Stardock Central Mess Up Windows

Bad bug!

Published on July 4, 2005 By lilstarfish In Stardock Support General

Today I decided that I should update my Object Desktop subscription.

Bad idea =\

I had payed online and started up my Stardock Central to let it update
to the newest version. Just as it updated the central I noted that
the "hidden when inactive" icons in the systray suddenly all popped
out in full view.

But guess what, the Stardock Central update removed the "hidden when inactive"
feature in Windows

I tried for 3 hours to find some way to get it to work again
but got so irritated I uninstalled Stardock Central and made
a System Restore back to yesterday

That returned the feature.

Then I read that other people are getting their systems
destroyed from different Stardock products

What's up with this crap!?

Comments (Page 2)

Corky_O

on Jul 05, 2005

lilstarfish,

Good to hear you found a reasonable solution.

It does indeed seem that IconPackager 3.00.090 has some bugs that are creating some significant issues.

Perhaps the additional shell functions and the needed ".dll" files to provide the functionality is at the root cause of problems.

Hopefully, they will design a fix soon.

Note - I had an issue with the system tray icons not showing up consistently, and after disabling the Stardock MCP option, I have not seen the issue (it was especially problematic with Norton Internet Security tray icons) - though I was able to use this solution because I do not use ObjectDock's system tray functions or DesktopX.

I have also seen fixes for system tray problems by copying the "sdmcp.exe" file to the "Startup" folder in the users Documents and Settings directory - go figure).

Again, glad to help in any way I can.

rikkie

on Jul 06, 2005

Glad to se this thread . I thought it was me doing something wrong but apparently other folks were experiencing issues as well.

With me the XP COM+ service failed to startup .This had the result of loads of applications failing to register .I tried re-installing COM-catalog in its entirety by following the procedure described here :
Link

But to no avail . I ended up re-installing Windows XP and SP 2 ( apparently system restore doesn't work with COM+ service failing )and after that re-installed SDC . I installed Windowblinds ONLY after this and everything seems to be working fine . This is indicative the problem is with another OD - compnent , maybe Iconpackager - I did upgrade to the new version just before the problems started occuring - but certainly not windowblinds or SDC itself .

Is this problem a known issue at Stardock or is it dependent on computer-configuration ( i.e. : not a bug as such ) ??

lilstarfish

on Jul 07, 2005

OK!

Today I got mail from the support:

"Hi,
You may want to Disable the MCP notification area and see if that helps.
Open Stardock Central and go to Tools > Settings. Uncheck the options "Enable MCP Notification Area" and reboot.
Thanks."

I started up Stardock Central and it updated to a new version. I then unchecked both "Enable MCP SmartStartup" and "Enable MCP notification area support". Finally I downloaded the latest version of IconPackager with it's fixed iprepair.dll.

My systray finally works again!

It seems that SDC was the culprit but the problem has been resolved =D

Again, many thanks Corky for your valuable insights and kindness

Daiwa

on Jul 07, 2005

Happy endings are great.

Cheers,
Daiwa

Jafo

on Jul 07, 2005

With a Stardock Proggy....a great place to go to FIRST is here, #stardock [IRC] and/or email the Company for support.
IF all that fails....and one simply MUST hide them icons, THEN [maybe] resort to a Restore....
But not before....

From post #5

Not so silly afterall...

meat

on Nov 08, 2006

lilstarfish : Rofl. You act like it's the most horrible problem you've ever encountered! How DARE a program misbehave on MY system!!!!!!

And to think, you could have continued on after updating, ignoring the systray problem, enjoying your computing experience and waited for the solution that they gave you withOUT wasting 3 hours and doing a system restore (which could have certainly caused much larger problems than some tray icons not hiding).

/end pointless harrassment

Hankers

on Nov 08, 2006

Please note that the previous comment #20 was from

July 7, 2005

This is an old forum post.

Jafo

on Nov 08, 2006

/end pointless harrassment

Didn't need starting, either, now did it?....

Problem solving should ideally take a natural course of action, starting with the least invasive/drastic...and ending with the degree of effort actually required once all other avenues have failed.

Case in point...

Norton AV borked on an update...so I did as requested [by Symantec] and used their removal tool to clean the install to enable a fresh.

Problem was it also disabled the MS BITS service [which is required for MS Updates, etc].

First step was to twiddle the service settings...but 'disabled' means PERMANENTLY.

Next step was to Google for 'restarting bits' and 'Norton'....

Not a lot of luck, so posted here....and yrag came to the rescue.....with a link to a sequence of 'fixes'.

Starting at one end of the 'try this'...and ending at the other...all failed except for the very last...

Reinstall Service Pack 2.

That fixed it...and spelled the demise of NAV on my system, or any future one.

Had THAT not worked the only option left was a reformat.

It's all about a logical sequence, not diving in all guns blazing...

Jafo

on Nov 08, 2006

...and yes, this is a tad outdated...by sixteen months....

ZubaZ

on Nov 08, 2006

Next step was to Google for 'restarting bits' and 'Norton'....

Jafo used Google!

I'm awaiting the other three horsemen.

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