HOURS, if not DAYS, to install WB6

network3d if everyone who is or has downloaded WB6 ran into that do you really think the site would still be up?

Please give more information, what kind of internet connection do you have?

Are you trying to download from the web site or are you using SDC?

Have you contacted Stardock to identify this problem?

Have you looked through the forums for people haveing downloading problems and see if there was a solution?

Mine took about 4 minutes, How many WB's did it have to move and what kind of PC are you on? even 1000 WB's shouldnt take more than 30 mins or so.

Uncheck "Auto-archive on application update" in SDC and then start the WB6 install. After the installation completes and you reboot, you can recheck "Auto-archive on application update".

That option was unchecked. Windows Vista with 4GB RAM, 4000 X2 AMD processor, and so far, it has been 5 hours and it is still copying and moving files.

Could you give us specifics of what happened?  Were you upgrading or reinstalling?  Did anything hang?  Was this the stand alone or through SDC?  What version of Windows do you use?

On two different sytems, it's the same things, over 60 dialog boxes for copying files were opened, and I gave up on the first one after SIX hours of waiting.
On the second system, it has now been over FIVE hours, and again, over 60 dialog boxes are opened, and it is absurd for WB6 to be this slow in installing.

System 1: Windows XP SP2, 2GB RAM, upgrading from WB5 to WB5

System 2: Windows Vista Ultimate, 4GB RAM, upgrading WB5 to WB6.

There is something seriously wrong with either the upgrading or installing method.

Auto-archive is unchecked.

The upgrades were started via SDC, after SDC was upgraded.

I only have about 100 skins, so I just don't understand why it is so whacked out, it's not just one system.

Still going,
Windows Task Manager shows HUNDREDS of task, named either "Calculating time remaining" or "0 seconds remaining". This is so absurd, because I have no more than a 100 skins installed. How was this not observed on other systems?
It is not just one system that is having this problem. So far, any system that I upgrade from WB5 to WB6 via SDC, exhibits the same awfully bad behavior.
Is the fix to just uninstall WindowBlinds and say that it has jumped the shark with this version, and wait for something better?

You are the second instance of this I've seen.  I'd suspect it is a rather unique config causing the issue.
It'll work out.

As Zubaz said.. This is the 2nd post I've seen with that problem.

Something borked somewhere. Should have only been one box. Even a buttload of skins shouldn't take more than 30min depending on the system. I've only got 512mb of ram and it only took about 10-15 min for about 150 skins.




In which manner via SDC? There's options. Straight upgrade over what you got. Download WB 6 straight to archive 1st?

I used the download to archive. once archived, i uninstalled 5, rebooted, restored the 6 archive.

network3d the link is to the other forum post that had the same problem, didn't know is you had found it. Good luck.

WWW Link

Took me about 3 or 4 minutes on both Vista and XP. It's not a problem with WB...must be something with your system, setup, or connection.

It's most likely incorrect file permissions on the shared folder. If the folder is read only nothing will copy. Try setting up a new user account with full file permissions and install from there.

This is certainly not normal.

I like to think I'm a little tech-savvy, but this unit of measurement is new to me. Just how many is a 'buttload'?

Generally dependent on the speaker. In some cases "alot" in other cases "massive quantities" assumed to be more or less equivalent with a "shitload"

    

Im going to try this method - after spending 3 hours upgrading to WB 6 via Stardock Central - I left the download unattended at 85 percent done and returned 30 minutes later to see " Installation Failed " due to connection timing out and I gather the download was not on a resume server.

Log File:

-- [Application] ----------------------------------------------------
Name: Stardock Central
Path: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral
Version: 2.48.485, build: 160

-- [System Information] ---------------------------------------------
Platform: Microsoft Windows Windows XP, 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1
Display: Intel(r) 82810 Graphics Controller
Driver Version: 5.1.2001.0
System Dir: C:\WINDOWS\System32
Time / Date: 15:49:37 -- Tuesday, October 16, 2007

-- [Installing] -----------------------------------------------------
Server: http://sdc1.stardock.com
Server Dir: public
Network Id: odnt
Name: WindowBlinds 6
App Id: wb6
Installed: False
Version: 5.90[b].027
Type: beta
Reg Key: WindowBlinds
Install Dir: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\WindowBlinds
Exe: wbconfig.exe
Last Updated: 08/07/2007

-- [Account] --------------------------------------------------------
First Name: karen
Last Name:
Email:

-- [Installation] ---------------------------------------------------
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\data\public\wb6\beta\wb6.xml 1
Load: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\data\public\wb6\beta\wb6.xml 1
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\wb6.sdc 0 | Attempt: 1 | -30 Connection timed out
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\wb6.sdc 0 | Attempt: 2 | -30 Connection timed out
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\wb6.sdc 0 | Attempt: 3 | -30 Connection timed out
Server: Using other server http://sdc2.stardock.com
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\wb6.sdc 0 | Attempt: 1 | -30 Connection timed out
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\wb6.sdc 0 | Attempt: 2 | -30 Connection timed out
Download: C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\wb6.sdc 0 | Attempt: 3 | -30 Connection timed out
Result: Installation failed (32)

