Paint Shop Pro XI has stopped working - Vista Basic

Inchhigh · Post by **Inchhigh** » Fri May 16, 2008 5:51 pm

Program has been working perfectly well until today. Every time I try to launch the program I get the error message, "Paint Shop Pro XI has stopped working". Windows looks for a solution but doesn't come back with anything.

I uninstalled the program, then reinstalled it and it worked fine for about 15 minutes, then did the same. Back to square one now as it won't even launch.

I'd be grateful if anyone had any ideas as to what may be causing the problem or suggestions on how I could fix it.

allicorn · Post by **allicorn** » Fri May 16, 2008 7:03 pm

I believe X1 isn't officially supported on Vista?

Anyway, a little googling turned up these ideas:

Instead of double-clicking the PSP icon to start it - right-click it and select "Run as Administrator". You get some kind of prompt asking you whether you're sure, then apparently it works ok. But you'd have to do that every time if it does work.

You might also have some luck with the Program Compatability Wizard built into Vista it seems. It'll give you a few extra options to try that might make help Vista understand how to run the program correctly.

Best of luck!
Alli

Tim Morrison · Post by **Tim Morrison** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:08 am

XI is supported on Vista, but will need to have the 11.20 patch applied. (Links to download the patch for different versions of XI - http://apps.corel.com/support/patches/psppxisp2/)

For XI to suddenly stop working, something on your computer must have changed. It might simply be a corrupted cache or registry entry, but it might be the result of installing or updating some new software or hardware. If you've made any changes lately, that might be the cause of the problem. Badly designed and over aggressive security software (especially registry cleaners) are the most common offender. (You can safely forget about them... your computer doesn't need the registry cleaned. There marginal performance improvement is far outweighed by the damage they do, and nearly all of them are complete rubbish).

Before reinstalling XI, completely uninstall it using ZapPS (ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/PaintShopPro/X/zapps.exe), selecting PSPP XI as the product and all four options from the right-hand side.

Larry4511 · Post by **Larry4511** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 11:32 pm

Curiously, shortly after leaving my (Fresh-caught...) message, I started up PSP X2 and got the same message as was reported in the original for this thrad, i.e., "PSP stopped...etc."

Interestingly, the last time I had run PSP, it offerred a dialog box to install the latest update and I clicked intall now, got an activity box, then nothing. When starting it today, it would not start.

This is a new Dell computer with McAfee removed, running Vista Home Premium, with only 5 installed software programs. These are the Corel Bundle (PSP X2 Plus, VidwoStudio, and DVD Copy), purchased Aug 29 and installed when received. After that, I installed JPSoft's Take Command and Thornsoft's Clipmate.

I used the PSP installation disc uninstall command, then reinstalled it, and it started up okay.

I don't mind reinstalling software a limited number of times, but what I do not like is making custom changes to the software, like shortcut key assignments, only to have them disappear if the program refuses to run.

So, I guess my question is, how much of the program is uninstalled using the installation disc uninstall program? Does it leave the user customized stuff on the disk, including any saved scripts that I intend to write?

I noticed that the Help screen still remembered the last search text after I reinstalled PSP. I hope this is a good sign.

Also, if anyone has input to Corel designers, would you please have them use only black backgrounds and white text during the installation window screens? I use High Contrast by necessity and I simply cannot read the information on the screens I have to interact with during installation.

Hoping for the best.
Larry

allicorn · Post by **allicorn** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 12:13 am

Hi Larry,

Totally hear you regarding the annoyance of having to set up hard-won configs again!

There are, fortunately, a whole lot of things from your PSP install that you can preserve even if you remove and re-install the whole program.

Have a look in...

Code: Select all

C:\Users\<your-vista-username>\Documents\My PSP Files\

There you'll find a bunch of folders that contain your scripts, picture tubes, frames, brushes, saved selections, even workspaces (which include all your keyboard shortcuts, palette positions/settings and such).

If you're at all concerned about losing those settings anytime, just copy the whole set of folders to a free folder somewhere else and then - if (when!?

) something goes wrong you can just copy them all back again.

