If WB works after the first reboot and then stops working after the next reboot then something is removing the WindowBlinds registry entries after WB has started.  If the keys are deleted then clearly WB is unable to start & no amount of patches from us is going to resolve this as its not WB deleting the keys.

It seems most likely the problem is a service doing this.

Sorry, I thought when you said 'what a waiste of time and money, now i know why it was only $20' you had purchased a copy.

Could you still please contact me with a list of the apps running on your PC and the information from the WB troubleshooting page as we can try to track down this problem. 

Thanks

OK I seem to have joined the rest of the club now in that I cannot get WB5 to start after installation AT ALL. My machine reboots in Windows Classic and I get the "This machine MUST be rebooted after installing this version of WB5" popup (without my interacting with the computer in any way other than to type in my password). If I then click on "reboot now" the machine restarts back into Windows Classic and the same popup appears.

I've already been through all my security apps and services - I've even tried installing WB with only the default WinXP services running and my security apps set not to start on boot with no change. I have full read/write access to the registry.

Thoughts?

Hi Scorpio-logic,

Thanks for replying. I do run registry monitoring software (Tenebril's SpyCatcher, Regdefend, and possibly both AVG 7 Pro and Webroot's SpySweeper) but I've gone through the very laborious process of disabling all of them from starting up AND disabling the services that they install. Hasn't made a difference. In the past, I've been able to install WB5, reboot and have wbconfig open up stating that all is well and skin until my ears bleed but upon subsequent reboot I'm back to windows classic and the reboot warning from the WB 5 installer.

After trying the above, though (ie disabling my security apps and their services) I am now experiencing the "normal" problem - WB 5 won't run at all. I no longer have the fleeting joy of skinning my Windows installation I am simply asked to restart my computer whenever I try to run WB. If I select "Reboot Now" the computer reboots, windows classic is the theme, and I have to manually start wbconfig, which won't open as I am informed that in order to complete installation I must reboot!

Thanks for anything that might occur to you from reading the above. It does bear noting that when I *was* able to run wbconfig, the system information tab indicated that all was rosy with my installation.

I have the same problem on Windows XP x64 edition.  I install and then of course I am asked to reboot.  When I reboot, wb attempts to load and I am presented with the reboot screen again, I reboot again, and nothing happens, I try to start wb5 manually through the start menu, and then i am prompted to restart a 3rd time.

This is happening on a freshly installed system with no anti-virus, security, anti-spyware, or anything else loaded onto the system.  I can however install it on the 32-bit edition on the same system, it is only doing this on the x64 edition of xp with wb5.  I don't have antiwpa or anything like that as this is a volume license copy of XP x64 for corporate use.

I am under the impression that WB5 is supposed to support XP 64.  here is my configuration:

Intel EM64T HT processor 3.4Ghz

Windows XP x64 edition with all updates

ATI Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition (single card configuration)

2 GB DDR2 RAM

Intel 82801FR SATA RAID currently at RAID-0 with two 250GB hdd

Please advise what would be causing this.

The same behaviour is occurring on machines running the 32-bit version of windows (mine included), so this is clearly not a problem exclusive to the 64-bit version. There *must* be something that everyone experiencing this problem has in common - be it a setting, specific software app (or type of software app), installation peculiarities, whatever.

I am running WinXP Pro Sp-2 with all latest updates on a Centrino notebook - 1.4Ghz, 1024MB Ram (PC2100), 80GB HD.

I also run (all latest builds/versions/releases):

Acronis TrueImage 9

GenieBackupManager Pro 6

GhostSecurity Suite RegDefend 2

AVG Pro 7.1

Webroot Spysweeper 4.5

Tenebril GhostSurf 2005 Platinum (includes SpyCatcher)

WinPatrol Plus 9.8

Admuncher

ZoneAlarms Pro (with anti-spyware active)

Executive Diskeeper 10

Webroot Window Washer 6

Directory Opus 8.2 Unicode

Sandboxie

CachemanXP

There's more but these are the apps that have the potential (I think) to block writes to the registry at startup... I am currently running WB5 with the SimpleAlpha skin. This after an initial reboot following uninstallation/reinstallation with SDC - I am running the latest beta build. I have a good feeling about this *taking* this time, but am not holding my breath. I'll know after a reboot but I can't bring myself to do it just yet as I am enjoying the skin Actually, I've a reboot to do as RegDefend has just updated itself so we'll see...

Anyone who has made it through my partial list of apps and is experiencing this problem - do you see any commonality? FWIW I am also running Office 2003, GPSoftware's DOpus 8.2 unicode, and browse the web with the latest build of Maxthon.

Just to close (and more a note to self) I haven't adjusted my display settings this time around - they're at 16 bit which rules out per pixel blending - I'll see if this changes anything over the next couple of reboots (assuming this one is successful).

Mike