SSC thinking it's first-run on Windows startup?

[dmorris68]

Maybe nobody else is seeing this as I don't see a report.  But about every 2nd or 3rd time I boot up (or 4th, or 5th, and sometimes several times in a row -- it varies), when the Windows desktop loads the SSC edit window pops up showing the last SS I took.  Then when I close it, the SSC balloon tip in the task tray pops up to "welcome" me to SSC, as if this was the first time I had installed it and rebooted.  It started doing this maybe 6-9 months ago?  Don't remember.  At first I didn't think much of it, but however many updates later it still does it, and it has become annoying.

Is it writing a "first run" registry entry somewhere that's getting hosed maybe?

I'm running Win7 Ultimate x64, btw.

[mouser]

hi dmorris,

It saves its first use flag in its settings file (ScreenshotCaptor.ini), so it sounds to me like its having trouble saving this file, or trying to save it to a wrong/protected location.

Did you by change move over your settings file from another pc, or do you use the ConfigDir.ini file to try to make the program portable? 

[dmorris68]

hi dmorris,

It saves its first use flag in its settings file (ScreenshotCaptor.ini), so it sounds to me like its having trouble saving this file, or trying to save it to a wrong/protected location.

Did you by change move over your settings file from another pc, or do you use the ConfigDir.ini file to try to make the program portable?  

No, I've not moved or edited any config files by hand, nor tried to make it portable.  However it's very likely that my configuration files & install folder date back to other versions of Windows, probably back to my XP days since I've been using SSC a long time.  My apps are on another drive from my OS, so whenever I've upgraded OSes or PCs, I reinstall apps to their existing folders on the app drive, therefore some settings and files will be quite old if they're not overwritten.

And I'm running as an Admin account with UAC disabled, so there should be no protected file/registry areas.  Nothing is installed to Program Files anyway, my SSC is installed to D:\Tools\Graphics\ScreenshotCaptor.  I'm looking through ScreenshotCaptor.ini now -- which setting controls first-run?

[mouser]

CheckBoxFirstMinimize.Checked="false"

[mouser]

the other thing that could be going wrong is if that file is getting deleted or corrupted.
or sc is getting confused about it on startup.

check the file data make sure it is being saved when you exit it.  you might try changing some setting, exiting sc, restarting, and making sure the change was remembered.

you could also try editing the ConfigDir.ini file and manually specifying a location for the file.

[dmorris68]

Well, that setting is set to false.  Interesting, I assume you're persisting GUI control settings directly, and this is a checkbox somewhere in options?  When I opened the Options dialog to check, in the Startup/Shutdown section, I noticed neither Start with Windows or Start Minimized are checked -- yet it does start with Windows!  I've not added it manually to the Startup group or the registry, but it's there in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, even without these startup checkboxes checked.

Do you think this weirdness could be related?

The ScreenshotCaptor.ini file has a Last Modified date of November 18, 2008.  So I check the setting to startup with Windows and exited SSC, but the file modified date didn't change -- could it be writing the file elsewhere?  According to the ConfigDir.ini, the default is to store settings in the app folder, and I haven't told it otherwise.

[mouser]

Do you think this weirdness could be related?

yes.  are you sure its actually running the copy that you are looking at?  is it possible you have ANOTHER copy of SC hiding somewhere?

[mouser]

According to the ConfigDir.ini, the default is to store settings in the app folder, and I haven't told it otherwise.

im not sure what you mean by default in the app folder.. on windows vista and win 7 the default will be in your MyDocuments subdirectory.
that could be your problem.

you could try exiting, deleting the configdir.ini file and starting up screenshot captor and the screenshotcaptor.ini files, then restart. then exit.
then try to find the NEW screenshotcaptor.ini file created just then.

[dmorris68]

Do you think this weirdness could be related?

yes.  are you sure its actually running the copy that you are looking at?  is it possible you have ANOTHER copy of SC hiding somewhere?

Yes, that's the copy running.  The only one installed.

According to the ConfigDir.ini, the default is to store settings in the app folder, and I haven't told it otherwise.

im not sure what you mean by default in the app folder.. on windows vista and win 7 the default will be in your MyDocuments subdirectory.
that could be your problem.

you could try exiting, deleting the configdir.ini file and starting up screenshot captor and the screenshotcaptor.ini files, then restart. then exit.
then try to find the NEW screenshotcaptor.ini file created just then.

Ah, I was going by the comments in ConfigDir.ini:

// By default it is normally set to the program directory itself, meaning
//  that all configuration/ini/settings/preferences will be store here
//  with this ConfigDir.ini file

My guess is this installation folder has been around since XP, then Vista, then Win7.  Maybe having those old settings in the app directory is confusing things.  BTW the ScreenshotCaptor.ini in the My Documents folder is being successfully written.

[mouser]

BTW the ScreenshotCaptor.ini in the My Documents folder is being successfully written.

and are some settings being changes? if you run sc, change some settings, exit, restart. are the settings remembered?

what i'd like to see you do is change some setting clearly that you will remember, then if you ever see that issue happen again where it is showing you that message about first time minimizing, go see if the other setting got reset to its default.  that would at least let us know that whats happening is it isn't loading your settings file that time.