Updated Stardock Central causing Desktop X problems
Sunday, March 14, 2004 by AustinPowers | Discussion: Stardock Software
Help. I hadn't fired up SD Central for a few weeks, and when I did last night, it updated the prog for me. I tried to dload some new Desktop themes, and it dloaded just fine. However, it will not apply them to my desktop. Gives me error message "Desktop X Themes could not be found on your computer. Please ensure the application is installed and the required files exist."
I don't know what that means. I finally uninstalled everything...desktop X, window blinds, Cursor XP...everything. Cleaned out the registry and reinstalled everything. I still get the same message. Window Blinds seems to work okay, but I can't dload and apply any Desktop Themes. I don't recall ever having this problem prior to the Stardock Central program upgrade. Any ideas? Thanks.
I don't know what that means. I finally uninstalled everything...desktop X, window blinds, Cursor XP...everything. Cleaned out the registry and reinstalled everything. I still get the same message. Window Blinds seems to work okay, but I can't dload and apply any Desktop Themes. I don't recall ever having this problem prior to the Stardock Central program upgrade. Any ideas? Thanks.
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AustinPowers
Reply #2 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:14 PM
Reply #2 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:14 PM
SDC is listed as V 1.30.256 Build 42
The Desktop X path was installed to C://Program Files/Object Desktop/Desktop X/
Thanks for any help
The Desktop X path was installed to C://Program Files/Object Desktop/Desktop X/
Thanks for any help
yrag
Reply #3 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:21 PM
Reply #3 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:21 PM
SDC version is correct. That's the good news. Bad news is the Path is wrong...Default Path is: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX. If you re-installed everything you shouldn't even have the old Object Desktop folder. You need to un-install DX, re-boot and re-install DX thru SDC. Copy all your themes from the old folder to the new one and then get rid of that Object Desktop Folder when you have everything out of it you want.
AustinPowers
Reply #4 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:39 PM
Reply #4 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:39 PM
Actually, when I uninstalled everything, I trashed all the associated folders, to include the Object Desktop folder. The first prog I installed was StarDock Central. I installed everything through that program, and it downloaded and installed it wherever it thought it was supposed to. Even though I trashed the Object Desktop folder, I now have it back, and it's full again of program files for: Theme Manager, Icon packager, component tray, object media, windowblinds, desktop x, windowfx, objectbar, springfolders, tweakshell and object sweeper. Is it possible that the new version of SDC is installing these programs in the wrong path. It's the program that recreated my Object Desktop folder. I don't know what's up with this. Like I said, I never had a problem until SDC updated itself.
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
yrag
Reply #5 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:48 PM
Reply #5 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:48 PM
Do you in fact have the C:\Program Files\Stardock Folder and if you do is everything in there. When they switched from CM to SDC the Folders changed, but the proggies loaded to both. You may not be getting the DX themes because you just need to copy your themes to the new folder. You'll have to do that with all your saved skins...
AustinPowers
Reply #6 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:08 PM
Reply #6 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:08 PM
I do have C:\Program Files\Stardock, but it only has CursorXP and SDCentral folders in it. You just made me wonder though. When I installed SDC, one of the progs I let it install is Wincustomize. I wondered why I would need this program if I had SDC, as they appear to do about the same thing. I'm wondering if installing and running Wincustomize would cause it to install everything in the Object Desktop folder...otherwise I have no idea. I guess I could uninstall and reinstall everything again - without installing wincustomize again. Still...I would think if I installed from SDC, it would tell the program where to install itself.
yrag
Reply #7 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:19 PM
Reply #7 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:19 PM
The Wincustomize proggie shouldn't matter...try this: un-install just DX and reboot and then re-install. If SDC is working properly it should go to the Stardock folder. If it doesn't, let me know and we'll fix it...
AustinPowers
Reply #8 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:34 PM
Reply #8 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:34 PM
Sorry to be a pain. I did uninstall, reboot and reinstall. The DesktopX folder is again placed in the object Desktop folder not in the Stardock folder. It appears to be running. I doubt it's working any better, but I'll check to see if I can apply any DX themes.
AustinPowers
Reply #10 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:43 PM
Reply #10 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:43 PM
It still tells me it cannot find Desktop X themes on the comp. I looked in the settings for SDC and see that it does let you specify a path for downloads. However, it's already pointed the Download folder under SDCentral. I checked and the themes I just downloaded are in there. I also noted that under the object desktop folder is DesktopX folder which holds the folders for the Themes folder (with default themes in there). Is this the folder where the DX themes I'm dloading should be going?
