The prompt about Aero only happened when I was booting in safe mode for diagnostic purposes. The service was probably disabled because of that. I do not recall the message having appeared outside of that mode.

I have since uninstalled Deskscapes and am booting my computer up normally.

...Hello? The problem hasn't been fixed yet. I just uninstalled the program since having it installed was screwing up my computer, and the attempts to fix it weren't working, and weren't coming.

I've been waiting since April 17th for the support team to come by. Unless that post from the 24th was from the support team, but they were responding to something they misunderstood. (No offense.)

For the time being, I've got a wallpaper that's just some vertical lines. It at least doesn't look horrible when it's improperly applied across two monitors, but I'd really prefer to be able to use Deskscapes as it was intended.

Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Thanks for the re-entry into the support system. Here's hoping I just got lost in the shuffle last time.

I'll make sure to visit this forum again soon enough. I have email alerts on, and it's bookmarked in a "follow-up" folder.

Lerem,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

If you could briefly answer the following, it may help determine what issues you are having with DS.  

• Is the title of your thread still true, that it is only on startup that the issue is seen - that you can apply to each monitor fine post boot?
• Since you are running Windows 7, does the 'Aero Troubleshooter' find any issues on your main Windows profile:
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/976170/guided-help-troubleshoot-aero-problems-in-windows-7
• Most of your feedback was from nearly a month ago (when it was still in beta). Have you purged, and reinstalled DS10 the recently released final version?
  https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products
• If that does not resolve your issue, how are each of your monitors connected to the PC in question (HDMI, DVI, USB)?
• Are you running any 3rd party monitor management software (DisplayFusion, UltraMon, etc)?  If so, and if you disable it (uninstall is preferred), does it work then? 

Again, if you could could provide brief answers to those, we will go from there.

----------------
Sean Drohan
Stardock Customer Service Manager

Hi again. It's been a relatively hectic month. Sorry for the delay on my end.

I've gotten a new computer with all new parts and Windows 10, and I've also swapped my old 720p monitor for a 1080p Lenovo ThinkVision LT2223z monitor. The old computer is now stuck with only that old 720p monitor.

I am able to assign different wallpapers to each monitor on my current (new) computer with no real issue now.

Given the problem and slowdowns on my old computer, I suspect that the old 500GB hard drive was starting to fail on it. I couldn't detect any clear problems with it using the diagnostic tools, but it's old enough that I'm just assuming that it's well on it's way out.

As for this new computer, I haven't had time to really customize it and sort out all the files and wallpapers I wanted to work with, so I just tested the "two wallpaper problem" with it as I was installing my standard software.

Still, for the sake of completeness, I'll answer your questions as best I can without walking to the other room and fiddling with that computer. They might be useful for someone else with a similar problem who comes across this thread.

• No.
  • The problem was limited to the startup issue only at the beginning of this thread. As soon as I started following the directions to try to fix the problem, things become rapidly worse. To the degree that the desktop was being screwed up enough that I found it intolerable to try to use. Maybe I should have recorded some videos with my phone to show what was happening at the time. It was not at a usable state. Unless I was actively following another set of steps in this thread, I pretty much had the program disabled, or kept it uninstalled.
• I'm not using my old computer at the moment, so I'll not run that program for the time being. The windows 7 computer is in the other room at the moment, so I could go check on it if you really want to. I suppose it might be useful for anyone else who stumbles on this thread.
• I had followed the directions and used the proscribed tools (with documented restarts in between steps) to uninstall, purge, and reinstall DS in both it's old edition and the current 10th version. The problems was not solved.
• One monitor was connected via an HDMI cable, and the other was connected via a DVA to VGA adapter.
  • (Again, this is the old computer setup. The old computer is in the other room with only one monitor at the moment. I don't even know if DS 10 is installed on it right now.)
• I was not running DisplayFusion, or any other 3rd party monitor/desktop experience customization software during the times I was having problems. I was only using the Stardock Object Desktop Suite programs for it.
  • Frankly, I only came to the forums to solve the original minor technical issue after going on a binge of researching, learning about, installing, and using the other Object Desktop programs.
  • I only installed Display Fusion recently on this new computer, after I'd gotten DS10 working already. I believe I may have installed Display Fusion on the old computer that now only has one monitor. I'm unsure about that, or whether it has DS installed on it.

Hello Lerem,

Sorry to hear you are having issues.

Can you just tell us right now exactly what is your issue with your new computer ?

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

As of June 24th, there were no issues.

