I have now established - beyond any doubt whatsoever - it was a Windows issue ( at my end ) , to be more specific :a Windows issue concerning the COM-service being damaged .
I want to stress something here :
Directory Opus wasn't faulty
Stardock wasn't issuing faulty applications .
I now have both Directory Opus AND stardock - Windowblinds running together happily and without any problems . In the end I had to revert to a full re-install of Windows XP and subsequent updates .
There 's a way to try and repair the COM-service when it's damaged .You can tell if COM service is damaged by trying the following :
click start and right click "my computer " then click "manage
"
a MMC should open , at the left search for services and applications and unfold that tree , double click services
in the right -hand window scroll down to the COM + service and other COM -services , check to see if they are running and the setting is "automatic "
if the service is not running try starting it manually by selecting it and clicking start at top of screen ( or right-click and start it )
if you get any kind of error , indicating the service can't start , the COM-services module is damaged .
to try and repair this , do the following ( again : this is for Windows XP , I do not know if the same would apply to windows 2000 , although I'm pretty sure it would ) :
reboot windows into safe mode .
rename %SystemRoot%\system32\clbcatq.dll to %SystemRoot%\system32~Clbcatq.dll
Make sure to include the ~
reboot computer, again into safe-mode
Delete the COM3 subkey from the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft
you can do that by clicking start, run and type "regedit " in the box , without the ""
cllick start, run and type CMD in the box , this opens an MS-DOS prompt .
type cd.. until you are in the root , that would be C:\ in most cases. Press enter after each cd..
type pushd %SystemRoot% and press enter , this does the same as item above
type rd /s /q Registration
and press enter
*type popd
and press enter
type exit
you have now exited the dos-box
use note -pad to remove Hide from the Com= line in this file :
%SystemRoot%\Inf\Sysoc.inf
FOR WINDOWS XP :
-click start, run and type CMD in box
type the following commands , pressing enter after each command :
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
THESE COMMANDS ARE VITAL FOR REPAIR TO WORK !!
now go to start/settings/control-panel/add-remove programs/add-remove Windows Components
press next and re-install COM +
reboot into normal mode and repeat that last step if necessary ( add remove windows compnents ) until it says COM+ is installed .
Now check the beginning of this lengthy topic and see if anything has changed , i.e. ; if the COM-services are now behaving themselves
If not ; tough luck : either try a "repair windows -installation " or a full re-install on top of the one already there .
I had the same disgusting problem right now: restarted the machine and now dopus loads itself as a process but bo not allow to open any lister.
The only change to the system was the installation of Macromedia Dreamweaver MX package, and after that ... good bye Dopus!!
Have restored to a previous windows retore point (yesterday), and Dopus opened up again. But if you close it then ... good buy dopus again! And you could go on this cycle forever...
So, MX has nothing to do with this.
Disabling auomatic start does not help and there's nothing to do with "starda..." (dunno even what's that), nor COM services errors, nor every kind of things said here ....
Have no idea of what should I try now ...
Any suggestion not previously suggested would be very, very apreciated
I tested everything!
Reinstalled it many times from scracth, both 8.1.0.7 and 8.1.0.6 and always the same: first boot ok but after closing it .... gone forever!
Finally I installed 8.0.0.0 (tx god I keep record of everything) and .... now I'm working at 500 % again to recover from this lost working afternoon.
So, the question is, what makes dopus 8.0.1.x crash when (also in my case) 6 trial days remains?
I too have got 6 days left of the stock licence and Dopus has suddenly stopped running. Shame because I was actually about to get my credit card out and buy it today I've simply got to get it working again because I've spent so much time configuring it.
I'm running XP SP2 and the 8.1.0.7 unicode version.
This morning it was running fine. Since then I've successfully installed and run Google Earth software, but then I tried to install the Google Video Player software. It wouldn't install and I got the message:
"NSIS Error ... The installer you are trying to use is corrupted or incomplete. This could be the result of a damaged disk, a failed download or a virus. You may want to contact the author of this installer to obtain a new copu. It mway be possible to skip this check using the /NCRC command line switch (NOT RECOMMENDED)."
