Your monthly RIA CD-ROMs have a life span of about 90 days. It starts from the beginning of the month of their release through the next month and into the third. For example, a March disc will work in March, April, and the beginning of May. RIA recommends that you keep your previous months CD-ROMs around as a backup in case your current CDs are damaged or lost. That way you can still use your discs until your next update or replacement CD arrive. Once a CD-ROM has expired, it can no longer be used and should be discarded (they make great coffee coasters!).

The majority of monthly shipments you receive require no special procedures to follow before using your software. When no installation or update instructions are included with your CD-ROM, simply place it in the CD-ROM drive and continue as before.

Because research information is stored on the CD-ROM (rather than your hard drive), you should begin using your new discs as soon as possible to ensure you are accessing the latest information available. Remember, the life-span of a monthly RIA CD-ROM is about 90 days, beginning from the date of the month of its release.

Please see this bulletin with details about the change to a DVD format.

If you have any questions about the change to DVD, please contact Christopher DiMenna (Product Manager) at (212) 807-2838 or christopher.dimenna@thomsonreuters.com. For questions on usage and installation, please refer to the product information, installation instructions and frequently asked questions available on this support site, or call 800-323-824 to speak with a knowledgeable representative.

Your RIA customer number is the key to maintaining access to the products in your subscription. If you receive a customer number warning message after double-clicking on an RIA product icon, you will have to update your customer number to ensure continued access to your product.

Note: If, when installing your RIA product(s), you entered a promotional code and installed products not included in your subscription, you will eventually lose access to those products unless you purchase them. The sections below outline procedures for updating a customer number. Refer to the section entitled "Updating Your Customer Number Before Access to a Product Is Lost" if you have received a warning message stating your access to a product will soon expire. Refer to the section entitled "Updating Your Customer Number Once Access to a Product Is Lost" if you have received a message stating that you have lost access to a product.

Once a valid customer number is entered, you will have access to the products included in your subscription.

If the product for which you received the customer number warning message is being used on a network, please contact your network administrator for assistance in updating the number.

If you are prompted to enter a customer number to preserve access to an RIA product, follow these steps.

1. If the RIA product that prompted you to update your customer number is not already open, launch the product by clicking its icon in the RIA program folder on the Windows Start menu. (If the product is already open, you can skip to step 4.)
2. The Customer Number Required Screen may appear. Click OK.
3. Your RIA product's home screen appears. Click Browse a table of contents.
4. The table of contents for your product appears. Select Update Customer Number from the product's Help menu.
5. The RIA Customer Number Screen appears. Enter your customer number in the New Number field. If you have previously entered a customer number, it will appear in the Old Number field. Click OK. Note: Changing a customer number may cause loss of access to products currently available to you. Change your customer number only on the advice of an RIA representative. If you have any questions about your customer number, please call Customer Service at 1-800-431-9025.
6. Your customer number is now updated, giving you access to the products in your subscription. Once you shut down and re-start the product it will reflect the changes made to you subscription.

To enter a customer number after you receive a message stating that you have lost access to an RIA product, you must use the Subscription Manager Utility. To use this utility, follow these steps.

1. From the Windows Start menu, launch Windows Explorer.
2. Find and open the C:\Program Files\RIAGroup\Views32 directory.
Note: This is the default installation directory. If you installed your RIA product to a directory different from C:\Program Files, the \RIAGroup subdirectory was added to the directory you specified. The Views32 subdirectory will be in the \RIAGroup subdirectory.
3. Launch Subscription Manager by double-clicking the file named SSMGR4.EXE.
   Note: Subscription Manager can also be launched by choosing Run from the Windows Start menu, typing your product's installation path followed by \Views32\ and SSMGR4.EXE (e.g., C:\Program Files\RIAGroup\Views32\SSMGR4.EXE), and then clicking OK.
   If there are network and non-network installations of RIA products on the computer being used, the Subscription Manager Utility Screen appears. Choose whether you would like to update a customer number for a Standalone (non-network) installation or for a Network installation. (If this screen does not appear, go to the next step.)
4. The RIA - Customer Information Screen appears. Enter your customer number in the New Customer Number field. If you have previously entered a customer number, it will appear in the Old Customer Number field. Click OK.
   Note: Changing a customer number may cause loss of access to products currently available to you. Change your customer number only on the advice of an RIA representative. If you have any questions about your customer number, please call Customer Service at 1-800-431-9025.
5. Your customer number is now updated, giving you access to the products in your subscription.

