PWP won't start

[madhg]

PWP has been working very well, up to today. Now it refuses to start. A rotating blue circle appears when I double-click the .exe file, then it stops after a second or two. I don't see anything that's obviously PWP-related in the Task Manager process list. Rebooted PC (Win 10 64-bit), doesn't help. Uninstalled, downloaded the latest PWP version, reinstalled, rebooted again, still no good. Any suggestions?

As it happens, I'm also struggling with internet connection today, a major outage of my fibre-optic connection. So I'm using mobile hotspot. I don't see how this can affect PWP.

[jsachs]

The most likely problem is that somehow your session state or preferences file is corrupted.

The session state file records various settings from one PWP session to the next. These include the list of recently opened file, the transformation use counts, the custom palette, etc.

The preferences file records most of your File/Preferences settings.

First try renaming the session state file which is located at: "C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Picture Window Pro\Session State\Session.state" and then try running PWP again. If that works, you are done, but please email me a copy of the renamed bad session file so I can see what was wrong. You will lose the session settings, but none of them is critical. If you want, you can try and restore some of them from the corrupted file.

If that doesn't work, try renaming the preferences file which is located at: "C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Picture Window Pro\Preferences\Settings.Preferences".

Another possibility is a bad ICC profile, so if you installed any new profiles (or printer drivers) lately, try removing them.

If none of this works, I can provide you with a special version of PWP that reports its progress as it starts up and that can localize the problem.

[madhg]

Thanks for your reply. The first two suggestions didn't work. I don't knowingly use color profiles, and haven't installed new printers lately.

I had trouble attaching the session.state, even after I renamed it as a .txt file - error message attached. So I'm copying the text of session.state below.

best wishes,
David
----------------------------------------------
Session 1.0
openfile 0 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\E-from-carpark v4.jpg″
openfile 1 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\E-from-carpark v3.jpg″
openfile 2 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\E-from-carpark v2.jpg″
openfile 3 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\tiffs&jpgs\looking-E-1.TIF″
openfile 4 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\E-from-carpark v1.tif″
openfile 5 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\tiffs&jpgs\E-from-carpark.TIF″
openfile 6 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\pinnacles-1 v2.jpg″
openfile 7 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\pinnacles-1 v1.jpg″
openfile 8 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\tiffs&jpgs\pinnacles-1.JPG″
openfile 9 ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited\looking-W v1.jpg″
font_scale 0.9895
font_face_index 5
border_color 0
current_view 2
mask_overlay_color 0
mask_transparency 2
mask_initial_display 2
color_picker_colorspace 0
color_picker_numberspace 0
showclippedhighlights 0
showclippedshadows 0
hide_images 0
show_select 0
measure_operation 0
measure_units 0
horizontal_split 0
separator 0.1948
thumbnail_zoom_factor 1.6818
last_file_open_folder ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\tiffs&jpgs″
last_file_save_folder ″C:\Users\david\Pictures\___Photos\___Twistgates\25pm-Beer-Head\edited″
default_folder ″C:\Users\david\Pictures″
prev_workspace ″″
last_workspace ″C:\Users\david\AppData\Local\Picture Window Pro\Crash Recovery.workspace″
current_snippet ″″
falloff_folder ″″
distortion_folder ″″
what_workspace_to_recover 1
clipping_color_space 0
window_placement 2 -1 -1 -32000 -32000 6 94 1596 1012 3
browser_window_placement 0 -1 -1 -1 -1 49 341 1466 1318 1
palette 0 0 0 0
palette 1 64 64 64
palette 2 128 128 128
palette 3 192 192 192
palette 4 255 255 255
palette 5 255 0 0
palette 6 0 255 0
palette 7 0 0 255
palette 8 0 255 255
palette 9 255 0 255
palette 10 255 255 0
readout 0 0 0 0 0 1
magnifier 1
histogram 2 0 1 0
nik_folder ″C:\Program Files\DxO\Nik Collection″
topaz_folder ″C:\Program Files\Topaz Labs″
dxo_folder ″C:\Program Files\DxO Labs″
use_count ″color_curves″ 4510
use_count ″crop″ 2621
use_count ″unsharp_mask″ 2306
use_count ″warp″ 1053
use_count ″level″ 770
use_count ″selective_correction″ 538
use_count ″defringe″ 431
use_count ″rotref″ 308
use_count ″clone″ 257
use_count ″resize″ 85
use_count ″paste″ 68
use_count ″denoise″ 61
use_count ″raw_develop″ 56
use_count ″color_balance″ 52
use_count ″add_border″ 47
use_count ″convert″ 41
use_count ″lens_distortion″ 41
use_count ″dehaze″ 40
use_count ″file_open″ 34
use_count ″levels_and_color″ 33
use_count ″scratch″ 31
use_count ″monochrome″ 28
use_count ″blur″ 22
use_count ″gaussian_blur″ 21
use_count ″kaleidoscope″ 14
use_count ″paint″ 13
use_count ″saturation″ 11
use_count ″composite″ 10
use_count ″color_negative″ 8
use_count ″grid″ 6
use_count ″extract_channel″ 6
use_count ″masks″ 5
use_count ″transparent_png″ 5
use_count ″replace_channel″ 5
use_count ″lctool″ 5
use_count ″cosine_falloff″ 4
use_count ″stack_images″ 4
use_count ″sweep_gradient″ 4
use_count ″text″ 4
use_count ″layout″ 4
use_count ″advanced_sharpen″ 4
use_count ″file_new″ 4
use_count ″smudge″ 3
use_count ″linear_gradient″ 3
use_count ″export″ 3
use_count ″lens_profile_target″ 3
use_count ″arrow″ 3
use_count ″distort″ 3
use_count ″light_falloff″ 3
use_count ″zoom_blur″ 3
use_count ″blend″ 2
use_count ″match_reference″ 2
use_count ″brightness_curve″ 2
use_count ″halftone″ 2
use_count ″gamma_test″ 1
use_count ″conformal_mapping″ 1
use_count ″emboss″ 1
use_count ″crop_marks″ 1
use_count ″invert″ 1
use_count ″chromatic_aberration″ 1
use_count ″sharpen″ 1
use_count ″mobius″ 1
use_count ″copy″ 1
use_count ″swap_channels″ 1
use_count ″multipoint_gradient″ 1
use_count ″oval_gradient″ 1
use_count ″calendar″ 1
use_count ″filter″ 1
use_count ″precise_gaussian_blur″ 1
use_count ″frame″ 1
end