I then noticed that Dopus wouldn't run again. The bulb icon appears for a second or so and then vanishes. I ran Adaware and Spybot but still no joy after. And I also now notice that Tweaknow Regcleaner crashes when scanning the "ActiveX/COM" area of the registry.
What should I do now?
It does seem a bit spooky that this has happened to a few of us just a few days before the end of the trial period. Could it be related to that?
Update: I've just proved that the reason for Directory Opus ceasing to function on my machine is related to something that Dopus does around a week before the expiry of the stock licence. It is not related to the Google software installs I mentioned in my previous post.
Following on from my previous post I uninstalled 8.1.0.7 and installed 8.1.0.8 but still no joy.
What I then did was reinstall an Acronis Trueimage C: drive image from disk, dated 21st June 2005, effectively setting the system back to how it was then. Bear in mind that my system (including Dopus) has been running sweetly in the 18 days since I made that C: image.
Once I'd booted up my AVG virus scan updated itself but I did absolutely nothing else to the system before starting Dopus from the start menu (I never had it configured to start automatically at boot up).
Sure enough my default lister opened along with the Dopus Licence Manager window warning me that I have 7 days of stock licence left, expiring 7/15/2005.
I then exited the lister and quit Dopus from the taskbar notification area. Now when I try and start Dopus again, with or without a reboot, the light bulb icon appears for a fraction of a second but then disappears and no lister opens. But the dopus.exe process does remain running.
Apart from anything else I now couldn't enter a registration code even if I bought one apart from perhaps rolling my system back 18 days and losing a lot of interim work. Help!
No. There is no issue such as this with the official digitally signed version of Opus as available directly from our web site. It sounds to me like you have installed a non-official version and have thus corrupted your Operating System in some manner.
If you are running on the stock certificate and have never applied for an evaluation certificate (some users here seem to have been here for more than the default 30 days btw) then in the official versions the licence manager will come up reminding you of the end of your free period. On all official versions, the licence manager will come up under all circumstances when the eval period has expired or is about to.
Please feel free to talk to me privately but if you have installed a, let's say', non-official version, then I'm afraid you have created probelms for yourself. Also note that with many of the 'non-official versions we have seen also have embedded virus. One I have seen escaped detection by Norton Anti-Virus.
I'm replying in here Greg, rather than privately, as I believe this may be of interest to other users.
Firstly I have never installed a non-official version. I would never dream of doing so. I'm poor but I'm not that poor! And as a video producer I'm fanatical about intellectual property righs. In addition I would never dream of downloading the program from anywhere except your website.
However I can confirm that I have been evaluating Directory Opus longer than 30 days, and I'll tell you exactly why. I started by installing an OFFICIAL version 8 from your website on 23rd April. I applied for the evaluation licence and your email told me "Your free evaluation of Directory Opus expires on Wednesday, 22 June 2005". On around 1st May I installed 8.1 and qualified for a fresh 60-day evaluation period under your kind offer.
Unfortunately on 22 May I suffered the crash caused by displaying thumbnails of large 32-bit PNG images in thumbnails mode. I then put a lot of effort into identifying the source of this crash for you and I believe it was that information that enabled you to fix the bug in 8.1.0.7. You were pleased because you'd been unable to identify and fix this bug until you received my PNG file. It was my pleasure to help.
That crash caused by the bug in Directory Opus unfortunately resulted in corruption of my system and I eventually ended up having to completely reinstall and reconfigure Windows, taking a number of days. Despite that I still liked Dopus and I thought I would try again with it. After my fresh Windows install I was delighted to get the 30-day stock licence (expiring 15th July), giving me time to restore my faith in the product. On 18th June I suffered the incompatibility with Yahoo Musicmatch Jukebox which admitedly appeared to be Yahoo's fault, not yours, but in the light of the various problems I held back actually paying until I was confident of no more serious bugs or incompatibilities.
With 7 days left on the stock licence I was coming to the point of paying for a full licence when this latest problem hit me. And my post above proves, to me at least, that it's a Directory Opus problem. The system had run fine for 18 days, then I rolled it back 18 days using an identical disk image, and then everything ran fine again except for Dopus. And it does seem strange that numerous other users have had Dopus failing just a few days before the end of the stock licence. I really think you should look into it.
