Filemaker 4.0 on 64bit

[MECOA]

I bought Filemaker 4.0 Developer for my business over 23 years ago and spent many hours, weeks, months making multiple (18) databases and probably 3000+ scripts for order entry, invoicing, customer info, vendor info, inventory price/history/location/cost, purchase order, checking, profit/lost & sales tax reports, etc., because I hated quickbooks. I still alter/make scripts on a regular basis. I have records back to 2000 and can access anything with ease. We're now running one network host computer on XP with 5 clients running Win 7 pro 32bit, it works great. We only have 2 people, myself and my wife, accessing it but all client computers are logged into FM 4.0 host at once due to different locations in our company. Never upgraded FM 4.0 because it was my understanding that starting with 4.1 you had to purchase each client seat and my 4.0 worked great. I will be forced into Windows 10 eventually and don't want to use it on a virtual machine. My question is Filemaker 4.0 Developer 32bit? I know the installer is 16bit. Next question, am I correct about the seats? I really tried to research it and can't find a clear answer. If I upgrade to FM 11 Advanced (which should run on win 10 64bit) do I have to buy 6 copies to do what I'm doing now or will one copy of FM 11 allow a host with 5 clients? We use it on our in house network only tcp/ip, no internet connection. No one uses the host computer, it just acts as a server. Has anyone successfully installed FM 4.0 on Win 10 64bit?

[Ocean West]

FileMaker 4.0 was the end of its life back in 2009 before the switch from Claris Inc. to FileMaker Inc.  

Two single seats of FileMaker Pro 2023 is $594 each or $1098. Which would be a perpetual license. 

Now we are back to Claris International, Inc.

You would need to upgrade to the latest version. There is no upgrade path to FM 11 and you would have to find someone to do a file conversion from the fp4/fp5 format to fp7 and then again to fmp12. And I wouldn't invest much in buying old copies on ebay. 

There is no more FileMaker Developer/Advanced it's all merged into FileMaker Pro. (runtimes have been removed) 

You can get an annual license for $990 per year with 5 seats, which includes FileMakerServer. 

[MECOA]

Thank you for your reply. I read that FM11 will cover fp3 to fp7 according to this page

https://support.claris.com/s/article/Converting-older-FileMaker-Pro-files-to-the-fmp12-file-format-1503693002275?language=en_US

You didn't answer my other questions, if you or anyone can answer these two questions I would appreciate it ---- If I upgrade to FM 11 Advanced (which should run on win 10 64bit) do I have to buy 6 copies to do what I'm doing now or will one copy of FM 11 allow a host with 5 clients? --- Has anyone successfully installed FM 4.0 on Win 10 64bit?

I really would rather keep using my 4.0 version - If FM 4.0 is 32bit, which I believe it is, it should run if I can recompile the installer.

[Ocean West]

FileMaker 11 is end of life and Claris does not sell it so you would have to purchase it on amazon or ebay you can buy single copies.

Your Mileage May Very

https://support.claris.com/s/article/FileMaker-Pro-operating-system-requirements-all-versions-1503692917754?language=en_US

Peer-to-peer sharing of files before FMP12 allowed 9 clients from 12 on it reduced to 5.  

You will need as many copies as you plan to connect at the same time each installation will have a license key. One of your computers will be the host and must remain online and active to prevent the corruption of your files. By all means, make sure you don't put these files on any NAS or Dropbox while you are actively using them 

If this is mission-critical to you I would advocate for a newer computer and version there are so many security exploits in older software and operating systems that are no longer able to get updates. 

[MECOA]

So one copy of FM11 would not do what I'm doing right now? Same copy of program installed on 6 computers and all clients opened on one time. All with the same program and key code is not allowed. I must buy 6 individual copies each with it's unique product key. FM11 allows 9 clients open accessing one host using tcp/ip protocol. Ten computers as long as all the product keys are unique.  Do I have it correct now? 

4.0 was unlimited I think. 4.0 warns it you try to close a file on the host and a computer is connected. Am I correct about Filemaker 4.0 Developer being 32bit and the installer is 16bit? Or maybe it's too old for you to know?

I'm not worried about security exploits as it's on it's own, un-bridged, non tunneled, non internet network. It was on a windows 95 host/server until 4 years ago. We still use a win 95 pc to program our CNC machines. 

No breach in 27 years... knock on wood.

[Ocean West]

so 2 users are trying to access the db from 5 other computers?

yes you can install the same license on different computers as long as the host computer doesn't share same licence but this is by far outside the scope of typical license agreements. (not the license cop) 

 I would strongly urge you to get a plan with FM  server this way one device can be your source of truth and it can provide hourly backups avoiding corruption, throw a NUK or Mac mini in a closet. 

Or better yet convert and move you solution to a cloud hosed and then you can access from different computers. and take advantage of 23 years of new features.