.net and windows problems resolved by reinstalling .net and/or windows

Question

I have a program with 13 modules. The start module is just a launcher page that launches the other modules.

I have used WPF and .net framework v4. I have been getting feedback from a few customers taht one of the modules refuses to launch and comes up with an error saying the launcher program has encountered an error and has to close down.

For some people reinstalling .net 4 has fixed the problem but for a few others they have had to reinstall windows to get the program to behave.

The launcher is very simple, if a button is pressed it launches the module asscoiated with that button.

I use the process command.

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n.Wright

Answer 1

There's a lot of questions here with what the customers did and how they did it.  But, I doubt you can take it at face value.  The takeaway is that something is getting hosed up.

You specifically mentioned the process command and nothing else.  That leads me to believe you think it has something to do with that.  What makes you think that?

I take it you haven't been able to duplicate the problem, get a minidump, or even get the full exception text.

Answer 2

I dont think it is the Process command as all the other process calls work ok in the same module.

I install every cd I burn to ensure they are ok before I send them out and so havent seen the problem on my own machine. I have tested the software under XP, Vista and Win 7 32 and 64 bit with no problems.

The customers says the launcher program says it has encountered a problem and has to close.

The next time it happens I will ask for a full screen dump so I can examine it a bit closer.

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n.Wright

Answer 3

If it's just that one client and things are working just fine for everyone else it could just be/have been a problem with their computer, rather than with your software.  (Not that you should just tell them that and stop trying to help, but it is a distinct possibility.)

Answer 4

If it's just that one client and things are working just fine for everyone else it could just be/have been a problem with their computer, rather than with your software.  (Not that you should just tell them that and stop trying to help, but it is a distinct possibility.)

No its been 3 customers who had to reinstall windows to get my software to work.

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n.Wright

Answer 5

Are you sure that they had to re-install windows to get it to work, or did they simply re-install windows and then have it work.  Re-installing the OS does a LOT of different things, you may very well only need to have done one of them without needing to do a while system wipe.

You CAN swat a fly with a sledgehammer, but that doesn't mean that you HAVE to.

Out of curiosity, what's the rough size of the user pool?  3 users with problems out of 10? 100? 1,000,000?

Answer 6

Are you sure that they had to re-install windows to get it to work, or did they simply re-install windows and then have it work.  Re-installing the OS does a LOT of different things, you may very well only need to have done one of them without needing to do a while system wipe.

You CAN swat a fly with a sledgehammer, but that doesn't mean that you HAVE to.

Out of curiosity, what's the rough size of the user pool?  3 users with problems out of 10? 100? 1,000,000?

Its about 3 customers in about 50 sales of this version of software . It could be more who had the same problem but people have a habit of asking for advice then never telling me what fixed it.

I have alos sold 400 copies of a previous version that used .net 3.5 and havent seen the windows reinstall problem with that.

I have again looked through software to see if I can find anything worng with the module that crashes out but it looks fine. It is so simple, the process call is just 4 lines of code which are the same as 11 other process calls. I guess I could ask the user if running the module directly instead of using the launcher has the same problem.

I wish I could copy the problem on my machine then I could run it from within Microsoft Visual Studio and get some clues. If the user gets back to me I will ask for a full exception message dump. 

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n.Wright

Answer 7

Got to the bottom of it in the end.

The software is based on a previous version and the setup program was trying to open a file from a previous version which was on the cdrom. However the launcher program was trying to open the new program.

Doh !! lack of care when updating old program to a new program.

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n.Wright