curtains froze my system and left taskbar and start menu inaccessible

uninstalled

from Stardock Forums

I just purchased curtains and was making my first set up. I chose to edit an existing theme. All was going well until I was unable to change the blue line at the top of my taskbar. First I tried to use my custom image hoping it would be automatic. Unfortunately that caused half of the taskbar to change colour. I then tried to get my taskbar back by starting the process over.  Unfortunately, without warning the taskbar disappeared except a flashing thin line. I couldn't access the taskbar or the start menu. I had to use ctrl alt del to sign out and reboot. After reboot, the problem remained and start menu showed in task manager as very high memory usage. 

The only way I managed to fix the situation was to go into control panel through right clicking on the desktop and uninstall curtains. The uninstall gave me the option to reset my settings. This solved the problem but I lost all of my previous windows settings as far as desktop image and colours, etc.

There is obviously a major flaw with this program that needs to be fixed.

I have used fences for quite a while with no issues at all and I am a competent computer user. I would like a refund for this program as it is obviously not safe to use.

curtains
8,945 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Never have seen this issue while making my Curtains styles. Not really sure why and what happened in your system. Please try again. But if you still wish for a refund please raise a ticket here :

http://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/default_import/Tickets/Submit

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

What image were you using for the taskbar as we would very much like to reproduce this.

Actually if you still have the style you created (stored in C:\Users\Public\Documents\Stardock\Curtains) it would be much appreciated if you are able to send it to us as we will hopefully be able to reproduce it directly and fix whatever is causing the issue.

Also do you recall changing the Image Native DPI value in curtains config when editing the taskbar?

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

The style I was editing is called splash green. On the photo it has a dark green taskbar but I set my taskbar to black. After I changed the image to one that was basically greenish to brownish, the taskbar still had a thin blue line at the top. That line is what I was trying to change/remove. First I selected my image but that gave me a taskbar with half of it the colour of my image. I saw a png that said top line that looked thin. I edited the colour of that png to be beige and I saved it. I then tried to set that image to use for the taskbar top line. That is when things started to go really wrong. The taskbar disappeared except for the thin blue line which was flashing crazily. I couldn't access the taskbar. The start button disappeared and I couldn't access the start menu even when using the windows button. 

I used ctrl alt del to sign out and reboot. When I rebooted same issue. I then tried using task manager to end all curtains related processes and services. That did not fix the problem either. Finally I remembered that I had enabled good old control panel to open on a desktop shift-right click. Opening control panel allowed me to access programs and features which enabled me to uninstall the program. 

My pc is completely up to date although I am one of the users that hasn't been able to update to 2004 yet. 

I did not change the native dpi value as I was only trying to do basic things as a first attempt at learning the program.

Here is a link to the files: modified splashgreen style 

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Been looking at your files list and I can't find any ".CurtainsStyle" in there. I did find "Splash Green (Modified) (Modified) (Modified).CURTAINSTYLE" which, I believe, is not a valid Curtains Style file.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting kaatza, reply 3

The style I was editing is called splash green. On the photo it has a dark green taskbar but I set my taskbar to black. After I changed the image to one that was basically greenish to brownish, the taskbar still had a thin blue line at the top. That line is what I was trying to change/remove. First I selected my image but that gave me a taskbar with half of it the colour of my image. I saw a png that said top line that looked thin. I edited the colour of that png to be beige and I saved it. I then tried to set that image to use for the taskbar top line. That is when things started to go really wrong. The taskbar disappeared except for the thin blue line which was flashing crazily. I couldn't access the taskbar. The start button disappeared and I couldn't access the start menu even when using the windows button. 

I used ctrl alt del to sign out and reboot. When I rebooted same issue. I then tried using task manager to end all curtains related processes and services. That did not fix the problem either. Finally I remembered that I had enabled good old control panel to open on a desktop shift-right click. Opening control panel allowed me to access programs and features which enabled me to uninstall the program. 

My pc is completely up to date although I am one of the users that hasn't been able to update to 2004 yet. 

I did not change the native dpi value as I was only trying to do basic things as a first attempt at learning the program.

Here is a link to the files: modified splashgreen style 

Thank you for the files.  I have been able to locate the problem,

The style has the taskbar set to invert itself when in light mode (Advanced properties on the taskbar page in Curtains).  But it also has the option set on the colours page to automatically decide on the taskbar mode based on the lightness of the taskbar image.  As the image is light, it loads up, decides the taskbar needs to be in light mode, so switches it to light mode, which causes it to invert the taskbar image making it dark which then causes it to decide it needs to be in dark mode and around we go as switching between light/dark taskbar causes a style reapply.

I will get this sorted ASAP as clearly thats not by design and is an unfortunate interaction.  It shouldn't be allowing both those settings at once.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Oh I am so glad you found the problem. I will now reinstall the program and try to get my desktop the way I like it.

Allanah