Software Requirements

Software Requirements

1.1                 Operating Environment

Operating systems

STEP 7 V5.4 including SP3 is a 32-bit application that is released for the following operating systems:

Operating System	Service Pack
MS Windows 2000 Professional	SP4
MS Windows XP Professional	SP2

·         MS Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition with or without R2 as workstation
computer (exception: SIMATIC M7, see also, instructions in Section 6.18)

·         MS Windows Vista 32 Bit Ultimate and Business

You can find information about the operating systems on the Internet at Microsoft.

STEP 7 V5.4 including SP3 will not run in:

·         MS Windows 3.1

·         MS Windows for Workgroups 3.11

·         MS Windows XP Home

·         MS Windows Vista Home Basic and Premium

The operating systems MS Windows 95, MS Windows 98SE, MS Windows Millennium and MS Windows NT 4.0 are no longer supported since STEP 7 V5.3.

Important additional information:

An operating system update from MS Windows XP to MS Windows Vista is not allowed or possible for existing STEP 7 installation.

Internet Explorer

All operating systems must be using MS Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher).

User rights

Regarding user rights as of STEP 7 V5.4 including SP3, please observe the following:

To be able to work with STEP 7, you must have logged on at least as the user (not as a guest).

You need administrator rights to be able to install the STEP 7 software and HSPs, set up user groups and change the settings using "Set PG/PC Interface" function.

When using optional packages please observe the rights required by the respective optional packages.

If projects are saved on NTFS drives, the users must be granted full access here. This also applies to the folders with the HSP updates (default: C:/HWUPDATES). Access within the standard project directory S7PROJ is automatically granted to all users.

Note: The executability under user rights is only enabled for STEP 7 itself. Operation under user rights for optional packages is not guaranteed. Administrator or primary user rights may be required here. After installing / uninstalling new hardware, the computer must be run at least once under administrator rights.

File systems

STEP 7 achieves a slightly lower performance when operating on a MS Windows NT file system (NTFS) as opposed to a FAT file system.

Hibernation mode

Shifting to hibernation mode is generally allowed by STEP 7. However, hibernation must not be triggered if online connections are open or projects are being accessed by STEP 7 applications via a network.

In such case, online connections could be unintentionally terminated, and open projects on networks may experience data loss.

For these reasons, the energy options for the operating system in the Windows Control Panel should be set so that hibernation is not automatically triggered (by timer). Hibernation should not be triggered manually by the user in the cases mentioned above.

Hardware Requirements

     Hardware Requirements

In order to work with the STEP 7 V5.4 including SP3 software, you need a programming device or a PC with the following minimum requirements for processor speed/performance, RAM and graphics capability:

Operating System	Minimum Requirements for:
	Processor	RAM	Graphics
MS Windows 2000 Professional	600MHz	512 MB *)	XGA 1024x768 16-bit color depth
MS Windows XP Professional	600MHz	512 MB *)	XGA 1024x768 16-bit color depth
MS Windows Server 2003	2.4 GHz	1 GB	XGA 1024x768 16-bit color depth
MS Windows Vista Business	1 GHz	1GB **)	XGA 1024x768 16-bit color depth
MS Windows Vista Ultimate	1 GHz	1GB **)	XGA 1024x768 16-bit color depth
MS Windows Vista Enterprise	1 GHz	1GB **)	XGA 1024x768 16-bit color depth
*) At least 1 GB RAM is recommended **) At least 2 GB RAM is recommended

Use a programming device or PC with the latest performance capabilities if you are editing extensive STEP 7 projects or working with hardware configurations containing several hundred modules (CPUs, slaves, I/O devices, etc.).

In addition, you will need an external prommer for SIMATIC memory cards / MMC if you are using a PC and want to save your user programs to EPROMs and a SIMATIC NET interface if you want to use online functions to the PLC system with your personal computer.

Additional Style” can only be used with a high-performance graphic adapter. It requires:

·         DirectX9 capability

information on Windows Vista:

The “Aero Glass 128 MB separate graphic memory

·         The performance of the graphics system architecture can have a substantial affect on the performance of STEP 7.

Canceling the License Key Transfer of Automation License Manager

Canceling the License Key Transfer

When license keys are transferred between a computer on which an older version of the Automation License Manager is installed and a computer with a newer Automation License Manager, an error message sometimes is displayed and the transfer is canceled.

Remedy: The computer on which an older version of the Automation License Manager is installed has to be updated to a current Automation License Manager version.

Using Earlier Software Product Versions with a New License Key

Software products, which are activated with a License Key

Software products to be activated for operation with license keys can also use later license keys. The following applies to these products:

·      "Later" versions of license keys can always be used to operate different software versions.

·      It is therefore not necessary to downgrade a license key in order to use "earlier" versions.

Note You can recognize a license key in the Automation License Manager by the 20-digit license number.

Software products, which are activated with an authorization

These software versions cannot be operated with a license key. License keys for later versions can only be used for software versions in which a license key is used.

Note You can recognize an authorization in the Automation License Manager by the 10-digit license number.

License Upgrade of Automation License Manager

License Upgrade

The following steps show you how to upgrade a license key and an authorization. The actions are the same for the license key and authorization,  however reference is made to license key only in the text.

1.   Select the view via the menu command View > Management.

2.   Transfer the License Keys of the previous version and the Upgrade License Keys to the hard disk, on which the upgrade is to be performed.

3.   In the navigation area, select the location of the license key for which the upgrade is to be performed (previous version).

4.   In the object area, select the license key for which the upgrade is to be performed.

5.   Select the menu command License Key > Upgrade.

Result: Upgrade is executed.