With the advent of Windows 10, Act! has a nuanced policy of support.  For Act! V17, it works with caveats.  Go to Actkb.com , and look up document 38170.  With some effort, it mostly works, but it Windows 10 installs take considerable effort due their new security settings and versions of SQL supported.  For Act! v16 and lower, it’ s not officially supported.  So, we might be able to make it work, but Act! support won’t help us.

Our recommendation is to wait on Windows 10 if you run the business on Act!.  With the release of v18 (ETA December 2015), they will have more kinks worked out.  If you already have Windows 10, get on subscription with v17 and Act! will include v18 in your license.

The long term solution is Act! is phasing over to a subscription model for licensing.  For $250/user/year1,2 , Act! users can acquire Act! upgrades so when changes to Windows, Microsoft Office and web technology come along, you will be covered when Act! releases their upgrades.  Only after Microsoft publicly releases the software, Act! writes the  compatible updates.

In our professional opinion, the software industry, especially CRM applications, has to offer this model so the publishers can provide support for continuously changing platforms.  The days of  “buy the software once and stretch it for 5+ years” will phase out.  Although it’s fun to reminisce about how we can still use Act! from 2004 , it’s not practical when you want to take advantage of new tools or system upgrades that you have to buy such as a newer version of Office or Windows.

1 – $250/user/year or $25/user/month when Act! is installed and managed on your network
2 – Upgrade promotions available for N-2 Users of Act! (v16+ as of 10/12/2015) per their obsolescence policy.