[jsachs]

I built a debug version of PWP that displays a series of message boxes as it starts up.

You can download it at https://www.dl-c.com/Documents/PWP%20Debug.zip.

If you double-click on the downloaded zip file, you will see the single file: PWP 8.0.exe.

Go to the folder where PWP 8 is installed (typically C:\Program Files\Digital Light & Color\Picture Window Pro 8) and rename the PWP 8.0.exe file currently there. Then drag PWP 8.0.exe from the zip file to the install folder.

Now when you run PWP you should see a series of message boxes. Keep clicking OK until it hangs and let me know the last message it got to. This will tell me where in the initialization process it is getting stuck.

To get the old version back, just rename PWP 8.0.exe to something like PWP 8.0 Debug.exe and rename the original executable back to PWP 8.0. exe.

[jsachs]

Your session.state file appears to be OK since it worked here.

[madhg]

OK, I put the debug executable into the application folder and ran it, getting a string of dialogs.

The last one was: loading favourites. Then it stopped.

[jsachs]

OK, try renaming your Favorites file located at: My Documents\Picture Window Pro\Favorites\Default.favorites

That should fix the problem, but please post the bad file so I can get an idea what went wrong.

PWP will reset the Favorites to a default set, but you can then change them to your personal favorites.

You can restore the original executable to get rid of the message boxes.

[madhg]

That did the trick, thank you. Old favs attached, with a fake extension to get it attached.

I used PWP7 in the last day or two - amazingly clunky to use compared with PWP8, which is so well thought-out! Thank you again, Jonathan,
best wishes,
David

[jsachs]

I don't see any attachment.

You can just email to me at jsachs@dl-c.com or paste the contents of the file into a post.

[madhg]

Oh, I now see that when I attach the file there's a warning triangle. I'll use email.