Christian,
Maybe you should uninstall, reinstall making sure any virus protection software is disabled during the install.
Christian,
Strange! I just started having the same problem today.
In addition to the Welcome Screen, I have the same problem when I try to access anything from the How To palette. I get the message
Cannot find file …./Recipes/Categories/GetHelpID(some 20-digit number). Do you also have this problem?
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling PSE2, but I noticed that after the reinstall some of my history is still there, such as the list of files in the Open Recent menu. So I suspect that the reinstall did not fully reinstall and some obscure file somewhere remained after the uninstall, and maybe this file was corrupted and remained after the reinstall. Just a wild guess. I’m not sure where this "history" file would be. Windows uninstall did not remove some items in the PHE2 directory and I had to manually remove this directory before the install; so if the "history" file exists it must be somewhere else.
Nancy S,
Why do you say to make sure any virus protection software is disabled during the install?
Gee, Mark, I had a nice answer all ready to post – and then accidentally hit some key and deleted it. Grrr. Here it comes. Again.
First, in response to your question to Nancy – computer gurus (and even the box!) recommend antivirus software be disabled while installing any applications. I don’t know why exactly, but I assume it’s tied to the fact antivirus programs always want to dig in to anything new they spot and mess around with it to make sure it’s not an infected file. So, always make sure you disable before trying to load any program. There’s also a notorious conflict between Norton antivirus software and Adobe products, so if you use Norton, disabling is even more important. Once the software installation is complete, the antivirus protection can be turned on again.
Your observation about the uninstall not getting all of the files is correct. After running the Uninstall feature, you have to do a Find for straggling files/folders. The most important of these is the Preference folder, which is subject to becoming corrupted, and it’s also where things like your most recently used file list is stored. There is a keyboard shortcut for deleting this folder, so if you ever feel you should delete it, it’s not necessary to do a complete uninstall – just go after the one folder. I’ll post the shortcut at the end of this post.
At this point, I’d suggest the following:
Do a complete uninstall of Elements – again. This time do a Find afterwards and get anything related to Elements that was left behind, particularly that Preference folder. There will probably be something left in the registry, but we don’t advocate going after that.
Disable your antivirus software.
Reinstall Elements. Now IF your original problem was caused by a conflict with the antivirus software, it should run properly. If it does, reactiivate your antivirus program.
If you continue to have problems, repost and let us know you’ve already done an install with antivirus software disabled and the preference folder deleted. That way we’ll move on to other suggestions.
I do run both Elements and Norton on an XP Pro machine, but I made sure Norton was disabled at the time I did the installation of Elements. Everything is fine.
It is also not uncommon for that Preference folder to become corrupted as Elements is used. Nobody has ever figured out the why, but it does happen, and features of Elements that used to operate correctly quit doing what they’re supposed to. Should that happen, here’s the easy way to fix it.
With Elements closed, click on the start up icon and then make a QUICK grab for the Control, Alt, and Shift keys. Hold all three down until you get a screen asking if you want to delete Settings. Say Yes. A new preference folder will rebuild as Elements continues to launch. Some people have trouble getting to those keys quickly enough, so you could also have your fingers on them just before hitting the start up icon.
Good luck. And I’m going to hit Post now before I lose this again! 🙂
Beth,
I just did an uninstall (answering "no" to delete Shared Files).
Then I manually removed items which were not removed by the uninstall: the desktop shortcut icon and the PHE2 directory which still had a few things in it.
Then I searched for all file/folders containing "pse", "pse2", "photoshop", and "adobe", and deleted 8 files and folders matching these. Among them were 2 preference files (ending with "Prefs.psp") and 2 folders (ending with "Prefs". I then emptied out the recycle bin so there should be no evidence of PSE2 on my computer.
Then I disabled Norton Antivirus and reinstalled PSE2.
During the install a window came up to enter the serial#. To my surprise my name was already entered in the name field. How did this get there?
I also chose standard setup.
But I still have the same problems:
1. Clicking any tool in the Welcome Screen gives a message, for example "cannot find file …./HTML Palettes/Welcome/PlayBuiltinCommand(tutorials)" In my Welcome directory there is nothing called PlayBuiltinCommand. Is there in your directory>
2. Clicking any recipe in the How To palette gives a message, for example "cannot find file
…./Recipes/Categories/GetHelpID(a 20-digit number)" In my Categories directory there is nothing called GetHelpID. Is this in your directory?
I should add that this problem first came up this morning, and the only thing unusual I did yesterday was trying the Control-Alt-Shift trick to remove the Preferences. It was the first time I had ever done that, and coincidently my problems started after that.
I throw my hands up!! Any other ideas?
Eeek! No, unfortunately, I don’t have any more ideas. But I have to admit that I speak Windows only as a second language, and I’m not sitting at a Windows machine, so I can’t check the registry. I hope someone will be along before too long with more ideas. In the meantime they’ll know what you’ve already tried.
But, to clarify – Elements works, but not when you try to access things from the Welcome Screen and not when you’re trying to use the How To palette for Recipes. Right? If so, no need to repost.
I’m sorry this didn’t work for you. It sounds vaguely familiar, though, so I’ll try a forum search and see if I can come up with anything else.
Beth, as far as I can tell so far PSE2 works except for the Welcome Screen and recipes.
When I asked if you could check your
…./Recipes/Categories/GetHelpID(a 20-digit number)
and
…./HTML Palettes/Welcome/PlayBuiltinCommand(tutorials) I was not referring to the registry but to the PHE2 directories. So for example in my D:\apps\Photoshop Elements 2\HTMLPalettes\Welcome
directory I could not find anything (file or directory) called PlayBuiltInCommand.
I’m not any help! I can’t find either of those files (or anything close) in my Elements application folder. However, I did go back and activate my Welcome Screen, and everything works. Same with Recipes. So I don’t have those files either, but it doesn’t seem to matter on my computer. ???
Christian and Mark,
I have always set the Startup screen NOT to show, since the first time I opened the program. I can access the same features from the toolbars above the workarea. When I pulled up the Startup screen for the first time, a lot of those functions don’t work on mine either. I have noticed no other problems in the program, being able to utilize everything I want to use from above the workarea. You can put a tick in the box at bottom corner of startup screen telling it not to appear when program loads and reinstate it from Window>Startup Screen.
edit—I don’t think those are files, which is why you can’t find them. Don’t know the correct terminology but they must be something like calls within the code. Also, when installing on XP, did you use an Administrator account or one with Administrator rights (on XP Pro, which I have, this is a must or some things cannot be written to the registry, according to the Readme file).
I would agree about the Welcome Screen. We had several PC’s crash in out lab at the local college when using it. I went in and disabled them all so that wouldn’t happen again. Although, come to think of it that happened in Win98 and not in XP.
I only use my welcome screen now for Richard Lynch’s tools.
Dick
