Insider Start11 will not work

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. This is a new one. I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

'Stardock Labs' was the initial name for what is now 'Object Desktop Insider'.  It would appear we may have missed a spot where it changed or you have an earlier version.  I will investigate it.

That said, I see you have successfully activated (several times) since - realizing you needed to use your Object Desktop key to install on ARM.

Sorry for the confusion.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Thanks. This has been vexing at best and I have used up activations that need to be restored. Feel free to send me a link to a temporary revised version if you have to go through a testing cycle that will take time. I did download from Object Deskop only in the last couple of days, so the "old version" explanation is unlikely. Prior to that on other machines I installed Start 11v2 directly.

Still waiting Do not close thread

I posted in discord too, I can’t activate as you need to be a subscriber to objective desktop to test the arm trial. 

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, yes, you will need to be a ObjectDesktop subscriber to test on ARM system.

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Any indication when it will progress to general public? 

Hello,
I have forward your question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

I keep getting EMails saying my product was activated and the ticket was closed. This is infuriating. The problem has NOT been resolved. Start 11 will not start because it says I must be a member of Stardock labs. 

Are you activating with your Object Desktop key?

Yes. With more than one key. It says activation successful, but then I get the message that I need to be a member of Stardock Labs and an uninstall is initiated. This is NOT an activation issue. I have burned at least two activation keys. This is about your code having some outdated reference that causes it to refuse to work even though it probably does work if this reference to membership is deleted.

By the way, your chatbot is a nightmare. It is virtually impossible to respond to messages. All I get is an email saying my ticket it closed.

As I have detailed in your ticket, for the ARM version to work, you need to activate Start11 with the Object Desktop Key.  You were initially not using but since have. 

Because you kept sending emails to support@stardock.com instead of using the forms.  It seems you finally read the auto-responder and used the form to create 2 or your 4 tickets. Please stop creating them and work with the one that remains open (SSN-69253).

Adam answered it yesterday, stating that you seem to have activated with your OD key.  If you are still getting any kind of error regarding AMR, post an image of it here, please. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

This (lower image) is what I get AFTER activation, followed by the second dialog box above (I can't seem to reorder the images). This is the web page referred to and it is useless: Object Desktop Insider - Documentation - Stardock Help Center

.

• On that very PC, go here
  C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Start11
• Delete any files that are in it....
• Close \ Open Star11 config.

It will ask you to activate it. Be absolutely certain you use the email \ (ObjectDesktop) key option, NOT the account option, to activate.

What do you get then? 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Nothing changes. Note that this is a VM running on a MacBook Air M3 under Parallels.

For what it's worth, Windows ARM has no "Program Data" folder at all. And Object Desktop is installing Start11v2 into the Program Files (x86) folder rather than Program Files or Program Files (Arm). I have been fully deleting everything in the Startdock folder within the (x86) folder. If there is an ARM version of Start11, I am not receiving that from Object Desktop for unknown reasons. 

The folder should exist on all versions of Windows but it may be hidden.  It is important the files Sean mentioned are deleted as otherwise activation may fail.

With regards to the installation location, this is normal.  Only the bits that need to be arm or 64 bit are so we can handle all versions of Windows with a smaller simpler installer.  A native ARM config app offers no real benefits as it isn't performance sensitive.  The start menu itself will be arm64 native.

The only folder in Program Data is Stardock and it only contains icons. There is no Start 11 folder or file. Before I commenced the installation of Start 11 from the insider tier at the bottom of Object Desktop, I checked and there was nothing in any of the Program File folders or Program Data folder except the icons in Stardock in Program Data, and an empty Stardock folder in Program Files (x86). Nada.

I reiterate that the obituary dialogs come after I receive the message that activation was successful. In fact, when I then click on the start menu icon, even the Windows 11 start menu is gone. So apparently Start 11 has co-opted the start menu but is inoperable. I can retrieve the native start menu only by uninstalling Start 11 and restarting (having removed the Start 11 folder from Program Files (x86)).

This simply is not about activation at all. It's about the code that is installed that seems to balk at running while presenting the dialog box I copied previously. I feel like we are going around in circles. 

Simply put, your code is looking for a validation that isn't there. The program probably works just fine if it can get past that. Somewhere in the code your team has to find out what triggers that "Stardock Labs" message and delete the trigger. It seems logical that the only way to get the ARM-compatible code is through Object Desktop Insider, so this other check is utterly superfluous.

The problem is your activation lacks the object desktop indicator so it is not detected as being allowed.  As the binaries are in all versions the check is required.

This is an activation level issue and the activation using a non object desktop serial initially may have caused the issue.  The other possibility is some sort of server glitch and I will ask someone to reset things that end too.

Have you been able to delete the activation files Sean asked you to?

OK, you were right. I didn't understand that I had to use the OD activation key. Perhaps the message should have been changed to say exactly that. Thank you for your assistance.

I want to be clear here.  Its working for you now, you just missed the multiple times I stated to use the Object Desktop key?

Quoting sdrohan, reply 15

It will ask you to activate it. Be absolutely certain you use the email \ (ObjectDesktop) key option, NOT the account option, to activate.


What do you get then? 

End of sdrohan's quote

Once you follow those directions, it then worked?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

I did not understand or missed that I needed to use the OD key. I did get that I needed not to use the account option. I had so many regular keys that I thought I should use them, and nothing directly indicated the subtlety of different key types.  Your support messages to me often indicated that "it looks like you have successfully activated the product". And in fairness, the dialog box was completely misleading referring to Stardock Labs. None of this back and forth would have been necessary if the dialog box simply said "An Object Desktop key is required." And why did this OD version even accept a non-OD key at all, and kick me out only after it had been falsely activated? 

Anyway, it works now and that's all I wanted.