Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need more information on your system.

1. Windows version, please use Winver.exe for full Windows version numbers.
2. Windowblinds version you're trying to use.
3. Information on your AntiVirus setup.
4. CPU maker, Intel, AMD or ARM.
5. Did you installed WB in its default directory?
6. Has WB ever worked before in this system. If yes, what changed? New Windows update? Driver update? New installed software?

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Indeed so. And when I saw just now your name "basj" I said that looks familiar. So glad you are still on the job so faithfully. Yes, it's back and the same difficulty it was a month or two before.  That "purge" item seemed to work, but no more. Since then my grandson reformatted the machine (it's Windows 10 x64 with Asus brand mother board and has a lot of ram, I think 32 units), I recently went back to the WindowBlinds, and back to sq. 1, will not open at all, except for an instant flash. I also tried it in "safe" mode, same thing. Very sad.

Intel Core i7 3930K @ 3.20GHz

Sandy Bridge-E 32nm Technology

Just the Windows Defender anti-virus, and have it disabled

Other that doing that, which is complicated for me and also a bit frightening, is there any other possible way to fix this? Did running the machine in "safe" mode already eliminated conflicts, or is this setting up a new user account the only way to do that.

Yes, that would be swell, thanks. However, looks bad. I searched around and found posts

https://forums.stardock.com/483078/windowblinds-wont-load

other people having the same difficulty, and no solution to it.

That's excellent, thanks. If the support people are able to solve a problem for a customer, plain courtesy would dictate that the customer reports back on it; but I suppose goes against human nature.

Thank you for getting back, Mr. Rohan. If I were able to do that, would it be possible later to delete the phantom account and go back to how it was before? And too, if the hopefully excellent WindowBlinds does work with the phantom account, do that mean it still will not work with the regular account and that I would always have to use the phantom account?

Scratch that...

Go to:

C:\ProgramData\Stardock\WindowBlinds

Note that is ProgramData, not Program Files.

Delete the License.sig that is there and open WB again - it should prompt you to activate and then open.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Yes.

Unknown - what it will tell us is that it's not something fundamentally broke in Windows.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

While it should show in a search and \ or under Programs, you can unzip / run this file if the service is not starting:

http://sd.stardock.com/Support/Utilities/PurgeAndBats/WB/StartWB.zip

Also, are you installing WB in its default C drive location?  If not, please uninstall and ensure that you are allowing it to install where it initially wants to.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

The only other thing I can think of is if you are using ESet for anti-virus - which gives WB a hard time.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Exactly one year later, same d--n thing happening again, the WindowBlinds will not open, flashes for a tenth of a second and then disappears. Tried reinstalling, same thing. Not sure what triggered this. Went back to an earlier "image," thinking that might help, but no.

Thanks for getting back. I downloaded something called Net Repair Tool from the Microsoft web site and ran it. Whether it did something or not I don't know, but sadly the WindowBlinds still just flashes for an instant and disappears.   Later...I reformatted the computer from scratch, was getting ready to do it anyhow, fresh installation of Windows 10. With fond expectation then tried to open the WindowBlinds. Zip, zero, no! Plainly the problem is then not with the computer. Have noted also some other folks complained of the same thing. I give up.