Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

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Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby zcole » Wed Dec 21, 2016 1:47 pm

I cannot get any of my Proshow executable files to run on my laptop. They run fine on my desktop. They used to run on my laptop. I was planning on using the laptop to display a Christmas slideshow this weekend and have no clue as to what is causing the problem. When I click on the executable icon, I get the little Windows 10 waiting circle thing, and that's it! Nothing else ever happens. To get it to stop, I have to restart the laptop and am prompted that Program Manager is still running and I have to tell it to "restart anyway".

Any ideas?

Thanks

Zane

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby zcole » Wed Dec 21, 2016 3:03 pm

UPDATE:

I just realized that the last time I was running a Proshow executable, my laptop was running Windows 8! So, perhaps the problem has something to do with the Windows 10 upgrade, which has been working fine, otherwise, for about a year.

This bit of information is not particularly helpful to me, but hopefully it will mean something to someone more knowledgeable. :-)

Zane

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby gpsmikey » Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:32 pm

I don't have windoze 10 (I'm running win7/64 and plan to stay there for a while), but my preference is to create an mp4 and play that - that will play on PCs, MACs and even most TV's these days have a USB port - put it on a thumb drive, plug it into the TV and it will play it direct. I use the free VLC player on my PC as the default player for mp4 stuff (I usually create my stuff in 720p)
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby Dewcal » Thu Dec 22, 2016 5:28 am

Zane,

Not sure if this will help you but exe files made by the last three versions of PSP will run on my Windows 10 laptop without issues. It might be worth right clicking the exe file, selecting properties, compatibility and asking it to run as administrator.

Have no idea if this will work for you but I do know it can sort some issues out as permissions in Windows 10 can be problematic.

Dave

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby zcole » Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:31 am

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried right clicking to run as administrator, but that did not help.

However.... I finally fixed the problem. It turns out that either my firewall or anti-virus program, or both, were causing the problem. I am pretty sure it was the Avast free anti-virus, but I was having problems with both, so I fixed both before trying again to run the Proshow executable... which then worked. The Avast was constantly badgering me that it was not up to date, but it would not update when I clicked on it to do so. So I uninstalled it and put in Avira, another free anti-virus that I have running on my desktop. Did the same with the ZoneAlarm firewall, but just reinstalled it. Then the Proshow executables ran just like they always have.

Just out of curiosity, are the MP4 files about the same size and quality as the executable files? As I recall, they take longer to render, don't they? Guess after the holidays I should give that a try just so I'll know for next time a problem jumps up.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Zane

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby Dewcal » Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:45 am

Glad it is working for you. Firewalls can be a double edged sword!

I normally use exe files as I invariably use PSP to produce colour correct shows that I can advance and talk over manually - a bit different to most people here I suspect.

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby JBD » Fri Dec 23, 2016 5:18 am

Zane,

I am running Win 10 with no problems with PSP.

Why are you using ZoneAlarm?? Just run the firewall and virus protection software that came with Win10. Microsoft keeps updating Win10 and compatibility with 3rd party software might develop between updates.

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Re: Proshow executables won't run now on my laptop

Postby gpsmikey » Fri Dec 23, 2016 3:54 pm

Not sure about the size comparisons between an exe and an mp4, but they are entirely different critters under the hood. The mp4 is an actual video file that can play on almost anything that can handle mp4 (most things). The .exe file is not really a compilation so much as it is a bundled version of the pxplay utility and all the files used in the show partially converted to an internal format - the down side of that is it is PC only and, it is very dependent on the host computer it is running on - complex slides actually get rendered sort of during play, so a laptop especially with limited memory and/or slow processor will stumble all over itself trying to handle a complex shot. We also found a bug/feature some time ago that as far as I know has not been addressed (last time I asked it was still logged but not fixed) - if you create a standard DVD and include extras on the dvd and one of the extras is an exe that is larger than about 1.2GB, the included .exe gets trashed (well, actually, only the first chunk of it gets included on the DVD the rest falls off into the bit bucket somewhere ... ). Not a lot of people have run into that, but it can bite you if you have a large show and want to include an exe of the show on the DVD (this is for a standard video DVD, not a data DVD where you are simply putting a bunch of files).

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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