I am new to Stardock, Object Desktop and all the other great sounding tools available here. However, since installing several tools over the weekend, I have noticed that they are very buggy, and have caused problems throughout Windows.
Some facts -- I have Windows XP SP2 and my computer is pretty new. I don't know all the specs right now because I am at work, but I do know it has a Pentium processor at 2.8Ghz and at least 1Gb of RAM. I've been running XP SP2 without any system-wide problems (meaning I've needed to upgrade the occassional program to SP-freindly versions, but no significant problems).
After installing everything in Object Desktop, and some of the other goodies, I decided to go to work playing with stuff. I checked out Acquarium Desktop and Natural Desktop and liked them, but turned them off to try other stuff. Incidentally, now neither Acquarium Desktop nor Natural Desktop will even load. But that's another story. After that, I moved to install some DesktopX themes (the ones by GEF), fiddle with Widgets and Objects and also to install a WindowBlinds theme, something called Lunar Base or something like that. I was thinking these were pretty slick and made my computing experience very non-Windows like.
However, the first glitch I noticed was in IE 6.0. It generally seems to work, but certain web pages will not load properly that worked fine before -- websites like buy.com, bankone.com, etc. Generally, any search functions or login attempts will not work. Java seems to be broken somehow. Incidentally, all these sites appear to work fine in Opera, which would be enough except that Quicken and several other programs (Stardock Central, GameSpy Arcade, etc.) use IE 6.0 to access the internet. I tried to reinstall IE 6.0, but it will not install because it says it has detected a newer version already installed. Strangely, the "About" screen in IE 6.0 does not show a version or any of the other information that it previously showed (and should show) -- I think this is why I cannot reinstall -- it cannot determine what version I have installed. In infamous Microsoft fashion, I tried uninstalling IE, but it doesn't really uninstall -- it is still there after the reboot.
The next thing I noticed was that Windows Media Player 10 will not start. It says it has encountered an error and needs to close. When using WMP10 through other software (namely, J River's Media Center 10), it says it cannot identify which version of WMP10 I have (eerily similar to the IE problem described above) and therefore will not play any video -- videos that played fine before installing any of the Stardock software. I tried reinstalling WMP10, but it encounters an error at the end of the installation and will not start.
Another thing I noticed is that if I hit START and then Search, the space in the window that comes up is completely blank except for the little doggie wagging its tail. No choices above it, as would normally appear.
This is all I have noticed so far, but I sense the problems may run much deeper indeed. All does, however, seem to relate to the MS operating system and related MS software. I have not experienced any problems in other software, except to the extent such software relies on MS software (such as IE) to operate.
Since discovering these problems, I have uninstalled ALL Stardock software except Stardock Central, CursorXP and Icon Packager. I want these programs but I want to get Windows working and then take a more systematic approach to determining the root of the problem (by installing the Stardock programs one at a time and testing functionality throughout Windows before moving on to the next Stardock program).
Question is, have any of you heard of this? Any ideas about what could cause it. I am hoping a simple uninstall/reboot/reinstall of Windows XP SP2 will get my system back to normal, but I am pretty nervous about how these Stardock programs messed everything up.
Any insight would be appreciated. I'll post my results here as I troubleshoot the problem. Hopefully I won't have to ask Stardock for all my money back!!
