Deskscapes Wont Load
Monday, December 14, 2009 by Xiandi | Discussion: Object Desktop
I had Descapes before and it was running fine. With the last update to it, it only partially worked. Some dreams would play, some would not. I have not tried to find out what the problem is until today.
I tried to load a dream today. I opened Deskscapes, clicked the one I wanted, and applied it. The only thing it showed on my screen was a tiny dark box in the middle of my screen and it crashed explorer.
I went to Impulse to see if there was any updates to it (sometimes that will fix things). Impulse showed that I did not even have Deskscapes installed! So...
I uninstalled Deskscapes using Revo Uninstaller, which cleans the registry along with the uninstall process. Opened Impulse to install Deskscapes. I have the 'show prerelease version' checked. I try to install it. I get an error message "The beta of the application you are attempting to download/register is not available". I uncheck the 'prerelease version' box and try again. It installs fine. I have verified the install through Impulse too.
Now Deskscapes will not open at all. Not from the start menu, not if I brouse to the exe in the stardock folder and click it...nothing. If I open Impulse again and check the 'prerelease' button, it shows an update available...I try to get that update and get the error message again.
So, now I cant get any dreams to run at all. Any advice will be appreciated.
Reply #2 Monday, December 14, 2009 1:48 PM
Well, since there is no easy way to turn off AVG temoprarily...I uninstalled it completely. Then I rebooted...opened Impulse...downloaded Deskscapes (prerelease unchecked)...verified the install in Impulse....rebooted.
As soon as my computer came up, I get an error: "dll failed to load, last error code:126".
I still have the same problem. Deskscapes will not open.
Reply #3 Monday, December 14, 2009 1:56 PM
That error makes me think it might be a driver issue......have you recently updated your video drivers? or did your problem start right after one of Microsoft's updates?
Reply #4 Monday, December 14, 2009 2:04 PM
I have had no driver updates or windows updates...however I just looked to see if there were any. There is one I can do: nVidia-Display-NVIDIA GeForce 8400. I guess I could update that and see if anything changes.
Reply #5 Monday, December 14, 2009 2:11 PM
I've seen that card in a number of posts the last year........I'd definitely update.
Reply #6 Monday, December 14, 2009 2:38 PM
updated that
rebooted
installed Deskscapes
rebooted
Still get the dll error and Deskscapes still wont open.
Reply #7 Monday, December 14, 2009 2:50 PM
Does it specify which dll it's not finding? I've got one more suggestion and then someone else may have a better idea.....try moving all your downloaded dreams to another directory temporarily. Deskscapes may be trying to load a "bad" dream (play on words)
Reply #9 Monday, December 14, 2009 3:02 PM
I'm on Vista, Jim.
edit: nevermind, I found out where they are.
Reply #10 Monday, December 14, 2009 3:46 PM
I moved the dreams to a different folder and the error remains upon install and reboot.
The error is exactly how I wrote it. It does not say anything more.
Reply #11 Monday, December 14, 2009 3:50 PM
Along the same lines the dreams also cache up / extract into the user settings, you might want to delete them out of there as well. On XP (Vista ignorant here) it's C:\Doc&Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\DeskScapes\ExtractedData. I think it used to extract them to individual user app data so you might want to look there as well
Reply #12 Monday, December 14, 2009 4:08 PM
I think it's time to get advice from Neil or support@stardock.com
Reply #13 Monday, December 14, 2009 4:23 PM
I'm going to try one more thing with Jims help...if it dont work, I'll open a ticket. Thanks for trying Lantec, I appreciate it.
edit: opening a ticket.
Reply #14 Monday, December 14, 2009 5:13 PM
One more thing to add, in case someone sees this and can help....
Once I install Deskscapes, the 'configure deskscapes' option is not in my right click menu.
Reply #15 Monday, December 14, 2009 10:19 PM
Do you have something else installed that is loaded into explorer that may be preventing DeskScapes from doing so? Perhaps another wallpaper changer or some other shell mod?
Reply #16 Monday, December 14, 2009 11:36 PM
Edit: I dont think I mentioned that that dll error only shows up when Deskscapes is installed. So, it is definitely related to this problem.
Reply #17 Tuesday, December 15, 2009 3:41 AM
Did you have Deskscapes 2 installed previously?
Reply #18 Tuesday, December 15, 2009 10:15 AM
I did and it was working ok, but now I dont have any of them installed.
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Reply #1 Monday, December 14, 2009 12:44 PM
Start over.....make sure to disable anti-virus/spyware....from reading forum posts it looks like the latest AVG seems to have it in for Impulse....be sure to reboot before trying to run Deskscapes.