v15 - Possible incompatibility issues with other software

[Koyaanis]

I recently installed a couple of programs that are somewhat common. I couldn't read some DVDs that were made on a stand-alone DVD-recorder for TV, so I had to install Nero8's "InCD" to see them on my computer. They needed that UDF packet-writing/reading interface to be able to see these DVDs. There's also been a rash of trojans and worms on the net lately, so I also installed MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.

Between these two, one or both of them made Photoline v15 non-functional. I get that "A severe error has occurred. You should try to save .... and restart the application." message as soon as Photoline 15 is done finding all plugins, then I can't get beyond it. At least I think it's these two programs that are stopping Photoline 15 from working. I don't recall installing anything else that would latch into my operating system so deeply. I tried to stop and disable both of these programs' "services" without uninstalling them (I need to use them), but that didn't fix the problem with Photoline 15. I can, however use Photoline v14.90b8. It too came up with that "Severe Error" message at one point, but at least I can edit some things with v14.90, and that error only happened once, I probably can't reproduce it. I can't even get past that message when loading v15. Likewise, Photoline v13.9 also seems to load and run okay without encountering that error (but I didn't edit anything extensively to see if it too is a little unstable).

I just did a quick test by renaming my plugins folders, so Photoline wouldn't be opening those up, thinking something in there might be causing the problem, but v15 still errs-out when loading.

I really don't want to uninstall those other applications that might be causing this. Can someone help narrow this down so I can use all my needed and favorite tools? I strongly suspect "Nero InCD" to be causing this more than anything else (though that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware might be the culprit too). Nero's "InCD" latches into a computer operating system pretty deeply. It might be having a conflict with Window's own packet-CD drivers or something, and in turn, then screwing up running Photoline. Just a wild guess.

If Photoline is checking for the existence of CD/DVD devices during boot-up, then I bet its that Nero InCD thing that's causing this.

[Gerhard Huber]

I don't think that the problem are the installed programs.
PhotoLine doesn't need much things to work beside a stable operating system.
First of all, I would suggest to start PhotoLine with Shift key pressed. This will setup PhotoLine to don't open the browse window. Does it work now?

Gerhard

[Koyaanis]

Holding shift and clicking on the shortcut opens up the editor with the same "Severe Error" message.

Holding shift and clicking right on the photoline.exe file opens up the editor but no error message. However the program is just locked up and I can't click on any menus. If I try more than twice then I get the "Program not responding" message in the title-bar.

Neither opens up Photoline in browser mode.

I was thinking, maybe, since I'm using my configuration files from v14.9 that it's trying to find a graphic file on one of my DVD writers that is now under the control of InCD. If the file isn't there on the removeable-media for the "recent files" list, maybe that was causing it.

I know I know ... don't use the config files from a previous version, right?

Do a clean install and lose all my setups (AGAIN), right?

(time passes ...)

Okay, I did a clean install into a new folder. Problem gone. And so is all my tedious and time-consuming setups for my workspace.

Really, can't there be an easy way to retain and load work-spaces and make them backward compatible?

[Gerhard Huber]

There is no problem with older settings. You can use the settings of version 10 without any problems in PhotoLine version 15.
If there is a problem with your settings, this is a bug. But uninstalling PhotoLine won't remove the settings. Did you delete the registry entry manually? Or do you work in USB-Stick mode?
If you didn't delete the settings, save send and send it to me, I will have a look on it.

Gerhard

[Koyaanis]

Luckily, I always install and before running, create a UserSettings folder so that I might drag and drop everything to my camera's cards, for using it when on a photo expedition. So I have all old settings still intact. Instead of them having being overwritten in the default application-data folders. But to keep my workspace I also copy over all my old UserSettings files to the new one. I only don't do that (copy old config files) when trying to trouble-shoot, as I just did.

Do you need just Photoline.ini?

I recall in the past that it was just the matter of a -1 being set as a toolbar setting in the ini file that was causing all the problems with a previous version upgrade. It might be nice if Photoline could auto-check for any settings outside of bounds and correct them.

I still love Photoline, otherwise I wouldn't be so upset when I can't get it working. It's my main editor even with all the bugs I run into.

debugging-time passes ...

Ah-hah, I found the problem. By copying files over, one by one, from my first v15 "UserSettings" folder, I finally ran across the file that was causing this headache. "UserDictionary.txt". There's hardly anything in that file, and I don't even know what it's for or where it came from. I do use ASpell, but its UserDictionary is held in its own install folder.

I just renamed that file to a .bak extension in my v15 first-install and the program runs just fine.

Weird!

I hope this info might help. Checking ... and that "UserDictionary.txt" file goes back to my installs of Photoline 13. I think that's when you started the UserSettings folder option. So I have no idea when that originally got there, or why it should cause Photoline to crash.

Further debugging ...

I found out Photoline creates that file every time you add a new word from ASpell spellchecking to the user dictionary. I just added a word from a document that wasn't in Aspell's dictionary, now when I load up Photoline 15 it crashes again. Delete or rename that file and it works again.

Needs fixing.

[Gerhard Huber]

Can you send me the dictionary file?

Gerhard

[Koyaanis]

It's not a real txt file. But I can open it in UltraEdit, and it just shows the last word added to your user dictionary, never more than that.

If I delete that file, then I can run v15 just fine. If I add a word to that file while editing, then it creates that file. If I try to open v15 again, then it crashes.

See attachment for a freshly created UserDictionary.txt. It crashes my Photoline.

[note: I see that I'm using GNU Aspell v0.50.3, and they now have v0.60.6. Updating my Aspell to see if that's the issue. Ooops, no can do, they didn't port the new version to Windows. Well, I did find an ASpell v0.60.3 for Windows that someone ported. I'll try that.]

[Gerhard Huber]

I have no problem with your dictionary file.

Gerhard

[Koyaanis]

Well, I tested every other file in my UserSettings folder, there's some 39 files there, and that's the only one that causes Photoline to crash. Delete it, Photoline works. Add a word to the dictionary while editing, it creates the file, then crashes Photoline the next time I try to start it. I tried making a 0-byte UserDictionary.txt file and then making it "read-only" so that Photoline won't accidently create a bad file. Photoline runs just fine with a 0-byte UserDictionary.txt file. Then if I try to add a word, Photoline overwrites that "read-only" file and makes one that crashes Photoline. Photoline doesn't seem to respect some "read-only" attributes.

I'll just remember to not use that function of the spell-checker from now on in v15.

I don't understand why Photoline even creates that file in the first place. Aspell keeps its own UserDictionary files in its own folders. On further checking ... words added to the UserDictionary setting while in Photoline don't even get added to the Aspell user dictionary files (en.prepl, en.pw_, and en.pws), so there's really no point to even include that option in Photoline's right-click context menu while text editing.