[RESOLVED] WindowBlinds 7.3 is already broken

joelore

Join Date 02/2004

[RESOLVED] WindowBlinds 7.3 is already broken

Hi,

Installed WindowBlinds 7.3 final and it's doing that no skinning thing again when I reboot. It's random, sometimes it runs at startup sometimes it does not. I have auto restart disabled like tech support said but it's still happening. The last beta was working flawlessly. I may go back to it.

Also since I installed 7.3 it broke both my Cursor Control Panel and my IconPackager browser. They both lock up minutes after starting them. They work fine with WB removed.

Anyone else having issues?

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

As for Po's problem - I would assume it is similar since his renewal came after the sale (it was sold in March) and Impulse won't recognize the new serial. Doc's big IF

Quoting DrJBHL,

reply 73

So, if your ODNT sub is OK and was in effect before all the store/Impulse dl methods started, do this:

applies here.

I have a suspicion that Doc's last sub renewal occurred before the sale of Impulse, which appears to me to be the only way his 'solution' could have worked.

None of that helps Po fix what's broke, though. May need Yrag for that.

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Quoting Daiwa,

reply 75

Your sub is active, true, but you renewed after the sale and Impulse is no longer of any use to you for managing SD desktop apps (except to the extent you may have successfully archived apps with it prior to your 31Aug11 renewal that are restorable with Impulse).

Your only option going forward is using the individual store downloads. Until the replacement for Impulse, which is under development, is released.

Hope that makes some sense now.

SO based on this, I'm borked with the version of WB I downloaded from the store because I can't use Impulse since I renewed in July???? I can't even open it and can't get anything to uninstall it.

There seriously needs to be a sticky laying all of this out in detail and every OD customer should get an email laying it out.

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Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 70

Likewise holding down CTRL when logging in will stop WB.

I did this on reboot.

All the pop-ups stopped and so far everything seems like it should. Running regualr Windows Aero *gak.

So...what do I do now? Uninstall WB and then try to reinstall clean from the store???

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Right click sub-menus are opening to the left. Is this WB or Win update? Is there a reg fix for this?

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Quoting S J N,

reply 79

Is there a reg fix for this?

Not one that sticks. Re-applying a WB breaks it again. See this thread.

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Quoting PoSmedley,

reply 78

Uninstall WB and then try to reinstall clean from the store???

That's what I'd do, Po'. Dump it, wipe its butt with CCleaner and try again. Nothing to lose but " regualr Windows Aero *gak."

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2223

Quoting Wizard1956,

reply 81

" regualr Windows Aero *gak."

Wiz has been taking Zubish lessons...lol.

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Quoting RedneckDude,

reply 82

Wiz has been taking Zubish lessons...lol.

ACtually, he got from me when he quoted.

I am now a virus.

mwahahahahahahahahaha *gak ha

Quoting Wizard1956,

reply 81

That's what I'd do, Po'. Dump it, wipe its butt with CCleaner and try again. Nothing to lose but " regualr Windows Aero *gak."

Yeah, but did you see all the freaking errors I am getting? I can't even do a system restore. I don't know if I uninstall WB it will take anything with it.

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Quoting RedneckDude,

reply 82

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 81 " regualr Windows Aero *gak."

Wiz has been taking Zubish lessons...lol.

And RnD has been taking Jafo lessons.

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I did a scf / scannow and got this. I'm gonna reboot without holding Ctrl to disable windowblinds and see what the hell I get.

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Okay. Rebooted without disabling WB.

It booted up with WIndows Aero. The 'fix' also seems to have disabled STardocks Log on. I'll deal with that later.

No pop-ups or errors.

Opened WB and applied 2of3's Ubuntu 11 since I never had issues with it. The skin running when all this started was Majik.

Still no pop ups or errors.

No I'm gonna try and reboot it all with WB active.

*Rebooted. An error message popped up as it was shutting down. Happened to fast to see what the hell it said. No pop-ups on reboot then Windows Explorer STopped working. Restarted it and all seems okay. Gonna reboot one more time.

** No errors closing this time. Rebooted and WIndows Explorer didn't crash. The only thing I wanna do now but am afraid to do is try the System Restore again and see if I still get the same message. Just don't know if it will screw things up.

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If it's working now, create a restore point to fall back to before you try restoring back. Your old restore point(s) may be corrupted somehow.

P.S. I found this pertaining to your restore error. A few things worth reading in the thread. LINK

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

Not sure what will get you to your prior stable state, Po, but once you're there, I'd consider uninstalling all the ODNT apps using Impulse (I think it should still work for that purpose) - however, given what's transpired on your rig, WB might be the exception & you might want to uninstall it manually and/or use the OD Zapper app (http://sd.stardock.com/mike/apps/odnt_zapper.exe), running it as administrator.

Once all the prior versions of OD apps are gone, start fresh with the individual installers for each app on your Store/My Accounts page. Far as I know, that's your only present option, until such time as a new app manager is released.

I agree that some sort of instructions, perhaps an automated email triggered by renewal or a popup at the time of renewal purchase directing you to an online explanation & instructions, would be very helpful. My sub renews in January, so I've not dealt with any of these issues (except to install apps downloaded from the store on a new Win7 rig last month) and the new app manager may be ready by then.

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Quoting Wizard1956,

reply 87

If it's working now, create a restore point to fall back to before you try restoring back. Your old restore point(s) may be corrupted somehow.