AustinPowers
Reply #11 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:46 PM
Reply #11 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:46 PM
I note the Windowblinds I dloaded are in the same download folder the DX themes are, and Windowblinds works fine, as far as I can tell.
yrag
Reply #12 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:46 PM
Reply #12 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:46 PM
My guess is it's not going to work....
You need to open SDC and click on 'Reg.Info' in lower right corner. Under the Object Desktop tab make default Install Folder: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop and change your Misc tab to default to: C:\Program Files\Stardock. Your WC tab folder should already be set as: C:\Program Files\Wincustomize.
Now, do the DX thing as noted above and it should install correctly.
You need to open SDC and click on 'Reg.Info' in lower right corner. Under the Object Desktop tab make default Install Folder: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop and change your Misc tab to default to: C:\Program Files\Stardock. Your WC tab folder should already be set as: C:\Program Files\Wincustomize.
Now, do the DX thing as noted above and it should install correctly.
yrag
Reply #13 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:51 PM
Reply #13 Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:51 PM
When this works...and it will work.... you need to do the same thing for all of your
Stardock Apps 'cause after you change the install folders your other proggies won't work. You can do it all at once or one at a time...doesn't matter. Just make sure you save your skins so you can copy to new folder.
Stardock Apps 'cause after you change the install folders your other proggies won't work. You can do it all at once or one at a time...doesn't matter. Just make sure you save your skins so you can copy to new folder.
AustinPowers
Reply #14 Monday, March 15, 2004 2:53 AM
Reply #14 Monday, March 15, 2004 2:53 AM
yrag,
Thanks for all your help. I did exactly as you said. Actually I uninstalled everything and started from scratch (again). I fired up SDC first, and went in the reg area to change the default install folders. Initially it appeared to be going as you predicted. I did find that I could not change the folder under the Misc tab - it was ghosted, and no matter what I pressed, I could not get it to allow me to change the install folder. This means that CursorXP would be installed under C:\Program Files (as it appears to be set - this is how it was installed before, and it appeared to work just fine). Anyway, I installed WindowBlinds, WindowFX, IconPackager, and DesktopX - all through SDC. Time to test it out. I dloaded some applicable data files, and found that everything works fine BUT DesktopX. I still get the "Desktop X Themes could not be found on your computer...." message. I don't know what's going on. As I said, DesktopX worked fine up until yesterday....prior to SDC updating itself I had no problem whatsoever with DesktopX, and at that time, it was being installed in the wrong place anyway (by your information). Still...it worked fine. I don't know if anyone else is having trouble, but I'm running out of ideas. I appreciate your advice. Anything else I've overlooked. Thanks.
Thanks for all your help. I did exactly as you said. Actually I uninstalled everything and started from scratch (again). I fired up SDC first, and went in the reg area to change the default install folders. Initially it appeared to be going as you predicted. I did find that I could not change the folder under the Misc tab - it was ghosted, and no matter what I pressed, I could not get it to allow me to change the install folder. This means that CursorXP would be installed under C:\Program Files (as it appears to be set - this is how it was installed before, and it appeared to work just fine). Anyway, I installed WindowBlinds, WindowFX, IconPackager, and DesktopX - all through SDC. Time to test it out. I dloaded some applicable data files, and found that everything works fine BUT DesktopX. I still get the "Desktop X Themes could not be found on your computer...." message. I don't know what's going on. As I said, DesktopX worked fine up until yesterday....prior to SDC updating itself I had no problem whatsoever with DesktopX, and at that time, it was being installed in the wrong place anyway (by your information). Still...it worked fine. I don't know if anyone else is having trouble, but I'm running out of ideas. I appreciate your advice. Anything else I've overlooked. Thanks.
yrag
Reply #15 Monday, March 15, 2004 12:29 PM
Reply #15 Monday, March 15, 2004 12:29 PM
Brad...this has now turned into a mission.... 
Several questions:
What version of DX do you show installed ? (look in the 'about' in DX config not SDC)
Did you buy CursorXP ? ( it's apparent you bought Object Dock Network/ Wincustomize, but Cursor is a stand alone)
Look in the new DX themes folder...are the icon and file extensions showing correctly?