A few days ago, after I installed a handful of programs from an old Humble Bundle, new issues started. [Maybe I should start a new thread for this? It's kind of a different problem.]

What happened before I noticed the problem

The bundle was the "Humble Software ReBundle - Vegas Pro - Discover Creative Freedom" bundle, and includes Vegas Pro 14, Music Maker, Magix Photo Manager Deluxe, and a few other photo or sound related programs from the Magix Suite. The Magix stuff, aside from Music Maker, seem themed around making elaborate slideshows for vacation photos, but I wanted to use the photo manager to organize the images that I've downloaded from the internet over the years, and make a database for that.

Specifically, after installing the handful of programs, I noticed the adware popup asking me to buy the newer version of the movie maker software. I unticked the

During the installation process, I saw a restore point where the computer updated it's DotNet framework. I tried several times to restore to this state to get the computer back to when it was working fine, but it didn't work. I just checked the System Restore right now, and it cannot detect ANY restore points on my system right now, so I guess that option is closed forever. (I do have undelete software installed, and the OS drive is an SSD, so it might still be possible to recover, but I don't know how off the top of my head.)

What the problem seems to consist of

I am not able to use Deskscapes to do much of anything. I can open the program, but as soon as I click on any of the thumbnails in the local or online sections to choose what I want to backgrounds to be, the program shuts down.

I only isolated this specific cause earlier today, after being very careful to note what I was doing.

I currently have no wallpaper, and would have to use either Windows' default wallpaper application, or I'd have to turn DisplayFusion's wallpaper management feature on. I'd rather use Deskscapes to mess with wallpapers so I can try out the Dreams and other stuff later.

Comorbid with this problem is the fact that the system colour (the lines underneath the taskbar tabs, and the colour that commonly appears behind the buttons of the Modern apps and the Default Win10 start menu) keeps resetting to a colour automatically chosen from the wallpaper on the primary monitor. It does this no matter how many times I change the system colour manually in the system settings. The reset happens when the system is turned on or restarted. This issue is what led me to discover the other wallpaper and deskscapes issue.

Possibly relevant details

As mentioned in the first section, I can't see any restore points on my computer any more. I assume Windows automatically deleted them after a few days of my trying to restore to the earlier point.

After the crashes, Event Viewer shows an Application Error entry. The issue appears to be related to the "d3d9.dll" module, and a bit of quick research says that this is related to direct x, and that that particular DLL dates to Windows 8.

Faulting application name: DeskscapesConfig.exe, version: 10.0.1.0, time stamp: 0x5cd1cd86

Faulting module name: d3d9.dll, version: 10.0.18362.1, time stamp: 0x23f17870

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000ac1d4

Faulting process id: 0x1f58

Faulting application start time: 0x01d54010665fddc0

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\DeskScapes10\DeskscapesConfig.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d9.dll

Report Id: ea5331a9-150f-4dbc-83ee-ef8366519c7d

Faulting package full name: 

Faulting package-relative application ID: 

I am NOT using DisplayFusion to manage the wallpaper. I unticked this in the general settings section of the program, and even double checked this in the "manage the wallpaper" window of the program. I'm using this program to get a taskbar on the second monitor and make dragging and dropping windows across monitors easier.

I have been getting a bunch of error messages from my video card software saying "Radeon Wattman has been reset to default settings  due to an unexpected shutdown". To me, this suggests that the DirectX d3d9.dll thing might be the right thing to start with.

Event Viewer also shows another common issue with Local Activation Permissions, but I don't know if it's new or related to the Deskscapes issue.

The machine-default permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID 

{C2F03A33-21F5-47FA-B4BB-156362A2F239}

 and APPID 

{316CDED5-E4AE-4B15-9113-7055D84DCC97}

 to the user KENDOMEN\Kendomen SID (S-1-5-21-279568313-3474173996-3819924504-1002) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.18362.145_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy SID (S-1-15-2-155514346-2573954481-755741238-1654018636-1233331829-3075935687-2861478708). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

My videocard software is up to date, though I have not tried uninstalling and reinstalling it since this issue started. It didn't seem relevant to the program crashes.

MAGIX Photo Manager Deluxe does not appear to have any functions related to managing the wallpaper.

Some of what I've tried so far

• Restarting the computer
• Triple-checking that DisplayFusion isn't messing with the wallpaper management in any way
• Reinstalling Deskscapes

Hello,
I have forwarded your questions/problems to the Stardock Support team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate you feedback and patience.

Thank You,
Basj
Stardock Community Assistant.