P.S. I found this pertaining to your restore error. A few things worth reading in the thread

Thanks WIZ . I may try that stuff later. I have way to much crap on my plate right now and this about pushed me over the edge. Believe it or not, y'all are my only source of sanity and relief right now and all I was thinking since last night was that my PC was gonna go belly up and I would be cut off. The pain and shit I am dealing with is just so far beyond what I had gotten used to, it ain't even worth trying to whine or explain about. SO far everything 'seems' okay with the PC. Maybe tomorrow I will try what the link details.

Quoting Daiwa,

reply 88

Not sure what will get you to your prior stable state, Po, but once you're there,

I think the scan fixed most of it. I really won't kinow until I try a system restore again. Everything seems pretty stable. WB is running and there are no pop ups at all. I tried to open the CBS.log from the scannow to post for the dev's but I don't know how to open it. If anyone thinks it may be helpful and can tell me how to post it or whatever, let me know. I'd be happy to help.

As for uninstalling everything from ODN, no thanks. I'll wait for the new updater to come out and see what we have then. Unless there are some major changes that I have to have, I'll just leave things as they are.

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neophil78

Join Date 06/2003

+67

Quoting Hankers,

reply 68

If you have any issues with restoring your purchased products then email support@stardock.com and start a trouble ticket.

Though, everyone having to restore anything installed and archived with Impulse will have to email support@stardock ???

I just think you must be joking !!!!!!!

As soon the OD subscription is considered to be over by Impulse NOTHING can be reinstalled, and every OD subscriber will be concerned (however OD subscription is renewed or not)

It's just a breaking off the agreement of OD subscription which lay down customers to use Impulse to install softwares included in subscription

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

Quoting PoSmedley,

reply 89

As for uninstalling everything from ODN, no thanks.

Fair enough. Once it ain't broke...

But future updates, should you choose to install them, will have to be installed using the installer(s) downloaded from the Store until SDC is reborn, and there's no EDC on that yet.

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

Quoting neophil78,

reply 90

It's just a breaking off the agreement of OD subscription which lay down customers to use Impulse to install softwares included in subscription

That's not quite a fair or accurate statement, neo. Paid subscribers still have access to all the apps & updates, just not through Impulse anymore (once they renew or the sub expires) - because Stardock no longer owns Impulse and we're in a transition period until March of next year. Is it a bit of a PIA to update apps just now? Sure, but no agreement has been broken off.

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DrJBHL

Join Date 04/2002

+4204

Sorry the fix didn't work for you. I think it's because of your renewal date.

I was lucky it did for me because my renewal is 10/16/11.

My only thought is that you have to work with a skin that doesn't cause these errors to occur, at this point, and try to remember (maybe from a screenshot?) what skin was problematic, although I suspect the problem might be deeper. I did a malwarebytes scan but it turned up negative, Yours might not... just a thought.

By the way, I did an sfc /scannow in the process of restoring but it found no errors not integrity violations.... so I didn't mention it.

Sorry for your trouble, Po'. Having felt the pain, I understand how you feel at the moment.

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neophil78...

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DrJBHL

Join Date 04/2002

+4204

Quoting PoSmedley,

reply 77

I can't even open it and can't get anything to uninstall it.

You can open Windows Explorer, copy all your skins from C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Stardock\ObjectDesktop\Windowblinds

to another location and call it SmedleysStuff. Then you can return the skins one at a time.... and delete any problematic ones.

However, after I did the fix through Impulse, I returned all my skins to the Users\Public\... etc. and no problems with the skins nor with Windowblinds have recurred, so I'm not really sure this is the fault of any of the skins... and I have quite a few there.

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Quoting DrJBHL,

reply 93

Sorry for your trouble, Po'. Having felt the pain, I understand how you feel at the moment.

No problem. You helped a lot just by giving me options to eliminate. I greatly appreciate it.

There definitely needs to be a sticky that explains this mess. AND a form letter/email to ODN subscribers. Even if the PC can be recovered, having to remove the program and all the skins, ect., each time you update/upgrade is pain in the damn ass. I realize that everything is in transition right now and I know in the end Stardock will come through. It's the in between time that you all shouldn't let this stuff slip by. It gives the perception you all are falling down on this one. Bad perception. It's not what got you here and it's not the kind of perception that has kept me here. WHen I can't do something for my customer because I have to wait on something, I tell them up front and do everything I can to get them through until it can be done. If I just left 'em hanging and only responded when they made some noise, I would start to lose them. Sometimes it cost me to keep them happy during the rough spots, but it keeps my good perception going and usually pays off in the end.

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DrJBHL

Join Date 04/2002

+4204

Po', I actually meant to relocate all the skins from the folder.

Important! ->First set your desktop to Aero.

Then relocate the skins. Move them to the PoStuff Folder which you can put on your desktop.

Then uninstall WB7.3 with Revo uninstaller set to medium strength. Then delete (tick) the keys in bold font in Revo.

Reboot. You should have Aero on the screen.

Now reinstall Windowblinds from the store.

It should work, as it will only come with its default skins and won't "see" any you downloaded.

The recolored skin you generally work with is on the desktop in the Po'Stuff Folder, move it to the Folder in C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Stardock\ObjectDesktop\Windowblinds

If WB stops working, delete it from the folder in Users, and try another.... as I said, mine aren't causing a problem.

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Seems my issue with ODTs Cursor program was a partialy downloaded theme file in the theme folder. My guess is when it tried to read that file, since it was incomplete, it locked up the program.

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