Finally, can you load an 'Object'?
I don't think it's SDC and now everthing will update correctly with the install folders corrected. I think it's probably more a file association problem then anything...
No worries...we'll get it
Several questions:
What version of DX do you show installed ? (look in the 'about' in DX config not SDC)
Did you buy CursorXP ? ( it's apparent you bought Object Dock Network/ Wincustomize, but Cursor is a stand alone)
Look in the new DX themes folder...are the icon and file extensions showing correctly?
Finally, can you load an 'Object'?
I don't think it's SDC and now everthing will update correctly with the install folders corrected. I think it's probably more a file association problem then anything...
No worries...we'll get it
AustinPowers
Reply #16 Monday, March 15, 2004 2:15 PM
Reply #16 Monday, March 15, 2004 2:15 PM
Thanks so much for the effort. Okay...here's your info:
DX Version shows V2.10a.022
Yes, I purchased CursorXP, and even re-queried Stardock for my registration #'s. Both object Desktop and CursorXP had slightly different registration #'s in SDC than what my return email showed. I updated the reg numbers as given to me last night in the email. I checked this since I wasn't able to change the path in under the Misc tab (for CursorXP). I haven't reinstalled it yet, but it still has the path ghosted.
Under the DX Themes folder, the icons show correctly - the same icon in my system tray. The files listed are the 7 themes which are installed when DX was installed - all with .dxtheme file extensions listed.
Finally, I tried something I hadn't done before. I tried to load an object, and then a theme from the DX program itself, and not through SDC. It worked, and loaded just fine. Bit of a surprise, as I don't usually load themes through this program. I then fired up SDC, d'loaded both an object and a theme. When I tried to apply them from within SDC, I got the same old error message (see above). I looked to see where these files were installed - SDCentral\Download. The workbench files show up as wba files, but the DX files are showing as zip files. Also in SDC, I noticed that under the advanced tab of the settings, it shows the default Downloads folder as SDCentral\temp. I don't know if any of this is helpful. Maybe this gives more clues. Thanks again.
DX Version shows V2.10a.022
Yes, I purchased CursorXP, and even re-queried Stardock for my registration #'s. Both object Desktop and CursorXP had slightly different registration #'s in SDC than what my return email showed. I updated the reg numbers as given to me last night in the email. I checked this since I wasn't able to change the path in under the Misc tab (for CursorXP). I haven't reinstalled it yet, but it still has the path ghosted.
Under the DX Themes folder, the icons show correctly - the same icon in my system tray. The files listed are the 7 themes which are installed when DX was installed - all with .dxtheme file extensions listed.
Finally, I tried something I hadn't done before. I tried to load an object, and then a theme from the DX program itself, and not through SDC. It worked, and loaded just fine. Bit of a surprise, as I don't usually load themes through this program. I then fired up SDC, d'loaded both an object and a theme. When I tried to apply them from within SDC, I got the same old error message (see above). I looked to see where these files were installed - SDCentral\Download. The workbench files show up as wba files, but the DX files are showing as zip files. Also in SDC, I noticed that under the advanced tab of the settings, it shows the default Downloads folder as SDCentral\temp. I don't know if any of this is helpful. Maybe this gives more clues. Thanks again.
yrag
Reply #17 Monday, March 15, 2004 3:02 PM
Reply #17 Monday, March 15, 2004 3:02 PM
As far as CursorXP is concerned, if the serial is correct and it is installed correctly in a 'Stand Alone' Folder...that's fine. As a note: If you installed CursorXP from somewhere other then thru SDC then it will not show correctly in SDC until you do so.
Now for DX: Some old files may not work with the new version...I had the same problem with old ones.If you download Themes and Objects thru SDC you must go to the Download folder as noted above and double click the file to install...if they are zipped (most Objects are not/most Themes are) then unzip them right there and double click the unzipped file or you can just move the unzipped file to the appropiate folder. If you want to apply (or download to a different folder) the Theme right from SDC, you can right click on the skin for options.
Try it and let me know....
Now for DX: Some old files may not work with the new version...I had the same problem with old ones.If you download Themes and Objects thru SDC you must go to the Download folder as noted above and double click the file to install...if they are zipped (most Objects are not/most Themes are) then unzip them right there and double click the unzipped file or you can just move the unzipped file to the appropiate folder. If you want to apply (or download to a different folder) the Theme right from SDC, you can right click on the skin for options.
