Software Spasms

Have you ever installed software that just wouldn't work? Or maybe it worked for awhile and then just quit working? I am going to tell you about my experience with Software A and Software B. (I won't name the software as they are both really good and I don't want to discourage anyone from using them.)

I installed Software A on my new laptop and it worked just fine. Then it quit working and nothing (and I do mean nothing*) would make it work. Totally frustrating!

For some reason my new laptop was acting flaky about a lot of things. Sometimes when it started up and password duly entered, it would just sit there and I would have to do a hard boot & restart it. There were other little gremlins in this computer and finally, I had enough! I backed up my data to an external drive and since I received a complete restore disk with this laptop (amazing!) I just popped in the CD and did the deed. In practically no time I had a pristine version of Windows XP SP2 on my notebook.

So I uninstalled the stuff I didn't want (Norton Antivirus and a few other things), updated Windows with all of the available critical updates, installed my virus scanner and firewall, and installed my must have programs, including Software A. Oh goody, now it worked! So I went on happily customizing Windows to work the way I want, installed some other must have programs and everything worked just fine, now more gremlins. Then a few days ago I went to open Software A and it wouldn't open. I tried all of the suggested fixes by software A's support and nada, it would not open. Phooey! Talk about frustrating!

Now today, Software B (which runs in the background all the time, as it should) had a problem because of an idiotic move by me (not going to explain that fiasco) and it crashed. So it isn't running in the background. Just on a hunch, I tried to open Software A. Guess what, it works! So I started testing. Open Software B, Software A won't open. Close Software B and Software A works just fine. Hmmm.

Reboot and try the testing again, same results. Software B running, Software A won't open. Software B closed, Software A works! Now I have to wonder, how many times have folks installed some software that just won't work and the problem is just a conflict with other software on their computer?

*re-registered the dlls and executible, ran the dianostics provide by Software A's support, un-installed, re-installed the program. Sigh, if only I had known how easy it was to solve the problem!

Until next time,
Martha

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