The workspace thing might not be a huge advantage to you at the moment if your PSP has already stopped working - unfortunately - but if you get the thing up and running again I'd heartily recommend using...

Code: Select all

File -> Workspace -> Save

...to create a personal workspace file after you've set things up the way you like them.

Cheers,
Alli

Larry4511 · Post by **Larry4511** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 12:36 pm

Thank you, Alli. That is very comforting to know.

I am still concerned about PSP X2's failure to start after an update. I am tempted to not do any updates for a while, which brings up the question:

What is the best method to follow when a PSP update arrives? If I have PSP running, should I close the program before allowing the update, or apply the update while PSP is loaded?

And:

Does PSP do any kind of "logging" that I can share here to try to figure out just where the error occrs?

Still optimistic...

Larry

Larry4511 · Post by **Larry4511** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:22 pm

Well, as luck would have it, PSP refused to run for the same reason when I tried it shortaly after writing that last message.

Okay, so, taking the cue from one of the earlier replies in this thread, I right-clicked the PSP shortcut and selected to Run as Admiistrator, and, well, it loaded up and waited for me to do some work on my photos.

So, I shut it down, right-slicked the shortcut again, hit Properties, then clicked Advanced, and set the program to run all the time as Administrator.

Then, clicking on the shortcut opens the Administrator Confirm box, then loaded PSP after clicking Continue.

Ironically, before PSP loaded, the PSP Registration Box opened up and I was encouraged to Register my program, which I did.

Just to be sure that Registration was not the problem, I went back to Properties and unchecked the Run as Administrator, and then tried to run PSP normally, but it would not run, "stopping" as before.

Now, as far as I know, I have never made any kind of Administrator changes since installing Vista. What I want, of course, is to be able to run ANY program I install on my computer without any hassle. This is a HOME computer, after all, and I do not need all this NT security stuff. How on Earth do I turn it all off?!!!

Sometimes I wonder how it would have been if Microsoft had built the Saturn 5's...don't think we would ever have gotten to the moon...

Will keep trying to figure this out...

See ya.
Larry

allicorn · Post by **allicorn** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:47 pm

Fascinating stuff Larry! Run as Admin eh? Glad its working anyway

This is a HOME computer, after all, and I do not need all this NT security stuff. How on Earth do I turn it all off?!!!

Totally agree! That said, despite the inconvenience I guess there are advantages to not being logged in as Admin all the time. For one, if you ever happen to receive a nasty file that wants to install malware or give you a virus, it shouldn't be able to do so much harm.

Alli

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:54 am

Couple of points from a computer boffin but not a paint shop pro boffin!!

When you use "Run As" and select another user - Administrator or otherwise, you are doing just that. It is the same as logging OFF from Windows and then logging ON as another user.

What this means is that each and every USER on a Windows computer will have their own set of preferences such as favourite bookmarks in Internet Explorer / Firefox etc. You will have your favourite desktop wallpaper but another user will have a different one. Iin the case of programs such as PaintShop Pro, or any of the Web Board supported programs - you will have various entries and settings in your
C:\Users\<your-vista-username>\......
or the XP equivalent
C:\Documents and Settings\<your XP Username>\....

So any projects YOU are working on will be safe when run under your correct Windows User name, but using "Run As" will be the other users set of projects and settings.

Not a problem if only You are the user of the computer and use the same "Run As" alternative account each time, but would be a problem if more than one person shares the computer and also uses the same program(s).

After installing a patch or update, if you find your computer now has a problem, the first thing to try is "Windows Restore" - this often reverses many of these problems. It rather depends upon what the individual update/upgrade was.

If System Restore fails to fix the problem then further suggestions can be found here:
Troubleshooting your computer

Larry4511 · Post by **Larry4511** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:42 pm

Yes, I tend to agree that it is a Vista problem rather then Paint Shop. I ran it through some paces yesterday and it did everything I asked it to.

As I said, I found the clue to the answer here at this site, though I didn't twig on it the first time I read it, and none of the other software I had loaded had not acted the same way.

Haven't worked with VideoStudio or DVDCopy yet, but if they do the same thing, I now know how to solve it.

Thanks for being here.

See ya.
Larry