Migrating to AIDA64 v8.00 – Best Practices

Migrating to AIDA64 v8.00 – Best Practices

The next generation of AIDA64 has arrived with version 8.00, bringing important changes under the hood that may affect existing workflows. To ensure a smooth migration, we recommend the following best practices:

 

1. Unicode Report Files by Default

Starting with AIDA64 v8.00, AIDA64 Business, AIDA64 Engineer and AIDA64 Network Audit now generate report files with Unicode encoding by default.

If you use CSV or XML reports in automated pipelines, or process reports with custom-built tools (for example, generating inventories outside Audit Manager), this change may cause issues if your parsing logic assumes ANSI encoding.

To maintain compatibility, you have two options:

2. Test Your Automated Workflows

Before rolling out v8.00 in production, test your automation scripts, database imports, and custom integrations with Unicode report files. This ensures you catch encoding-related issues early.

3. Plan for Long-Term Unicode Adoption

While you can switch back to ANSI or UTF-8 temporarily, Unicode is the future-proof choice. Updating your tools and scripts to support Unicode will provide better compatibility, especially if your environment includes non-English characters.

4. Compatibility with pre-Windows 10 systems

If you are running AIDA64 v8.00 on older platforms such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1, you may need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 (x64). Without this component, AIDA64 may fail to launch. 

  • For more detailed information on AIDA64 version compatibility with different Windows operating systems, 
    please visit the Legacy Compatibility page.
  • We recommend installing the redistributable package as part of your deployment process when upgrading older systems.

5. Restoring settings when using the installer

When upgrading to AIDA64 v8.00 with the self-installer, the program will be installed into the default 64-bit folder:
C:\Program Files\FinalWire\AIDA64 <product edition>

The old 32-bit installation remains in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\FinalWire\AIDA64 <product edition>

To preserve your settings, manually copy the INI files from the Program Files (x86) folder to the new Program Files folder.


If you are using SensorPanel, the safest way to migrate is to export your current panel from the previous AIDA64 version (still available in the Program Files (x86) folder) and then import it into the new 64-bit installation. This ensures all layouts and settings carry over correctly. Note: if you upgrade via the built-in auto-update feature, this manual INI/Panel migration step is not required.

6. Stay Updated

Follow the AIDA64 Forums for the latest announcements, migration tips, and user feedback regarding version 8.00.

 

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