WindowBlinds 5 Startup Problems

Wednesday, November 30, 2005 by Andrew Robinson | Discussion: WindowBlinds

When I install WB5, I get the usual pop-up asking me to reboot my system, but when I reboot, I get the same again. If I try and launch through StarDock central, the same happens again. Have I missed something here somwhere?

My system is:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
1.5 GIG DDR400
Geforce 6800 Ultra 256MB
Windows XP SP2 (Fully Updated)

Any help is appreciated.

[ Update ]

I have read a few of similar problems here, looked for .CMD in MSCONFIG, yet thats not listed.
145 Reply 88 Referrals
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_chris_
Reply #41 Monday, December 5, 2005 5:33 AM
Neil,

You said something about the possibility that an other program somehow messes up the starting of WB. So I disabled all the startup programs in msconfig and then tried booting but that wouldn't help. This time MSCONFIG.exe took all cpu.
Then I tried a diagnostic startup but even then the system jammed.
And after uninstalling WB everything works fine again.

Chris

Edit: Noted that I never gave any system information so here it is:

Intel P4 3.2 GHz HT
3.0 GB DDR2 SDRAM
ATI X800 XT 256 MB
Windows SP1

Gabe3
Reply #42 Monday, December 5, 2005 3:47 PM
i have the same problem, everytime I run WB 5 it asks to reboot now or later

what a waiste of time and money, now i know why it was only $20

Neil Banfield
Reply #43 Monday, December 5, 2005 4:06 PM

If WB asks you to reboot and you have rebooted then there are 2 possible reasons for this:

1) You have an application which is 'protecting' certain registry keys.  These keys are important to WB and the WB installer must be able to write to them.

2) You have antiwpa.dll installed on your machine.  This will tell WB its in safe mode and so WB will disable itself automatically.


Gabe3
Reply #44 Monday, December 5, 2005 5:09 PM
i did a system search including hidden files and it didnt find antiwpa.dll

i also disabled every startup program via msconfig and i dont have any programs that would protect my registery

Neil Banfield
Reply #45 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 6:26 AM
Gabe3: Please send an e-mail to [email protected]

_chris_
Reply #46 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 12:13 PM
I thought it was a better idea to go back to WB4 and wait for a later release of WB5. But now WB4 has exaclty the same issues.
When I try to load a program that should be skinned by WB it won't load and the cpu goes to 100%. Winamp does load however, but it is not skinned by WB.
I don't understand why this happens because WB4 used to work like a charm on my computer.

Chef Garry
Reply #47 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 5:32 PM
Chris, I have switched back to 4.6 as well. I can change skins through display properties but not through wbconfig. See if that helps.

Neil Banfield
Reply #48 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 5:56 PM

If it continues with WB4.6 then it suggests its not WB causing the issue.  Check wblind.dll is the right date for WB 4.6 though.

What other apps do you have running?  Be aware that msconfig will not list every app running at startup.


Neil Banfield
Reply #49 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 6:08 PM
Also if you have a file called iprepair.dll on your pc, try renaming it.

Tofino
Reply #50 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 11:12 PM

Just popping in to report that I still haven't successfully installed WB. I've uninstalled ActiveWords, uninstalled a number of security apps that may be blocking WB's access to the registry and I am still being asked to reboot. Once I get launched down this path, the only way to actually get WB functioning is to reinstall it. If I do this I am asked to reboot, which I do and Windows launches with the "Retro" theme and I can then play to my heart's content UNTIL I HAVE OCCASION TO REBOOT. Then WB reverts to asking me to complete the installation by rebooting and the above cycle begins anew.


I am at a loss to explain this and will now sit on the side until a new build is released. Hopefully the next build will resolve this issues.


Gabe3
Reply #51 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 11:24 PM
looks like they should have betatested this so more, we can call it "windowsbleta"

bad joke i know

_chris_
Reply #52 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 4:47 AM
If it continues with WB4.6 then it suggests its not WB causing the issue.


Hmmm I am beginning to get the same idea. Especially since my computer completely crashed when I tried to launch it today, it appears that there are some damaged system files...


Tofino
Reply #53 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 10:49 AM
Hi all,

I just want to confirm something here: am I the only one posting in this thread that gets through the first reboot after WB5 installation, is able to use ALL features of WB 5 until the NEXT reboot, at which point I am put in a mindnumbing cycle of being asked to reboot the computer to finalize the installation (despite the fact that I've already done that and used the program, with the system configuration pane of wbconfig indicating that everything is fine with my installation and setup)?

Just curious,

Thanks,

Mike

Neil Banfield
Reply #54 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 11:13 AM

If WB works after the first reboot and then stops working after the next reboot then something is removing the WindowBlinds registry entries after WB has started.  If the keys are deleted then clearly WB is unable to start & no amount of patches from us is going to resolve this as its not WB deleting the keys.

It seems most likely the problem is a service doing this.


Neil Banfield
Reply #55 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 11:14 AM
Gabe3: Please send an e-mail to [email protected] from the e-mail address you registered WB with.

Tofino
Reply #56 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 7:25 PM
Yes, thank you Neil, I am aware of that. I was merely posting to find out if anyone else is experiencing the same behaviour so that we might try to identify if there are common third party services running that might be causing this. I've tied myself in knots trying to identify what is conflicting with WB on my system and have failed.

Gabe3
Reply #57 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 8:32 PM
I havnt bought wb 5 yet, I am just trying to get the trial to work

Neil Banfield
Reply #58 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 8:40 PM

Sorry, I thought when you said 'what a waiste of time and money, now i know why it was only $20' you had purchased a copy.

Could you still please contact me with a list of the apps running on your PC and the information from the WB troubleshooting page as we can try to track down this problem. 

Thanks


_chris_
Reply #59 Thursday, December 8, 2005 1:55 PM
Just finished restoring my system, and WB 5.00[b].006 is running perfectly

Thanks for all the help,

Chris

Tofino
Reply #60 Saturday, December 10, 2005 8:24 PM

OK I seem to have joined the rest of the club now in that I cannot get WB5 to start after installation AT ALL. My machine reboots in Windows Classic and I get the "This machine MUST be rebooted after installing this version of WB5" popup (without my interacting with the computer in any way other than to type in my password). If I then click on "reboot now" the machine restarts back into Windows Classic and the same popup appears.


I've already been through all my security apps and services - I've even tried installing WB with only the default WinXP services running and my security apps set not to start on boot with no change. I have full read/write access to the registry.


Thoughts?


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