I also had the same problem when upgrading from a perfectly normal working WB5 thru SDCentral. The WB6 installation progress bar showed 100% complete but the progress bar in the small 'copying files' window for one of the skin folders was stuck at about 70%. When I moved this small window out of the way there were others under it - one for each skin folder - all stuck on various stages of being complete (I only had about 10-12 skins installed that were being moved). During this time my system resources weren't being taxed at all (Dell XPS710, WindowsXP MCE, Core2 Duo 2.66GHz, 2GB RAM). The processor was purring along at between 1%-3% and I still had about 1500-1600MB of memory free. After waiting 30-40 min. with no progress I decided this was was not normal and cancelled the installation. The second attempt seemed to finish completely without a hitch - or so I thought.

After using Windowblinds6 for about a week or two I've noticed the following problems - with this installation on my machine:

(1) Every time I apply a skin in the normal manner (thru the WBconfig window) it creates a new instance of Screen.exe in the running processes under the username "SYSTEM". If I change skins 10 times then I have 10 instances of Screen.exe running, etc.. Even if I only change some settings on a skin that is already applied - I click the 'apply my changes' button, get the 'Please Wait' w/ the screen blur and we've got another new instance of Screen.exe running. You get the picture. These don't go away (unload) by themselves after unloading Windowblinds - I have to go into TaskManager and kill each instance manually. (And yes I know about W32/Sdbot-ACO. That's not the problem here - I checked to be sure)

(2) With Windowblinds (WBconfig.exe) unloaded via the usual manner (right-click systray icon - unload) I can't access the 'Appearance' tab in Display Properties. When I click the tab I get a RunDLL Error (An exception occurred while trying to run "Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,0"). This problem doesn't go away w/ a restart of Windows. If Windowblinds is not set to run and load at startup, then I can't access the 'Appearance' tab.

(3)With certain skins applied, the Windowblinds Configuration window is 'corrupted' - the display is positioned too high in the window making it almost impossible to access the 'X' close button in the top right corner of the configuration window.

Sorry for being so long-winded but I hope this info will be of assistance to someone. I suspect the above mentioned problems are specific to my machine/install and are not due to the software itself. I love WB6 and will continue to use it in spite of the problems I have with it ( but I may do an uninstall/reinstall thru SDC this weekend to see if that helps). Kudos to Mr. Neil Banfield and the team for the new version - thank you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.0 (build 36 x86)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX

Wblind.dll 2007/10/08 13:04:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/10/04 17:58:04
Wbconfig.exe 2007/10/04 17:58:33
Wbload.exe 2007/09/27 17:47:44
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 17:37:07
Wbui.dll 2007/09/24 19:08:06
Tray.dll 2007/09/12 17:58:21
Screen.exe 2007/10/04 17:58:24

uncheck autoarchive
- right click on WB6
- choose: Archive Application > Download and Archive

when done, uninstall previous - reboot - restore the Archive you just downloaded

Ok, followed Bichur's advice and it fixed the problem of having multiple instances of 'Screen.exe' showing up in task manager - one for each time I 'Apply Changes' in WBconfig - but I still get the 'RunDLL Error' when I try to open 'Display Properties/Appearance Tab' if WB6 is not loaded. Is this normal?

no, I don't think the run dll as an app error is normal

I've had WB set to use windows default luna - unloaded wb - rebooted

luna loads, no systray icon for wb - right click desktop - go into props - click wb button and it opens config

do a search at WC forums (i have no access to them from here) for 'run dll' / 'dll' / etc and you will find some other previous (also pre 6) posts - maybe an answer/workaround there

Thanks for the reply Bichur. No luck in finding any suggestions in the search results for rundll, dll error, etc. I just checked and found that the problem w/ multiple instances of Screen.exe has returned on this machine.

Oh well, I guess betas will be betas sometimes. Geesh, I hope I don't wind up having to reinstall the O/S in order to get this straightened out.

I would resort back to the default MCE 'Energy Blue' theme if I could get back to that state. Unfortunately, when I try that it doesn't 'take' the first time and instead I have the fugly win98 theme - and there she's stuck - as Windowblinds is unloaded and I can no longer access the Appearance tab in Display Properties.

Well at least I did (just now) figure out a workaround for the problem with accessing the Display Properties/Appearance tab after Windowblinds had unloaded. Went into the system32 folder and sent a shortcut to 'desk.cpl' to my desktop. I can now access it no problem and it works like it used to.

Such a small thing but oh what a relief. This Monday is starting to look up.

Maybe Neil will stop back by....