Shared Config vs Personal Config

I have a concern. Opus is telling me that i'm "Currently using shared configuration files" when i KNOW that i installed it using the Personal Configuration. This is my second time installing Opus. The First time i had it set to Shared Config, and oh boy did Opus it give problems. [Not entirely sure that the 'problems' was due to which Config it was set too, but that's just my guess] This time I installed it using the Personal Config and it's been working great since. But in Prefs, Misc, Misc, it still says that i'm using Shared Config... is this a bad sign?

The main reason I had to reinstall Opus was because at times it would juice my CPU so much... like dude relax save some for later kinda thing. And also the weirdest strangest behavior in the Customize, Toolbars list [the check box list u know?]
Yea lets say I would check a box, first off the check would Not show up even though i just clicked it, but the corresponding toolbar Would pop up..?? Then I'd close the Customize window and when I reopened the Customize window, the strangest thing, a new option in the toolbars checklist would be there.. For instance let's say i checked "Drives", once i returned to Customize, Toolbars, there would be a "Drives.dop" option. and if i checked it, it would send another "Drives" toolbar to the lister. At some point there was a "ListerMenu.dop.dop.dop"
I started to loose track of it's behavior at this point but it seemed the options would be allowed to be checked at random and sometimes not.

Also i could no longer access any of the Options to the right of the Toolbars check list, whether the toolbar was checked or not. It would all be greyed out. What a time i had with that...

Side note: I have a feeling that I had something to do with this behavior because one of the First things I did when i First opened up the Customize window for the very first time, was mess around with the default tool bars. Moving them around, adding buttons, deleting buttons, moving buttons between toolbars, moving toolbars to the top, sides, bottom, hovering the toolbar, pretty much trying out everything. All this on the default toolbars. So i think that had a hand in upsetting the Toolbars list in Customize.

The reason I'm bringing all this up is because i have an inkling that the toolbars list in customize acting up and my Configuration type [Shared or Personal Configuration] not displaying properly are somehow related...

What do you guys think? Plz help..

[by the way i am no longer having that problem with the toolbars list in Customize since i reinstalled, but then again i have not tried to repeat messing around with the default toolbars like that either, out of fear alone lol. i now just create my own blank toolbar and play around on that instead and just uncheck the other toolbars that i don't want]

It could be a file permissioning problem. I've heard reports from people who, for some reason, no longer had access to change files/directories in their own user profile. (I don't think this was caused by Opus, but it can mean that Opus can't save some of its settings.)

I haven't heard of the .dop.dop.dop thing or some of the other stuff, though, so it might be something different.

It might be worth running FileMon and/or RegMon from Sysinternals.com to see if Opus is trying to access files or registry entries and being denied access. Can't think of anything else to try, sorry.

Hey nudel any help you offer is great thanks

I have both of the programs [filemon and regmon] but to be honest.. i don't have the slightest clue what to look for. I'd just open it and stare at the window looking at all the pretty words wiz by. Lol

Like right now, Opus just did the thing where it slowed waaaay down and my cpu usage is waaaaaay up. i'm running filemon now, but i really don't know what to look for. i see dopus.exe, and i take it im supposed to be looking for errors or denials perhaps? Like a Query for desktop.ini is showing up a Lot under NOT FOUND. i dunno if that means anything
But mostly everything else is SUCCESS all the way down. And for a few odd files here and there it says not found as well, but i'm checking the folder and the files are right there, weird. Also it's not finding some "settings.dat" files in some folders... but mostly a lot if not all the "desktop.ini" files are showing up Not Found
does this mean anything?

I'm going to run RegMon now and see what i can come up with...
but man it goes so fast to read anything

using regmon...
[Ok, enter the 'filter'. this is better]
A bunch of files are showing up Not Found in regmon
for example:
HKCU\Drive\shellex\FolderExtenstions
HKCR\Application\Explorer.exe\Drives\C\DefaultIcon
Actually these 2 are pretty much the majority, a few others here and there.
Hm i just looked and theres an "Other" column.. in which i see a lot of "Access:0x bla bla bla"
is that what i'm supposed be focussed on?
im such a noob
but hey we all started off as one so it's ok

A lot of Not Found messages are normal, often the result of Windows itself searching for DLLs or optional registry values in various paths before it finds the right one, and things like that.

It's the "Access Denied" messages that might be a tell-tale in this case.

That said, if a required DLL is not found anywhere then that would be a problem, and requierd registry settings could also be a problem. Some people recently found that they couldn't drag & drop toolbar items around in customize and, of all things, it turned out to be cause by a bad installer for an optional component of the Nero CD burning suite which was removing details about standard COM objects from the registry...

Anyway, another thing that might be worth looking at. Assuming you're familiar with RegEdit, take a look under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GPSoftware\Directory Opus in the Docks (where your enabled floating toolbars are recorded) and Toolbars (where your lister toolbars are recorded). Those should match up with that you see checked in the Customize dialog.