Stand-alone requirements for all Research CDROMS are available in System Requirements.

Network requirements for all Research CDROMS are available in Network System Requirements.

For Local Installation Instructions click here.
For Network Installation Instructions click here.

Network users usually have to follow a procedure in order for the network to recognize the new CD-ROM, but no updates to the RIA software are necessary. For more information on how to change CD-ROMs on your network, see your Network Administrator.

Unless special instructions were included in your shipment, simply place your CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and continue to use the software as previously. Because research information is stored on the CD-ROM (as opposed to your hard drive), you should begin using your new discs as soon as possible to ensure you are accessing the latest information available. Remember, the life-span of a monthly RIA CD-ROM is about 90 days beginning from the date of the month of its release.

When installing CD-ROMs to a network, you must perform the installation from a workstation, and it is necessary that the paths to the CD-ROMs be identical from each workstation; that is, each workstation must reference the CD-ROMs in the same way. If the network install is run using UNC paths for the CD-ROMs, then all of the workstations must use UNC paths to reference the CD-ROMs. Similarly, if the CD-ROMs are set up using mapped drives, all workstations must have the CD-ROMs mapped identically. The installation path to the server hard drive must also be the same from each workstation, and must be a mapped drive letter.

Note: You must be logged in to the network with full access rights to the location where the installation directory will be created. For Windows NT workstations, it is important that all RIA software be installed by someone who has full access rights to all directories and system files on the machine at which the RIA software is being installed and who has full rights to the server.

Once you have installed RIA products to the network, the CD-ROMS must remain available on the network. Removing discs may result in loss of access to additional products. If a disc is removed, the reference to that disc must also be removed (or commented out) from the DISKLOC.INI file, which is found in the \RIAGroup\Common subdirectory. It is strongly recommended that you call RIA Technical Services at 1-800-678-2185 for assistance.

All network users must have full rights/permissions to access the network directory where the RIA program files are installed. If a workstation does not have full access to the installation directory, the installed product(s) cannot be used at that workstation.

See the install instructions available in the Network System Requirements.

See the install instructions available in the Network System Requirements.

1. At the HotDocs Player 5.0a screen, click Next.
2. Read the HotDocs License Agreement, then click Yes to accept the agreement. Important: If during the server installation of HotDocs the choice was made to have HotDocs run from the network server, the Finish Setup Screen will appear.
   • If this screen does appear, click Finish to end the HotDocs installation, and skip to step 7.
   • If this screen does not appear, continue with step 3.
3. The Installation Type Screen appears. Click the icon next to Typical.
   Note: Typical is recommended for most installations. Select Custom only if you have previously installed HotDocs to the network or have experienced difficulty installing HotDocs.
4. The HotDocs Directory Screen appears showing the default destination directory. If you wish to select a different directory, click Browse. Otherwise, click Next.
5. The Word Processor Screen appears. Select all the word processing programs that you want HotDocs to support. Deselect the ones that you do not wish it to support. Click Next when you are done.
6. The Installation Settings Screen appears. Review the settings to ensure accuracy. If you need to make changes, click Back. If the installation settings are correct, click Next.
7. The Installation screen appears and the program begins copying files. Return to step 4 in the "Installing to Workstations" section.
   
   Note: If you received the GoSystem Forms CD-ROM and installed it to the network server, or if you installed GoSystem Forms from the Payroll Guide disc to the network server, you should run the workstation setup program for the forms before restarting the workstations. For the GoSystem Forms CD workstation install, follow the instructions included with that CD-ROM. For Payroll Guide forms workstation installation, follow the instructions outlined below.

To uninstall RIA software, open Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel. For each icon created on your desktop there should be a corresponding item on the Install/Uninstall tab. Choose the item you wish to uninstall and select the Add/Remove button. After uninstalling each icon, you should also uninstall RIA's Folio 4 software by choosing RIA's Folio Views Platform and uninstalling it.

Note: if you are uninstalling the software from a workstation in a network environment, the inactive icons will remain in the program group until you reboot the workstation. In some cases, the program group - without the icons - will remain after you reboot. You can remove the program group via the Settings > Taskbar & Start Menu dialog box.

Note: Uninstalling RIA's Folio Views Platform before uninstalling all products will cause the remaining RIAG products to be non-functional.

If you find it necessary to re-install the software, be sure to uninstall it first.