Any way at all to revert to 4 after 5 expires?

(if not that REALLY sux!)

Thursday, February 2, 2006 by Phydeaux_3 | Discussion: WindowBlinds

Well I sure did enjoy my "free" trial of WB5 but if I had known when I installed it that I'd never be able to run my paid-for (albeit expired ((but working wonderfully nonetheless)) version after 5 flaked out I NEVER would have gone anywhere near the damned thing... hardly worth it at all. I KNEW that I wouldn't be able to purchase 5 for quite some time but I figured (foolishly?) that I'd always be able to go back to my previous version in the meantime... not so. I've been screwing around with my machine for 2 days straight now just trying to get back to a useable, older version of WB.. I can get 4 to run but I have to select my skin each and every time I logon, winblows classic is loaded every time. I have uninstalled ad nauseum & have used the "zapper" to no avail. I am reading a LOT of horror stories about people fighting with the "reboot loop" too, methinks that Stardock may have shot themselves in the foot with the anti-piracy overkill in this build.. I wish more companies would use the winzip/nero example. Now that I'm running XP's basic Luna interface again, fast as a scalded cat too, I'm realizing that maybe alla that hype about WB not taxing resources isn't all it's cracked up to be either.. what's that old expression.. "never let them realize they can function without you.." Heh..

So.. is there ANY way at all for me to get back to a loading-automatically-at-startup WORKING previous version now that I've been to 5 and back?
Any/alll help would be greatly appreciated. I might yet decide to buy 5 when I can afford it, but not if this is the way Stardock is going to continue doing business in the future, so much copy protection that it's disabling a LOT of users in a LOT of different ways (just look at the forum activity! Gak!)

Thanks,
smooches,
» Phy³ . . .
2 Reply 5 Referrals
Neil Banfield
Reply #1 Friday, February 3, 2006 6:55 AM

The reboot loop problem some people are having has nothing to do with WB anti piracy!  It happens when a core bit of WB (the same bit which made WB auto start on login on WB4) has its registry keys zapped by an app on the users PC.  Usually an anti spyware app which is incorrectly assuming WB is spyware and not informing the user what has happened.  As it happens I believe the IE7 beta is having a similar problem with those overly aggressive apps.  It can also happen if the user is trying to bypass the XP activation system, but thats due to the PC appearing to be in safe mode and so WB is disabling itself.

Now onto your problem.  If WB is failing to start after a login then fastload.dll is either missing on the disk or its registry entries are missing.  Are you installing WB from a standalone exe or from SDC?  If you are just extracting a zipped copy of the directory then that will not work as the registry keys will not be being set.

As a workaround, you could put a shortcut to wbload.exe in your startup group

Again I should stress that the number of reported problems due to copy protection is near 0 if you discount those people who used the warez copy of WB.  A few people have SDC accounts which have an error which causes SDC to fail to activate the products and occasionally someone hits the activation limits and Stardock reset them for them, but thats it.

The trial version doesn't even have the activation system, just a simple 60 day timeout which is expected given its a 60 day trial.


Phydeaux_3
Reply #2 Friday, February 3, 2006 12:12 PM
Thanks for the reply Neil, very enlightening, the workaround you provided worked brilliantly (I thought for sure I had already done that, musta been the wrong damned .exe I tried with) and my machine is back to the way I wanted it, I don't mind waiting for the Winblows "please wait" for a few seconds each user login. I look forward to the day when I can once again be a fully functioning customer & I don't have to screw around with old freeware nonsense, when I can just pay for the damned thing, again. $20 might as well be a million right now.. I'm lucky to still have an internet connection right now. No foolin.

Thanks again,
smooches,
» Phy³ . . .

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