Anyway, all that aside, I think it's a great piece of software and I've put a lot of time and effort into configuring it how I want it. I'll be gutted if I can't continue to use it, but at the same time I really don't want to face another system reinstall. So please advise how I can pay for a licence and register it.
[quote]I'm pretty sure it was the iprepair.dll that's part
of IconPackager. We've released a new 3.00a tonight
with an update for that which should sort things.
Though reading the thread suggests you wound up solving
it another way?
Kris[/quote]
I updated IconPackager and it now works (after being broken the second time)
I can sympathise with the problems you are having but this is far too complicated an issue to discuss on this forum. There is just no code in Opus to do anything special like this 7 days before the expiry date of an extended evaluation on a normal system. Rolling back the system just indicates there os some other factor you have introduced in the last period that is changing the system or registry in some way. Exactly why you are seeing this issue is somewhat of a mystery to me at the moment.
This forum is not the place for such technical support issues. Talk to me privately.
One other small note, any crash in Opus related to thumbnail images for gif or PNG files etc can only 'take out' the current thumbnails thread in the current runing version of the program. It can't affect or corrupt the system itself. This does indicate other issues on your specific machine.
OK thanks Greg, I've send you another email. I may be confused about which problem caused me the complete reinstall. It may have been the Musicmatch Jukebox blue screen problem, not the PNG problem. I'm not 100% sure.
By the way the whole point of rolling back using a drive image I created 3 weeks ago is that everything I've done in the intervening period is completely eradicated. The system is reset to exactly as it was back then.
i figured how to fix a problem for now. i uninstalled windows blinds and then unchecked a "Windows Blinds Compatibility mode" checkbox in opus preferences (Prefs > Misc > Misc). it works
If the stock certificate is failing to load maybe try just deleting the stockcert.txt file from the Opus program folder. Opus should then complain that there's no certificate installed whatsoever and give you the chance to install an evaluation one.
I wasn't going to comment since it has nothing to do with the problems being discussed here (which I'm not having anyway) but...
I don't work for GPSoft or anything, but as a fan of their product I'd say don't be too hard on them for being cautious while giving feedback on problems reported by 'trial' users that seem to have to do with (by your own determinations) the evaluation licensing... Of course he wants his product to be better; but he doesn't know you personally and has no idea what your motivations are. And while a software vendor can hardly expect users to pay money for a product if it crashes their PC or something like that... keep in mind that the "we're helping you to make a better product" mentality is just as easily wielded by thieves who will 'never' pay for the product as it is by honest law abiding PC users who just want to see reliability before they spend money:-). As it stands, the 60 day trial offered by GPSoft is among the more generous trial periods out there... but as Greg has stated, if you're having the type of 'crash with 7 days left in the trial period' problem, then it's not something anyone from this forum will likely be able to help you with anyway and you should work directly with him and GPSoft on it. Asking that from the people reporting the problem is hardly 'really going wrong'. Good luck to all... I hope you get your problems fixed and 'join the Dopus user family'!
Sorry, No! I am not having this kind of discussion on this forum.
This is a forum where many users offer their time and free assistance to legitimate and genuine evaluation users to help others gain a better understanding of how to use the program. We are a small company with limited resources and we depend on the sales of the program to eat and support future development. Plus we are one of the very few companies who offer free technical support. As a long standing company policy we have always provided direct free technical assistance to registered users and legitimate evaluation users.
We will not permit people who somehow have managed to keep using the program after their evaluation period taking up time and space on this forum because of problems that most likely have been caused by use of illegal versions of the product or other system issues not related to the normal use of the program.
Nick's issue is not one of these cases and is being followed up with him privately.
There are just no significant bugs in the program that would prevent a normal reasonable individual from supporting our efforts and purchasing the product after a 30/60 day evaluation. That is, if the user has always installed the product directly from the official digitally versions. To do other is not only unwise but potentially leaves your whole system open to serious problems caused by such hacks and we absolutely refuse to assist under such cases.
That said, if any normal user has a specific technical problem as always they can use the web supported technical support mechanism or in extreme circumstances email us directly and explain why they should be given free support under any circumstances.
