Hondata

My development machine uses Windows & 64 bit, so it can work. There must be a difference in UAC settings, user account settings, DEP or there could still be anti-virus software which is active. I wish they would display an error message rather than silently killing the process.
Start by posting the process list and what UAC settings you are using.

I will leave everything below for info, but after I wrote that, I went back and turned on the 'guest' account for this computer. I logged in as guest, which has some pretty restricted privileges, clicked Kmanager, a window popped up with a licensing agreement, I clicked "Accept" and the program ran.

I created a third account..."Kpro" who has administrator privileges and Kpro ran under that as well

So does appear to be something with the original user "user" Account Settings, I'll see if I can compare "Kpro" to "user" over the next couple of days and see if there are any differences. Must be something pretty obscure!

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Thanks for continuing to help troubleshoot - it is frustrating not getting any message, but the process dies before anything seemingly happens...click on the icon or any other form of 'run', then just sit and stare at the desktop.

Is this easier to troubleshoot in safe mode? I've tried that first. Here are the processes running in safe mode:


As far as user account - not sure what settings you need. I'm trying to run the program as the user "user" who has full administrative privileges, Have also tried to run as "Administrator" who has full admin privileges, too. In looking through the settings, I don't see anything which looks especially prohibitive - actually, somewhat the opposite...."user' has full privileges, etc.

In DEP, I have tried combinations of all settings, "Only microsoft essential programs", "On for all programs except: [none]", and "On for all programs except [Kmanager.exe]" still same result.

Thanks for this information.

There are some differences between Windows XP and Vista/7, where the real Admin account is hidden and user account Administrator privileges are some sort of subset of the real Admin privileges. Apparently this was done because the majority of Windows XP accounts were set up with Administrator privileges and also they could be accessed in safe mode.

I'll try making an account on my machine and see if I can narrow down any options.

A request - could you tell us a bit about what accounts you are using?

First, is the built in Administrator account still hidden? Unless you have gone into the policy editor and enabled it then it probably still is hidden. The way to tell is if you have an account named 'Administrator' showing when you log in.

Second, what other accounts are there, and what are their account type (Standard User or Administrator)? Also, what is the UAC setting for each account (the slider which goes from Always Notify to Never Notify)?

Next, what account did you install KManager under?

If you installed under a standard user account, did the install prompt for admin right, and ask you to enter the Administrator password (or a password for an account with admin rights)?

There is a quirk with Windows where an installation under a standard user only has access to the escalated (admin) account's settings, not the logged in account settings, so desktop and quick launch icons don't appear (but KManager still runs ok.)

I will try and put the details below as clear as I can - if the still aren't 100% clear, just let me know...happy to help out.

Yes, the built in Administrator is still hidden. I just went through the steps to show it and he does show up, but this is the first time I've ever accessed it.

As far as the installs I've tried, briefly:

Bought the computer last summer with Win7 home premium pre-installed. As part of the initial set-up, it ask for the user name. I just wanted something generic so I chose the username "user". I installed my software, antivirus, did all my tweaks, etc installed the current Kmanager for that time, all was well. "user" has full administrative privileges - but is not the 'built in' administrator account. I continued to get windows and AV upgrades on this account and installed Kmanager up to 1.4.1 with no issues.

Earlier in the year I noticed Kmanager 1.4.5 had come out as beta so I tried to install that as well. No luck. Thought maybe it might be a beta bug, so I waited a while tweaked settings, tried compatibility, etc. No luck. Reverted back to 1.4.1 with no issues and continued using Kmanager.

Contacted you guys discussed some options. No Luck. Finally at 1.4.5.3, I uninstalled my AV software and gave it a shot as that seemed to be my 'last option'. No Luck. We talked a bit more about the user privileges which were about as permissive as I could see for "user". Tried some changes. No Luck.

Got to thinking, well, why not create another user and see if the issue is limited to one account or systemic to the whole computer. I enabled the default 'Guest' account, installed 1.4.5.3 and it ran fine! By default, "Guest" is a pretty limited account, but no troubles with Kmanager. I re installed the AV and found Kmanager still ran fine. So I started thinking - maybe "user" has too many permissions? (I think the most secure way to operate would be for the user to have 'just enough' rights/privileges to do a task/run program, but no more, as extra privileges might be hijacked by malicious code)

I created a new account with the user "Kpro" and gave it full administrative privileges just like "user". Installed Kmanager with the AV active - and the software works under user "Kpro", too. I've spent the past couple days comparing settings between the user "user" and the user "Kpro" but haven't found any differences.


Through any of the installs, even "Guest" with restricted privileges, I've never been prompted to give admin rights/password. I see quick launch icons in all accounts and they work to launch the software in "Guest" or "Kpro" accounts. Or if I go to the "user" account and click "Run as a different user" then choose either "Kpro" or "Guest" the software will run


So In summary:

Built in Admin account - just accessed it, never tried to install Kmanager

"user" original account w/ administrator privileges - Kmanager up to 1.4.1 works fine. 1.4.5+ dies on the launch pad (with or without AV and any other tweaks I can think of) 1.4.5+ will launch if I click "Run as different user" and choose either "Guest" or "Kpro", but will not work if I choose "Run as Administrator"

"Guest" new account w/ restricted privileges - Kmanager to 1.4.5+ works fine, even with Bitdefender AV installed. Can choose "Run as different user" and choose "Kpro", or "Run as Administrator" it will work, but choose "user" and it will not.

