Effects > Effect Browser No Longer Opens

[LarryGtaffer]

Nature of the problem: I have been using PSP for years. Just yesterday the effects browser stopped opening up. I click on Effects > Effect Browser and nothing happens. Any further mouse clicks on the PSP screen result in a "ding" sound. An ESC key press allows me to continue working in PSP, just without the Effect Browser. I can use other features on the Effects menu, just not the browser.

It is no longer working in both PSP X7 and X6. I have tried de-installing X7 and reinstalling, both with and without my prior setup settings preserved. Nothing I have tried helps. Any suggestions?

[Ken Berry]

Have you tried resetting the program? Hold down the Shift key when clicking on the PSP icon on the desktop to open the program. You'll get a message asking if you want to reset it.

[LarryGtaffer]

Thanks Ken. That was one of the first things I tried, and, no, that doesn't help. As I said I've even de-installed and re-installed PSP with the default settings and that doesn't help either. It is behaving as though it was displaying the pop-up window, just without actually doing so. In fact, if I move my mouse over the screen, I can get the tooltips associated with selections on the Effect Browser window to show up, just as though the window were displayed, but it's not. I almost think that if I could visualize the window better in my mind, I might be able to click on the invisible buttons and get them to work. I just don't have it memorized well enough. Very weird and very unusable.

[rondo]

On PSP X6 64 bit the Effects Browser is blank, but it works on the 32 bit version.

Don't know if this was fixed with X7.

[LarryGtaffer]

Effect Browser has always worked for me in both 64 bit and 32 bit versions with both PSP X6 and X7 ... until two days ago, when it stopped showing up in all versions.

I took another look at PSP X6 both 32 and 64 bit just now, and I'm still having the same issue there, just like in PSP X7 both 32 and 64 bit. The image below is from X6 32 bit.



I did verify that if I click randomly where the Effect Browser should be displayed and then press Enter I can sometimes get an effect to happen on the current layer. It really is as though the window was open but not rendered.

I've also tried rebooting. That didn't fix it either.

[Jean-Luc]

Reload a previously saved workspace.
And also clear the cache.
Jean-Luc

[rondo]

My mistake and confusion, I thought you meant Instant Effects palette. So, I went through PSP X2, X3,X4,X5, & X6 and as you say the Effects Browser no longer opens, just get the pointer, have to hit Esc key to get program to respond again, but NO Effects browser.
So, my guess is that some Windows update at some time has crippled this feature as it no longer works in any version.

If you have X7, please report to Corel if under warranty, if not, let them know on their Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/corelpaintshop

[LarryGtaffer]

I've been on X7 since August 2014, so no warranty. And I don''t do facebook, so I can't report it to Coral that way. Is there no other on-line means to report bugs?

You're probably right that Coral used some unsupported feature that Microsoft has since disabled. I hope someone reports it to Coral soon and they get a patch out. This is a serious feature loss for my use of PSP.

[hartpaul]

No Problems with Effects Browser here. Have tried on XP, Win 7 and Win 8.1 with X7 upgraded to SP3.
Tried on XP as well with other versions 8, X2- X6 and again no problems.
In each case I loaded a picture, and did Effects > Effects Browser.

[LindaSue]

You are both using Vista. Could that be the culprit?

[LarryGtaffer]

It could be an issue only for those on Vista. IDK. That's a good guess. But we only have two points so far. In any event, It needs to be addressed by Coral.

[JoeB]

Windows 8.1 with X7 and effects browser works fine, so I'd go with the suggestion that it's OS specific.

[Kathy_9]

Works fine for me with X7 on Win7 Pro.

[Alex Brazeau]

Thanks, Larry (and all). We'll take a look into this. Much appreciated.

[rondo]

Yes, I'm using Windows Vista and the Effects Browser won't open as I mentioned earlier in any version of PSP. Strangely, as mentioned in first post, it had been working fine until recently.