Deskscapes Wont Load

from WinCustomize Forums

I had Descapes before and it was running fine. With the last update to it, it only partially worked. Some dreams would play, some would not. I have not tried to find out what the problem is until today.

I tried to load a dream today. I opened Deskscapes, clicked the one I wanted, and applied it. The only thing it showed on my screen was a tiny dark box in the middle of my screen and it crashed explorer.

I went to Impulse to see if there was any updates to it (sometimes that will fix things). Impulse showed that I did not even have Deskscapes installed! So...

I uninstalled Deskscapes using Revo Uninstaller, which cleans the registry along with the uninstall process. Opened Impulse to install Deskscapes. I have the 'show prerelease version' checked. I try to install it. I get an error message "The beta of the application you are attempting to download/register is not available". I uncheck the 'prerelease version' box and try again. It installs fine. I have verified the install through Impulse too.

Now Deskscapes will not open at all. Not from the start menu, not if I brouse to the exe in the stardock folder and click it...nothing. If I open Impulse again and check the 'prerelease' button, it shows an update available...I try to get that update and get the error message again.

So, now I cant get any dreams to run at all. Any advice will be appreciated.

32,487 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Start over.....make sure to disable anti-virus/spyware....from reading forum posts it looks like the latest AVG seems to have it in for Impulse....be sure to reboot before trying to run Deskscapes.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well, since there is no easy way to turn off AVG temoprarily...I uninstalled it completely. Then I rebooted...opened Impulse...downloaded Deskscapes (prerelease unchecked)...verified the install in Impulse....rebooted.

As soon as my computer came up, I get an error: "dll failed to load, last error code:126".

I still have the same problem. Deskscapes will not open.

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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

That error makes me think it might be a driver issue......have you recently updated your video drivers? or did your problem start right after one of Microsoft's updates?

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have had no driver updates or windows updates...however I just looked to see if there were any. There is one I can do: nVidia-Display-NVIDIA GeForce 8400. I guess I could update that and see if anything changes.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

NVIDIA GeForce 8400

I've seen that card in a number of posts the last year........I'd definitely update.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

updated that

rebooted

installed Deskscapes

rebooted

Still get the dll error and Deskscapes still wont open. :S

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Does it specify which dll it's not finding? I've got one more suggestion and then someone else may have a better idea.....try moving all your downloaded dreams to another directory temporarily. Deskscapes may be trying to load a "bad" dream (play on words)

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

XP Laptop??

Or Vista?

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I'm on Vista, Jim.

try moving all your downloaded dreams to another directory temporarily
Where would they be stored if Deskscapes is not installed?

edit: nevermind, I found out where they are. ;P

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I moved the dreams to a different folder and the error remains upon install and reboot.

The error is exactly how I wrote it. It does not say anything more.

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Along the same lines the dreams also cache up / extract into the user settings, you might want to delete them out of there as well. On XP (Vista ignorant here) it's C:\Doc&Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\DeskScapes\ExtractedData.  I think it used to extract them to individual user app data so you might want to look there as well

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I'm going to try one more thing with Jims help...if it dont work, I'll open a ticket. Thanks for trying Lantec, I appreciate it. :*

 

edit: opening a ticket.

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

One more thing to add, in case someone sees this and can help....

Once I install Deskscapes, the 'configure deskscapes' option is not in my right click menu.

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

Once I install Deskscapes, the 'configure deskscapes' option is not in my right click menu.

As soon as my computer came up, I get an error: "dll failed to load, last error code:126".

Do you have something else installed that is loaded into explorer that may be preventing DeskScapes from doing so?  Perhaps another wallpaper changer or some other shell mod?

Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Do you have something else installed that is loaded into explorer that may be preventing DeskScapes from doing so? Perhaps another wallpaper changer or some other shell mod?
nope, nothing new since before this started. I've never used a wallpaper changer, or use another shell mod. Just stardock stuff. I have not loaded anything new onto this computer other than AVG Antivirus, and I uninstalled that to make sure that it wasnt interfering with anything.

Edit: I dont think I mentioned that that dll error only shows up when Deskscapes is installed. So, it is definitely related to this problem.

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I did and it was working ok, but now I dont have any of them installed.