Welcome to Horizon Software's Investment Portfolio Analyst!  This program calculates profit, 
periodic total return, cumulative total return, average annual total return, internal rate 
of return (IRR), capital gain, buy/sell prices, and other statistics.  Can import/export 
to/from many other applications.  Creates many different 2D and 3D charts.  Creates 5 
different types of basis worksheets for capital gain calculations.  It is especially useful 
for investments involving multiple cash flows, such as mutual funds, 401k plans, annuities, 
and partnerships, but is also helpful for bank and savings accounts, CD's, stocks, bonds,
etc.

Dates, numbers, & currencies are displayed & printed as specified in the user's regional
settings in Control Panel.

Virtually all the most important information needed to make investment decisions is
presented on one easy to read screen.

To install:

1) If you are upgrading from a previous version, first *un-install* *that* version.
   Uninstalling will *not* harm your personal settings or data.  Then,

   Horizon Investment Analyst has been distributed in several different forms.  The next
   step depends on whether the package is an .exe or .zip file.

2) If it is an .exe package, double click on it in Windows Explorer.  Next, the
   installation will ask you where to unzip the installation files.  It will probably
   suggest the Windows\Temp folder, which is fine, or you can pick any empty folder.

   When it has finished unzipping the installation files, the actual installation process
   will begin, by running setup.exe.  It will ask you which folder to install the software
   to, etc.  When the installation completes, go to step 5.

3) If it is a .zip package, unzip the contents to an empty folder.  Then, you will see a
   group of files, including an .msi file.  Then,

4) Double click on the .msi file.  If you get an error, or an 'Open Box' window, asking
   which program you want to use to open the file, that means you need to download the
   'Microsoft Windows Installer'.  The Windows Installer comes pre-installed as part of
   the operating system in Windows 2000 and Windows ME, but *not* with Win9X, or NT.

   a) Download and install the Windows Installer:
      For Win9X, and ME: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=32831
      For all others:
      http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=32832&NewList=1
   b) After installing Windows Installer, then just double click on
      the file 'Horizon Investment Analyst.msi', that you previously unzipped.
   c) Then, follow the prompts to install the program.

5) For *both* download versions:

   Now, you should test your installation.  The program will be listed in your 'Start' menu,
   under 'Programs', 'Horizon Investment Analyst'.

   Before using, please be sure and read the User license in the User Manual.

   For installation troubleshooting, see the next section.

Post-installation - Verifying Microsoft Support files:

1) Horizon Investment Analyst is a Visual Basic program.  Visual Basic programs require that
   certain files be present in the user's Windows\System directory for them to run properly.
   These are called 'Run Time' files.  In most cases, these files are already present on the
   user's system, and so no further action is necessary.  In a very few cases, however, some
   users may find that they cannot run Horizon Investment Analyst on their system, and may
   receive one of various error messages if they try to do so.  This is caused by the fact
   that either these files are *not* present on their system, or, the files are there, but
   the version #'s are old.  This can be solved by downloading and installing the latest
   'Run Time' files from Microsoft (currently at Service Pack 5), at:
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=28337

2) How to view the Horizon Investment Analyst User Manual:

   You can view the User Manual from within the program by pressing F1, or by clicking 'User
   Manual' from the 'Help' menu.

   The documentation included with this package, 'User Manual.chm', and 'Viewhlp2.chm',
   require that the Microsoft HTML Help engine be installed in your system.  Most later
   Windows versions already have this help engine installed, but a small percentage
   (mostly older Windows versions), do not.

   If you have trouble viewing the documentation, try this:

   1) Navigate to the 'Horizon Investment Analyst' folder, using Windows Explorer.  Then,
   2) Double click on the file 'hhupd.exe'.  Hhupd.exe is a file from Microsoft that will
      check the version of the Microsoft HTML help engine that is installed on your system.

      If hhupd.exe determines that your system already *has* the latest version, or that it
      shouldn't install it on your system (some Windows 2000 systems don't need it), it will
      tell you, and then exit.  Otherwise it will offer to install or upgrade it (only if
      necessary) to the latest version (1.32).

  If you decide to install it, it won't hurt or adversely affect your system in any way,
  even if, for instance, your system already has the latest version installed.

If you have a problem with installation, please email me the details at
baldwinwh@netscape.net.  Because of the wide variety of platforms, operating systems, and
user configurations in use, I *need* your feedback, to make sure this package can run on
as many different systems as possible, and I really appreciate it.  Thanks.

Uninstall instructions:

To remove the software, click the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel, and click to
remove 'Horizon Investment Analyst'.

History:

The first version of this software, written for MS-DOS, was named 'The Variable Investment
Analyst', and first released in the early 1990's.  It was subsequently renamed as Horizon
Investment Analyst, and re-written for Windows 9x.

Upgrading from prior versions:

If you are upgrading from Variable Investment Analyst version 3 or greater, you can
re-format your data files to this version by first running the included program,
'Varcvrt6.exe'.  Just move Varcvrt6.exe to the folder that holds the files you want to
convert, boot to MS-DOS, or open an MS-DOS window, and then run it from the command line.

I am available for custom programming.  My rates are reasonable and might surprise you.
Email me your programming problem, and chances are I can help you.  I have 22 years of
programming experience.

Thanks!

baldwinwh (at) netscape (dot) net