Bugs, bugs and more bugs?

from Stardock Forums

I've sent an e-mail to support@stardock.com but thought it might be interesting to compare my experiences with others. I know that most of these points have been brought up before at some time or another, but I believe we should be more vocal about such issues.

These problems have all been experienced with a fresh install of Vista SP1 Ultimate.

1). IconPackager does not automatically apply any custom Control Panel icon in Start Menu Icons. I have to do this myself every time I apply a new package.

2). IconPackager also fails to replace the Desktop Icon variant of the Control Panel icon that is displayed via ‘Control Panel > Personalization > Change desktop icons’

3). IconPackager does not keep any applied icon changes to ‘Downloaded Program Files’, ‘Url History’ and ‘Offline Web Pages’ located in the Folder Icons section.
It appears to change the icon when doing it for the first time, but then when you close IconPackager and re-open, the default Windows icons are still there.

4a). Whenever I right click properties on a file that contains an icon, such as a .exe file, and then attempt to change the icon and Apply, IconPackager will prompt me with an error message saying that it cannot find Activate.exe within C:\ProgramData\Stardock\IconPackager\
This is a bit odd, seeing as IconPackager shouldn’t be looking in this location for its own program files!

4b). After copying Activate.exe from C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\IconPackager\ into this folder and repeating the procedure, it prompts me to activate IconPackager.
I paste in my e-mail address and OD serial, it works fine, but then when I open IconPackager normally it will ask me to re-activate.

5). Restoring the icons and then uninstalling the application causes nearly every visible icon on Vista to be displayed as a Generic blank icon.
Re-installing IconPackager and rebuilding the Icon Cache fixes everything apart from 16x16 systray icons.
I have taken a screenshot to show how certain 16x16 icons aren't being displayed: http://www.devilhood.com/private/stardock/autorunsicons.png

6). Certain 16x16 systray startup icons go blank after applying an IconPackage. A good example of this would be razerhid.exe for people using Razer mice. The icon in the systray is blank even though it displays properly within Explorer and other file listing apps like Total Commander.
Here's a picture of what my Razer icons looks like at the moment: http://www.devilhood.com/private/stardock/razerhid_blank.png

If anyone knows of a solution to problems 5 and 6, I would be most grateful.

Regards,

P.

iconpackager
5,900 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only way I could "cure" similar problems was to restore to IP 3.99.149 via SDC. I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be running Diamond in one of your screenshots. I have had problems with this skin and the painting of its menus and using the right click button. It is random,but more often than not, I have to apply changes via WB configuration to eliminate this feature.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Weird, so going back to an older and unsupported version of IP actually 'fixes' some of these issues?
That is.. shocking.. to say the least. Are you referring to the 16x16 problem specifically?

I'm actually running the Windows Default theme on those shots, easily mistaken for Diamond though, because I changed the colour of it in Windows Color and Appearance.

Cheers,

P.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My specific problem centred around MS Office icons on the Start Menu. These reverted to default icons of whatever package I was running and some of the Desktop Icons. Although I could change these to my preference, they would not stick. Upon re-booting, it was back to square one. Whether it was due to the fact that I run IconX as well, but 3.99.149 works and, for the moment, I am sticking to it.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Ah, I get you.
I had the same Start Menu problem, but that fixed itself after a re-install of version 4 and then rebuilding the Icon Cache.

We shouldn't need to re-install the app in order to fix this though. It is totally rediculous.
Regardless of its recent updates, the software still does not fully support Vista and should be labeled as BETA on their site.

The problem with my systray icons still remain and I haven't got a clue how to rectify this.

Stardock Support still hasn't replied to my two e-mails yet either.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
As this seems to be our "private" forum, I forgot to mention that I run XP Pro SP3. I am keeping my fingers crossed that an uninstall of WB 6.2, a clearout of redundant directories, a re-install with various hiccups with transferring skins and getting a message of reaching the maximum number of validations, may have solved the menu issue. Two re-boots and no black menus so far.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I often have the problem that IP seems to mess up Icons on altering and saving a package. Sometimes the shortcut icon is the network drive, network drives get the CD-ROM icon and so forth. A bit strange that is...
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
@ c242: sounds like it is getting confused with how it designates certain icons, does it do it with all Icon Packs or just a few in particular?

Where's the support Stardock? why hasn't something so clumsy like the activation bug been fixed yet? this is very sloppy work on the part of your dev's!

IconPackager needs to make appropriate backups and ensure that when it defaults to the Windows Icons, everything is back to normal, and I mean normal, exactly the way it was prior to installing IconPackager.

Is it really that difficult to establish such a fundamental feature?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Same prob (icon-wise) here. Seemed to solve the prob by resetting to the Windows default icon pack and rebuilding, repairing, and restoring icons 'before' uninstalling IP4. Hadn't archived, so didn't have the luxury of reverting at the earlier version. :)

The 'activate.exe' problem is being worked on. Apparently there's a complicated conflict between IP4 and some other (can't remember which right now) program that needs to be resolved before the correction update will be released. In the meantime copying the IP4 'activate.exe' to C:\Documents and Setting\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Iconpackager and having your IP4 activation S/N saved as a text file for easy reference seems to be the temp workaround.

These and many other probs are being addressed in the official ;) "Official IconPackager v4.0 Release Support Thread" and "Icon Packager 4 Update Thread" threads here in the forums.

Shortcuts to those are... http://forums.impulsedriven.com/311958 and http://forums.impulsedriven.com/312892

BTW, XP Pro SP3 here...
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I often have the problem that IP seems to mess up Icons on altering and saving a package. Sometimes the shortcut icon is the network drive, network drives get the CD-ROM icon and so forth. A bit strange that is...


I had this exact same issue...really borked up the set I was altering...there were icons from other sets being used and the wrong icons in a lot of places...some icons being used for a lot of wrong files...it was a mess. :SNIFF!: 
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Glad to know that the new BETA release actually fixes the activation bug, also my Windows Live Folders are now displaying properly.
Now all I need to work out is why some of my 16x16 icons are still displaying as generic icons.