Windows downgrade to 2.2.9 failure to start

[Jason Dunham]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 2:17 AM, James Wilde <james.wilde at sunde-wilde.com>wrote:

>
> On Jan 12, 2010, at 00:37 , Jason Dunham wrote:
>
> > I have used Gnucash 2.2.9 for about 18 months, running on Windows 7 since
> > July.  Recently  I tested 2.3.8, installed to a different Program Files
> > folder, and loaded my file and it showed the splash screen and progress,
> and
> > then quit silently at or near the end of loading.
> >
> > I then uninstalled 2.3.8, and 2.2.9 failed the same way.  I reinstalled
> > 2.2.9 and it still won't load.  What should I try next?
>
> Reinstall Windows!
>

Actually I have to do this anyway, since I am running the Win7 Release
Candidate, which expires in March.  But today is not the day!



>
> Seriously, this indicates to me that, notwithstanding whatever you have
> done to remove 2.3.8 from your computer, some change it made to Windows 7 is
> still there and affecting 2.2.9.  It could, of course, be some vestige of GC
> in a directory that was not removed in the uninstall process, but I suspect
> that GC does not use more than one directory tree.  BTW, have you removed
> your GC data directory?  It could be something obscure in the registry.  I
> don't know whether GC changes the registry in Windows.
>
>
After the uninstalls, there are no Gnucash folders in the C:\Program Files
or the C:\Program Files (x86) folders.



>  This type of problem is definitely not unheard of in the Windows world.  I
> have a program that I have had extreme problems re-installing on an old XP
> instance.  When I reinstalled XP (the machine in question is too old/weak to
> be able to run Windows 7) I could install the program again without problem.
>  There are other programs which have been affected in the same way.
>
> How you will find what it is that is affecting your 2.2.9 installation if
> it is in the registry, I don't know.  One possibility would be to search the
> entire registry for 'gnu' and/or 'cash' and see if the hits have anything to
> do with GC and, if so, remove them.  But be careful playing with the
> registry.  You could end up with an unusable machine.  At least take a
> backup of the registry before you start to play.
>
>
I searched the registry, but there are no gnucash keys in there.  This makes
sense, because linux doesn't have a registry, so it wouldn't make sense to
use it when porting the software over.

There are also various gtk and gnome folders and files in my user folders,
but I know some other programs like Pidgin use them, so I don't want to send
the wrecking ball in there.

Thanks for trying to help.

I guess I was wondering if there is any kind of debug logging or tracing
possible with the Windows binary.  One hint that I can give is that it
crashes out right after splash screen displays "loading stylesheets"

For now I am able to run it in the Virtual Machine that runs WinXP inside of
Win7, but I'd like to help diagnose the problem.

Jason