Try it and let me know....
AustinPowers
Reply #18 Monday, March 15, 2004 6:38 PM
Reply #18 Monday, March 15, 2004 6:38 PM
Okay...this is starting to give me a headache. I went to the download folder where SDC stored the DX themes and objects I d'loaded. I assume that's the folder you wanted me to unzip those files into. I did this, and then was able to double click on the objects and the themes, which causes them to load. But I don't understand why I need to go to all this trouble. Isn't that what SDC is supposed to be doing for me? I never had this problem before. I d'loaded themes, and when I applied them from within SDC, it did whatever it needed to do and then applied it. I don't know if it automatically unzipped but I didn't have to worry about it. It just worked. This way seems like a really work intensive workaround to a problem with the software. I installed DX from within SDC and it stores it's example themes and objects in a completely different place. I can't see these from within SDC, which is okay. I just don't understand what it's looking for and where. The error message is giving me blurry vision. You mentioned unzipping them where I find them, or moving the unzipped files to the appropriate folders. Which folders would these be? The DesktopX folders under Object Desktop, or some other folders under SDCentral. I guess I'm just trying to figure out what I need to do to have SDC be the program I use to dload and apply themes and objects. It used to work perfectly, and now it doesn't. I don't believe I've done anything except allow SDC to update itself. Also, I scrapped all my old theme files...everything. When I uninstalled, I cleaned up and removed everything, thinking a clean install would put everything where it's supposed to be. Additionally, I let SDC install the programs where it wants to. The idea that I'm doing something really stupid is beginning to creep into my head. I don't see anyone else jumping in and stating that they are also having probs. I just can't think of anything else I could have done to disrupt the proper operation of SDC....thanks.
yrag
Reply #19 Monday, March 15, 2004 8:41 PM
Reply #19 Monday, March 15, 2004 8:41 PM
OK Brad...let's go thru this step by step so we're both on the same channel...
#1 - your settings are all correct, so there is no problem there.
#2 - some proggies install on auto...some don't. DX is one that to a certain degree doesn't.
#3 - Themes are un-zipped to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX\Themes
Objects " " " to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX\Objects.
#4 - the default SDC download folder is: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\Download.
OK...I want you to open SDC and click on the 'Skins and Themes' tab...it will give you a WC splash screen as it updates the files. In the left side click on 'DesktopX Themes'. It will update them (you'll see the progress bar). Click on 'Visus' by fivesballs listed at the top and then click the download button at bottom. The download screen will come on. After it's done close SDC and go to C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\Download and un-zip Visus file to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX\Themes. Open DX and click on load theme...you will see 'Visus'. Load it.
If something else happens that is different then what I outlined above then that's where are problem is.
There are easier ways to do this, but for now (before you drive yourself crazy) we need to do it this way to determine if there's another problem....
#1 - your settings are all correct, so there is no problem there.
#2 - some proggies install on auto...some don't. DX is one that to a certain degree doesn't.
#3 - Themes are un-zipped to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX\Themes
Objects " " " to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX\Objects.
#4 - the default SDC download folder is: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\Download.
OK...I want you to open SDC and click on the 'Skins and Themes' tab...it will give you a WC splash screen as it updates the files. In the left side click on 'DesktopX Themes'. It will update them (you'll see the progress bar). Click on 'Visus' by fivesballs listed at the top and then click the download button at bottom. The download screen will come on. After it's done close SDC and go to C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\Download and un-zip Visus file to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DesktopX\Themes. Open DX and click on load theme...you will see 'Visus'. Load it.
If something else happens that is different then what I outlined above then that's where are problem is.
There are easier ways to do this, but for now (before you drive yourself crazy) we need to do it this way to determine if there's another problem....
AustinPowers
Reply #20 Monday, March 15, 2004 9:29 PM
Reply #20 Monday, March 15, 2004 9:29 PM
Okay, thanks for the folder paths for the different programs. I did exactly as you asked, and Visus did load as it's supposed to. Hopefully this narrows the problem down to something just shy of operator error. God is this embarassing. But honestly....it used to work just fine. Is there something else not setup properly? Thanks....I hate to keep saying this, but I feel obligated to 
Brad
Brad
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Reply #1 Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:05 PM
[Message Edited]