"Kpro" new account w/ administrator privileges - Kmanager to 1.4.5+ works fine, even with Bitdefender AV installed. Can choose "Run as different user" and choose "Guest", or "Run as Administrator" it will work, but choose "user" and it will not.

Thanks for the information. First, ignore 1.4.1 running and 1.4.5 not running. I've found that I can change a text string and re-compile and it will switch the behavior from normal to false positive or visa versa - the issue is that the AV software looks for patterns in the application file which can be fairly random.

There are some odd things about your setup.

An installation from a non-admin account should always want privilege escalation and prompt for an admin account password. If not, perhaps the UAC settings are set to the lowest setting, or there is a policy setting I'm not aware of.

KManager should not require admin privileges to run, so you should not need to use 'run as..' to run it.

What are your UAC settings for each account?

What user did you install from?

Finally, from an admin account go through the uninstall programs and see if you can find any anti-virus software. The behavior where you start KManager and nothing happens is exactly what we have seen from anti-virus software. A process list from non safe mode might help too.

Hondata wrote:...
An installation from a non-admin account should always want privilege escalation and prompt for an admin account password. If not, perhaps the UAC settings are set to the lowest setting, or there is a policy setting I'm not aware of.

'Technically', I have never 'installed' from a non-admin account. All of my testing has been from the file which was installed under "user" who has admin privileges. If I ran the program from a different user, I simply created a quick launch icon from the original install. I didn't re-install for each separate user..."user", "Kpro" and "Guest"

KManager should not require admin privileges to run, so you should not need to use 'run as..' to run it.

OK, good info to know. I have never needed to before, but was just trying everything I could think of to solve this issue.

What are your UAC settings for each account?

Until now, all UAC's have been set to the lowest 'never notify me' setting. I just ran a test from the "user" account with it set to the highest 'always notify me' setting.

logged in as "user":
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- click quick launch to run software, nothing happens

- click 'run as administrator', window pops up "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?" [click yes] The window goes away and nothing happens

- click 'run as different user', choose user "Kpro", program runs fine - no prompt from UAC, program just runs.

What user did you install from?

I have only ever installed from the user "user". As a test, I just formally uninstalled under "user" and installed under "Kpro". Program works fine under "Kpro", won't launch under "user", but will launch under "user" if I do the 'run as different user' and choose "Kpro' - so basically same behavior as always. Program refuses to run under "user" but will run under any other account, or the "user" account if I run as a different user

Finally, from an admin account go through the uninstall programs and see if you can find any anti-virus software. The behavior where you start KManager and nothing happens is exactly what we have seen from anti-virus software. A process list from non safe mode might help too.

I will take an additional look. For the test a few days ago, I uninstalled Bitdefender, still couldn't get it to work under "user", so I re-installed the latest version of BD. When I did the reinstall, BD came up with a warning to the effect of"Bitdefender has detected Norton Antivirus on your computer. You need to uninstall Norton to prevent conflicts with BD" I don't ever recall installing Norton and it didn't come from the OEM with it, but I went ahead and did the uninstall procedure. After the re-start, it seemed as though BD was happy there were no other AV's on the computer, completed a pre-install scan, did not detect any issues and continued with the install. After that, I updated the virus defs, did a deep system scan and came back all clean. Will see if I can post up a new process list tonight.

Also - if you're doing all this troubleshooting for general betterment of the program, that's great and I'll be happy to help out all I can. If you are doing it just for me, I'm at a point where I can use the software under under a different user, so that is a work-around I can live with. So no need to waste time if it's just on my behalf.

Same problem here, Win 7 64 and 1.4.5.2 doesn't start.
I have tried with antivir disabled but nothing changes.
I have not any error, simply it doesn't start, no error sound, nothing!

Tried setting up a different user and running under that user?. So far, that is the only thing which has worked for me.

Process lists as requested above. In this instance, I am logged in under my normal "user" account and I have clicked "run as different user" and chose user "Kpro" to run Kmanager.

BitDefender is running. If you install Security Essentials, BitDefender will be disabled, but it may be best to uninstall BitDefender first.
http://www.bitdefender.com/files/Knowle ... l_Tool.exe

The next potential issue is the parental control services - perhaps they are detecting KManager as 'adult only'?

I will look into security essentials. Though it's worth noting, a) when I had BD completely uninstalled a few days ago, Kmanager would still not work under "user" but would work under all other users "Kpro" and "Guest" b) Now that I have BD re-installed, bdagent.exe is running for both "user" and "Kpro" but Kmanager will run for user "Kpro".

I don't have any parental control active for "user" or "Kpro" on the computer. Though in looking at the "Guest" account, it looks like BD defaulted to a medium-restrictive blocking scheme. I set it to the most restrictive blocking and Kmanager still runs under the "Guest" user.