Start8 1.40 With Windows 8.1 Update 1 Support Now Available

It's a great news! Now it works great and for the first time this app works excelent!

After installing the latest update (Start8 1.40) the 'Run' command doesn't work anymore on my Windows 8 PC.

Not by pressing the Win+R keys, not from the Startmenu, and not even from within programs itself.

Is this a coincidence or do others experience the same problem after updating to Start8 1.40..?

Is your taskbar located at the top of the screen?

Yes it is...

And has been for the past 15 years...

Including all previous versions of Start8.

Are you using 8.0, 8.1 or 8.1 Update 1?

I am using Windows 8.0...

Can you please update the online changelog to explain what is different in 1.40.1 from 1.40?

I have updated our machines to 1.40 pending the 'Windows 8.1 Update' and now I don't know if I need to update them all again to 1.40.1 before the Windows 8.1 Updates proceed.

1.40.1 simply fixed an issue for people who show less than 10 items on their start menu.  It would remain sized to allocate enough space for 10 icons at a minimum.

I have updated to Windows 8.1 and the problem is gone...

When I tried to install the upgrade to Start 8, I got the following message.

The following file is in use and can not be updated:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\Stardock\Start8\Round7\bottomleft.png

Close all other applications and choose Retry. Choose Cancel to install this file on reboot

I had to do a hard reboot to recover, as the OK and Cancel buttons resulted in a continuous loop.The task manager showed no other files running. This computer is only a few weeks old and has 8.1 running. I've installed very little on it so far.

Please advise.

Regards,

Alan

Since the latest patch Tuesday updates my desktop (Windows 8.1) keeps freezing and I loose most of my Start-8 icons and taskbar. If I right-click on the desktop it seems to eventaully restart the explorer desktop processes and everything is OK for a while. Has anyone else seen this? I have an Acer Asprire V3-772G laptop runing the very latest version of W8.

Is it just me is the name W8 (Wait) trying to tell using something, like don't buy it wait until it's fixed first?

W8 is just an abbreviation people came up with.

How about W7 then..?

That's not something we have had reported to us, so it may well be an issue with the MS update rather than Start8 itself.

Microsoft didn't really give the development community much time to test against it so you may have some other update that does not like the changes in 8.1 Update 1.

This is something I would like to report as well.

I updated to 1.40 (and then to 1.40.1) on the day of the launch, and I have had this exact behavior on my computer, both before the latest Windows 8.1 update as well as after.

I notice this mostly running games in Windowed mode. I play Lord of The Rings Online, and sometimes I run 2 accounts at once, and I will have 2 game windows on my screen - both nearly maximized to the screen with just the task bar at the bottom available.

This behavior started after 1.4x of Start8, and never happened on 1.3x of Start8.

It doesn't seem to happen a lot with only 1 game window running. Since this also happened before the Windows 8.1.1 Update, I don't think it is a Microsoft issue, but something in the new version of Start 8.

I hope this information helps determining what it is.

The problem described above does still exist, and I would like to "officially report" it.

Sometimes I come back to my computer with no programs running, and I cannot click the start button, nor can I click anything in the system tray. Then when I right-click on the desktop, the menu shows black. Sometimes it automatically restarts the Start8 service at that point, sometimes I have to restart it manually.

This behavior did not happen in the 1.3x version, and happened ONLY in the 1.4x version, both BEFORE, and AFTER the Windows 8.1 Update 1 install.

So there is a problem for sure, I just can't pinpoint what it is.

A note: I also use WindowBlinds 8 on my computer, so that may have something to do with it.

Neil,

I am pretty sure that it is more to do with a problem with the Explorer process, I just wondered if anyone else had seen this problem. Windows-8 is a complete disaster for me. I have two brand new laptops, this one has endless UI problems and the other cannot use wireless. M$oft really need to ditch W8 ASAP and go back t something stable, and that actually works, rather than experimenting on their ever dwindling and suffering customers.

For anyone having this issue, please send us an email at support@stardock.com as we have a build you can try which should help this.

New Start8 Update available:

Start8 1.41

• Fixes a resource leak
• Fix for clipping last item in right-hand list

Start8 1.41 does not work with Windows 8.1 Update 1!!!

It would be helpful to be more specific on what the issue is.

Unfortunately it did not help me either. I have the latest build of W8.1 on my Acer laptop and build 140 used to crash the desktop very hour or so. The start button disappeared and if you right-clicked the desktop you got a white screen and after a minute or so Explorer restarted.

Build 141 has slightly changed the behavour of the crash/recover but the effect is almost identical.

Same error as in my message #10. I had to open the task manager and shut down Start8 from there before it would install. Then it went without a hitch.

HINT TO PROGRAMMERS OF START8: Have a routine that shuts down Start8 before running the rest of the install script. That way, the user does not have to spin wheels trying to figure out what's wrong and perhaps figure out that what's wanted to install the update is a 3-finger salute. (<cntl><alt><del>) to bring up the task manager.

In my opinion, the programmers should have been checked for this elementary "gotcha" before rolling out 2 updates. Please run any update program on test computers before putting it out there.

Regards,
Alan

Which theme are you using in Start8.  The default look or another one from the list?

If it is another one, could you try with default and see if that helps please.

Likewise which start button are you using and are you using WindowBlinds?

Finally what DPI is your setup?

Hi Neil,

My laptop is an Acer ASpire V3-772G and I using a desktop strected across a HP Compaq LA2205wg monitor. Both are running at their native resolutions of  1920*1080 and 1680*1050 respectively.I am running the Shadow theme and have configured my taskbar on screen-1 only. I am pretty sure that I still get the same issue when the 2nd monitor is detatched.

I have set the theme to WB Default and shall let you know what happens.

Thanks,

Andrew

I am now using 1.4.1.

I would like to report that on occasion, about once a week actually, the taskbar completely locks up. Right clicking does not work, clicking on the start menu does not work. When this starts happening, for a WHILE I can still use the Windows button on the keyboard to make the menu pop up. But I pretty much have to wait till a reboot, or till I run task manager and end the tasks, services, and restart them.

It seems to happen most when I use VirtualBox (I run a Windows 7 sandbox for testing stuff on my Windows 8.1 Update 1), or a Windowed game. It might have something to do with DirectX/DirectDraw, but that is pure speculation.

I am running:

- Windowsblinds 8 with the "modern" theme.

- Start 8.

- Windows 8.1 Update 1

- 2 monitors (don't know if this makes any difference, start8 on both monitors fails at the same time because it is the same process obviously)

- NVidia GTX650, Core i5, 16 GB RAM, plenty of harddrive space.

- Rainmeter for several desktop apps (only since about a week, the problem existed before then).

It is still the case that this behavior never happened on Windows 8 and 8.1 on version 1.3.x of Start8, it only started happening on version 1.4.x, both on Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update 1.

The resource leak fix in 1.4.1 seemed to have helped A BIT, since it doesn't happen more then once a week now, where before it happened 2 or 3 times a week.

The problem is that I cannot always reboot my system, sometimes I am running test inside my Windows 7 VM, and will have to work around a crippled system for  a few hours until done.

Windows and all my software and drivers are generally on the very latest version, or at one version level earlier if I simply haven't had a chance to update yet.

I don't know what else to report, but something is quirky in the 1.4.x build of Start8