What a Mess

E-mailing Stardock support would be the logical suggestion, if you're having problems with one of their programs.

Oh, and the adress:
support@stardock.com

adress


address

Hmm. seems its stripped out my goofy xml

And I was so trying to be clever

Gregory Nashif, you can post suggestions and feedback to the stardock.logonstudio newsgroup.

There have been a couple of hiccups in our quest to make it easier to make Logons. Adding in the visual editor turned out to be more work than we originally thought and some of the compromises necessary to accomodate it have been problematic. The main logon engine is still capable of generating great logons, but we're trying to balance ease of creation against the hacking that's sometimes necessary to make great logons. We're still working through this and hopefully we'll have a solution soon.

Chris and Hippy, please be aware that LogonStudio is freeware and as such is handled differently than other Stardock products. The newsgroup is the main support channel for LogonStudio. Please don't email Stardock support with questions about it.

Sorry about that however, I tried to post some things on the newsgroup and for some reason I have never been able too. I can read them in my outlook express, but when I go to post things I get error messages, everything is configured correctly, but that is the type of thing that usually happens to me.

I have tried several other programs such as logon loader and XPlog mod, and both of them were dogs. My problem is that I can design a screen, it comes up in preview mode, when I apply the new screen, and log out, I get a black screen with a really small message box "Parsor" error message: error in line 14 or something along those lines. Then I have to wait and until the default logon box comes up and I can log in....and that is the nature of the beast the program I used before was excellent....anyway thank you for the advise. I already emailed support, so that is too late. we will see what happens.

Thanks
Citizen Gregory level 4 user

The "Parser Error" message is not generated by logonStudio but by the MS logon loader executable...
It's due to a malformed theme... the line number refers to the UIFILE.txt contained in the theme.
The possible reasons for this error are:
You have specified a jpg, gif picture (only bitmaps are supported)
Your UIFILE may be corrupted

To arrange the theme test all picture to be bmp and working... and try to edit/save the theme...

If nothing works send the logon to LogonStudio@stardock.com and we'll try to fix it for you

I have done that however, the error message I get when I go to edit the t;heme is "can only edit ".logonfyles" and that extention is spelled exactly that way. Apparently I can no longer use bitmap but only pictures with that extention, maybe that is the real problem, and maybe that is some kind of virus. I have asked someone many times what that extention is but nobody seems to know.

I can create a logon screen, however, if I use 0=tiled or 1=fixed, then when I apply and save the program, the bitmap picture is replaced with a solid blue screen, I can only use style 6=stretched. After going to the newsgroups, almost all of the messages are about this "parsor error" if it was just me, then I would wonder, but it is a common issue, go to the message boards for thelogonstudio.

By the way, what was wrong with the 1.0.28(99) version, I had no problems or issues with that. I reinstalled it but get the message, Version expired on 5/??/2002. Download newer version.

Thank you very much for your help in this matter, this is the first constructive solution I have really heard, but as Journeyman Sander said above, they are working on a fix.

Maybe we should be looking at that strange exention " .logonfyles "

Thanks
Citizen Gregory Nashif

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program?

I haven't tried logonstudio before, but that solution seemes to fix most other problems I've had with my computer so it's worth a shot.

Thanks for the advice, however, I have tried that several times, I went to the message boards and it seems to be an ongoing issue with this program, Stardock says that it is working on a plan to resolve this. It only effects the making of the skins, we can still download and install, however, in the past month since this has been ongoing, their has been a serious decline in new logon screens, we have been at 162 logons for quite a while, I have been watching, and we used to have several new ones per day.
Thanks

Yes Gregory, I have noticed the decline in the usability of this program too. I have also found that even when downloading and installing new logons it only works as long as you don't modify them at all.

In one case I downloaded a logon file and found that I did not like the location of the "logon window" so I changed it. When I saved the changes and applied the modified logon it no longer worked and I found, as you did, nothing but a black screen. I had to re-download the logon file from WinCustomize and reinstall it, this time with no modifications.

This is all very strange since .99 and earlier all worked very well.

I do not understand why they would try to improve on a program that needed no improvement, and now they fixed it so that we cannot even use 99 anymore, it comes up with a message that it has expired... I believe that it is because of an extention that appears when trying to edit a bitmap, it says "must use a .logonfyle or something like that, that is an extention that has no association in microsoft. I thought a first maybe it was a virus, because it is spelled exactly as it is here logon "fyle".

Anyway that is my take, and I am really disappointed this was one program I knew how to make logon screens, for the life of me I cannot sitll figure out how to use Skin Studio....

Gregory