Weird Win 7 bug

[HalfAHertz]

Ok I've been fooling around with win 7 lately trying to bring it up to scuff and a feature I was missing from win XP was the My computer toolbar which could be explored and expanded like a menu. I sort of got it working on Win 7 but for some reason, whenever I start some executables, it either throws an error at me or loads the executable with some stuff missing from it.

Of course if i start the executable any other way, it loads perfectly without a hitch. Does anyone have any ideas why this could be happening?

SS of what I mean:

[newtekie1]

Getting the toolbar was no big deal, and it works fine for me, any exe I execute works fine.

How did you get the toolbar? It should have been super easy, so if you did something elaborate to get it, maybe there is something with that process that causes the probelm.

[HalfAHertz]

Nah I did it the normal way: right click on the start menu>Toolbars>New toolbar>and then for folder I selected My computer. I am not sure but it seems to be happening only with older applications written in some form of C

Edit: checked, UAC is completely disabled.
Edit2: Heh it did it for doom too. Seems to be pretty random

[newtekie1]

Perhaps a UAC issue?

[HalfAHertz]

Bump. Can anyone else try to recreate this? Not that it's really that big of a problem but just got me curious what could be causing it.

[xvi]

Tried it. UAC disabled. Launched Team17's StuntGP (slightly older game) without problems.

I don't suppose you've tried testing your computer's stability, have you? Something like Orthos?

[HalfAHertz]

Originally Posted by xvi

Tried it. UAC disabled. Launched Team17's StuntGP (slightly older game) without problems.

I don't suppose you've tried testing your computer's stability, have you? Something like Orthos?

Yep seems to be running stable.

[erixx]

I have no idea Halfaherz, but for sure it is not a w7 bug but that exe....

[Frick]

Hey, I get the same thing. It's Heroes of Might and Magic 3, and I get the same messege I get if I try to run the game without installing it. If I launch the game the normal way I get that until I add the game to the registry, but when launching through the toolbar it's almost like the reg changes never happened.

[HalfAHertz]

Originally Posted by Frick

Hey, I get the same thing. It's Heroes of Might and Magic 3, and I get the same messege I get if I try to run the game without installing it. If I launch the game the normal way I get that until I add the game to the registry, but when launching through the toolbar it's almost like the reg changes never happened.

Heh that's pretty much it. Wonder what makes the heroes executable special...

[Arrakis+9]

Just wondering what program you're using for the clock and system stats and stuff on your desktop... it looks cool

[HalfAHertz]

Originally Posted by Arrakis+9

Just wondering what program you're using for the clock and system stats and stuff on your desktop... it looks cool

It's called Rainmeter. It has a ton of support on deviantart. Setting them up can be a little overwhelming at furst but once you get the hang of it, it's a ton of fun.You can find all kinds of different little gadgets and mash them up in any combination you like.

[xvi]

IDEA IDEA IDEA! JUST HAD AN IDEA!
Relative paths and the working folder!

So if the game DOES run via shortcut (start menu, desktop or otherwise..), but crashes when launching via the My Computer toolbar, the shortcut will be executing with the "start in" working path as the folder that the program is installed in ("C:\Program Files\Freespace2\" for example) whereas the toolbar may start it with no working path (or I think the default is "C:\").

Programs that address files using relative paths (and not absolute paths) may error out if it tries to look for .\logo.jpg expecting it to come out as "c:\program files\Freespace2\logo.jpg" when in fact it would come out as something like "c:\logo.jpg"). Well written programs have the installation directory saved in the registry, but programs that have not been "installed" (Frick's problem) would not have those registry entries.

If this theory is correct, it would explain Frick's problem with copied game (most likely without registry entries) would work normally, but not when launched through a toolbar.

An easy way to test this is to create a shortcut to the program that doesn't work through the toolbar, right click, properties, and change the "Start in" path to something different (like "C:\"). If it crashes in the same way, this is your problem.

The solution for this is a bit beyond me though. Perhaps create a shortcut near the root of C: to the freespace2 executable? IMO, I would just create a new folder with shortcuts to whatever programs you like and create a toolbar out of that.

When it finally clicked, I couldn't write this reply fast enough.

Example: The Folding@Home client uses relative paths. This can be nice if you want to use one executable for multiple clients. Two shortcuts that use different working paths will save different workunits and configs in different folders.