar setting changes impact XP Pro.

The solution

Because this new problem meant that the application would become stuck in memory without the end user being able to regain access if they minimized a main menu form, we concluded that we had to come up with a workaround.  Revisiting changes that we made in 2013 for RUN style forms, and after experimenting with numerous other options and making some other beneficial changes to the runtime, the answer was to apply extended Windows styles which not only solved the custom DPI settings issue in Windows 10, but also caused forms to minimize to the task bar. In doing this, however, the expected form order (i.e. the Z-order) was changed.  In short, forms were often appearing behind other forms and these could include lookups, modal forms, print dialog boxes, many types of system messages, and more.  The only solution to that was to ensure that new forms that are dynamically created in the runtime environment were "top most" in order to maintain Z-order.  

Forms appearing behind forms is a problem that users can experience with many different types of Windows applications.  We've even seen it happen with Javascript "alert" message boxes appearing behind a browser window.  When this happens, a program may appear to be "stuck" or "frozen" when in fact cascading or tiling one's windows (right click on the blank portion of the taskbar) will reveal the hidden window and enable end user control of the application.

And while this solution worked, it meant we had to track down every different type of message (over six different types with different internal calls) to try to ensure that they came up over any given form that they might be called from.  And this was one of the reasons why we had not made this change in 2013.   But after a significant effort, that has been accomplished.

With release 12 installed into an Advanced Accounting installation:

Windows 10 with TAS Premier 7i rel. runtime with Advanced Accounting 8 main menu minimized

Windows 10 with TAS Premier 7i rel. 12 runtime with the main menu and three other programs/form minimized called from the main menu via a standard chain command

Windows 10 with TAS Premier 7i rel. 12 runtime with the main menu minimized plus a second runtime minimized called from the first via chain command with a "newruntime" option

It is interesting how different Window operating systems will minimize forms differently belonging to the same application.  As indicated with the Win 10 examples above they remain in the same "group" (the same thing will happen if you run say five instances of NOTEPAD and they will all be grouped together via single taskbar button).    

Windows 7 is somewhat similar, but different:

Windows 7 Pro with TAS Premier 7i rel 12 with the main form and three programs called by a standard chain and a fourth via a newruntime from Advanced Accounting

And in XP Pro, form minimization occurs yet differently.  Each option minimizes to the taskbar separately rather than grouped together:

XP Pro and TAS Premier rel. 12 runtime with Advanced Accounting, main program and three programs/forms minimized via standard chain commands with taskbar docked to right side of screen

The remaining obstacle

A new obstacle now that will remain is that despite the fact that programs should now minimize to the taskbar on any operating system that is in available and regardless of font settings, if a user launches another program or clicks on something that is running in their taskbar, they will have to minimize a running TAS RWN style program to allow the other application to come up on top.  We would have preferred to have these work like RUN forms do, but it isn't something that at least for now can work any other way.

Since TAS applications typically are critical accounting/financial solutions, keeping many of the programs as "top most" isn't completely illogical, but it also isn't something that we had intended to do: it was just the only solution to the problem.

Because of potential conflicts that could arise in calling other executables or simply in certain circumstances within the runtime environment, we also recognized that we had to provide some programmatic control to override the new "top most" behavior that a programmer could utilize when necessary.  And so a new function exists in release 12 by the same name as the Windows API function call that it makes:  SetWindowPos.   And the nice thing about it is that it can change the Z-order of the form and make it instead top, no[t] top most, bottom or top most after the form has been created.  While some situations may still represent a challenge, with also now the SetWindowPos() availability, most challenges this behavior causes should be capable of being overcome.

To allow the main menu program to still allow other third party programs to load on top of it, we recommend placing a function call to SetWindowPos() in the "OnDisplayScreen" (aka "OnShow") label of the main menu form since it does not need to be "top most" (but it will be by default be created that way starting with release 12).  There are several open file type dialogs that were not practical for us to force to be top most, and so function calls to get_file(), get_run_prg(), and dual_list_exec() will need to be reviewed within any application that uses them to add SetWindowPos() calls before and after their use.  Any use of exec and the TShellEXE will also need to be reviewed and tested.  See the help documentation for more information.  For the most part, relatively few changes should be required.

TAS Premier 7i release 12 published today

So release 12 is being published today with the extended "WinForm" styles as mentioned above, and it will also be the basis for the next major release of Advanced Accounting.  In addition to the SetWindowPos() function, it also includes a manifest embedded version targeted for various Microsoft operating systems including Windows 10, support for a "reply to" option in the TAS email function, a new "Page Style" band in the report designer, improvements to maintain database and other utilities including changes to issues relating to the extended form style change.  

More information:

TAS Premier 7i updates for existing installations

TAS Premier 7i download for new installations

This file is currently not available for use on this computer

An accounting software end user today experienced the message "This file is currently not available for use on this computer" when trying to click on existing icons on two client PC's trying to launch tp7runtime.exe via a previously established network share and both using UNC paths.  The software in the installed ("gateway") PC in this workgroup still worked as expected.

The user had not made any changes other than to install an Adobe Flash Player update on one of the two client PC's.   No doubt however these PC's received recent Microsoft (and last week was a bad week for those that led to numerous problems, more than usual) and anti-virus updates (which can suddenly change settings, block ports, etc.).

All three of the PC's were Windows 7 Professional.   The network had already been established as a "public network" and naturally everything had been working without any problem until this morning.  The user had already tried re-booting the PC's on the network to see if that would resolve the problem.  It did not.

Remotely viewing one of the client PC's that could not load the software as well as the gateway PC, we noticed that the icon that launches the software that in this situation had been previously set to "Run as administrator" now had that check box grayed out.   And in trying for troubleshooting purposes to setup a new icon, Windows returned the same "file is currently not available for use" message.   In navigating the available computers to set that icon, it showed the gateway PC's computer name twice which was very odd.   We did make sure that the UAC was not getting in the way.

A net view of the gateway PC that had also been mapped as a drive letter for some reason indicated something interesting in the comments:  [Offline share].   In trying to delete the drive map, Windows responded that files were in use but viewing the gateway PC where that drive was mapped, in fact there were no open files in the shared folder.  

While we could also navigate to and view all of the files in the shared folder (and could also see the files at CMD prompt via a DIR of the UNC path), when we tried to inspect a text (INI) file by opening it in Notepad, we received the same response:

We made some minor changes to some of the network settings on both PC's, and tried to stop and start various network services on the gateway PC; the issue remained.   While the sharing and file privileges all appeared to be correct on the gateway PC, we decided to stop sharing the folder and then re-share it after first disconnecting from the offline share (after also turning off the option to share files offline which seemed to have no effect).   That was completed and we re-added "Everyone" with read/write privileges.  In doing this, Norton Internet Security installed on the gateway PC came up with a prompt indicating that because it was a public network, certain Windows services were blocked. We decided to go ahead and allow Network Discovery, File and Printer Sharing and Remote Procedure Call and Remote Procedure Call (and so they were added to the NIS exception list) which seemed logical in that it had already been established as a public network.    

Re-testing, the client PC's were then able to once again launch the tp7runtime.exe application.

There have been other reports of this issue that have involved very different solutions.