eFilm Vet by Merge Healthcare* is a popular DICOM viewing platform used by dvmCLOUD customers in on-premise PACS environments.  eFilm 3.3 and 4 are not officially supported on Windows 10 endpoints, but using these steps will allow the program to install without errors or conflicts.

This procedure involves multiple advanced steps.  It is recommended that it be performed by your IT Liasion or network administrator.

Follow these steps to install eFilm 3.3 or 4.0 on Windows 8, 8.1, and 10:

  1. Ensure the Windows firewall is off.
  2. Ensure UAC is off (this may require a reboot).
  3. Ensure the .NET 3.5 Feature is activated.
  4. Download the Microsoft SQL Express 2005 SP4 package.**
  5. Open Windows Explorer and create a folder called C:\SQLSETUP.
  6. Place the downloaded executable file in the newly created folder.
  7. Open a Command Prompt with elevated permissions (i.e. Run As Administrator).
  8. Type the following commands (you may copy them from here and paste into the elevated Command Prompt):
> cd \SQLSETUP
> SQLEXPR.EXE SQLAUTOSTART=1 SQLBROWSERAUTOSTART=0 DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1 ERRORREPORTING=1 INSTANCENAME="SQLEXPRESSEFILM" ADDLOCAL="All" SQLCOLLATION="SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" SECURITYMODE=SQL SAPWD="eFilmWS30" /qn

This is a "silent" installer, which means there will be no progress bar or indication of completion.  You must wait several minutes for the installation to fully complete in the background before continuing.  You can verify the service is running by typing services.msc in the Search box (next to the Windows button) and browsing down to the entry called SQL SERVER (SQLEXPRESSEFILM).  Make sure the status displays "Running."

Once SQL Express 2005 SP4 is running successfully, it is safe to proceed with the standard eFilm installer.  The eFilm installer must use the Run As Administrator option for a successful deployment.

If SQL Express SP2 is already installed, use this command instead:

> SQLEXPR.EXE INSTANCENAME="SQLEXPRESSEFILM" UPGRADE=SQL_Engine SAPWD="eFilmWS30" /qb

* eFilm and Merge are trademarks of Merge Healthcare (www.merge.com).  Azzaron is not affiliated with Merge Healthcare or veterinary DICOM software distributor Sound (www.soundvet.com).  These instructions are provided AS-IS with no guarantees, expressed or implied.

** SQL Express 2005 is no longer available at Microsoft since it is EOL.  Contact Azzaron if you need a copy of SP4 or download it from download.com.  Microsoft's position is that SQL Express 2005 SP4 is not compatible with Windows 10, so installing it will void Microsoft support.  Azzaron has tested it for the purpose of connecting eFilm in dozens of situations and found no issues.