Apps not running on Windows 7 SP 1

Some of our Windows desktop applications are not running on Windows 7 SP 1 systems.
I tried it on 4 different machines with no success.
The apps are starting and the splash screen is shown but then the app simply stops and nothing else more happens.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to break it down to a small sample project.
The problem did not exist with Xojo 2015r4.1.

Does anyone have any idea how to figure out what’s happening or how to fix the problem?

I know this is no help, but I have seen this happen a few times now and have not yet solved it.
Windows 7 has been fine for Xojo for years, so I suspect that one or more recent patches to Windows 7 may be causing the issue.

Sometimes it is due to a Virus checker such as Avast or Panda or AVG, but usually when they are the cause you see nothing at all.

This was also my first thought but I uninstalled all virus checkers (Kaspersky, Avast…) and the problem still exists.
Knowing that I’m not the only one with this problem is at least a small help ;-).

I am testing my Windows project (xojo 2016R3 - 32 bit) occasionally on Windows 7 sp1 and so I did 5 minutes ago because of this thread. Just works.
I do see that the exe is treated as suspicious by by Hitman Pro, which can just be ignored.

[quote=340055:@Joost Rongen]I am testing my Windows project (xojo 2016R3 - 32 bit) occasionally on Windows 7 sp1 and so I did 5 minutes ago because of this thread. Just works.
I do see that the exe is treated as suspicious by by Hitman Pro, which can just be ignored.[/quote]

Can you test it with Xojo 2017r1.1?
Is it a Windows 7 32 or 64 bit version?

I also experience the problem not on all Windows 7 machines but I’m still trying to find common ground.

Are you running something like Traps Endpoint Protection? It simply intercepts the executable without displaying a message. I was bitten by this and it took me quite long to find out what was happening.

No antivirus / firewall or anything like that is running.

[quote=340057:@Stefan Adelsberger]Can you test it with Xojo 2017r1.1?
Is it a Windows 7 32 or 64 bit version?[/quote]

Ok, I took an existing project and build a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version with 2017R1.1. on a Win10 machine.
Copied both builds to a native Win7 Ultimate 64 bit machine and both versions ran just fine.

Could you pass me just a small build which is not running on your Win7 machine ? Just for testing.

I tried it on a Win7 Professional SP1 32 bit machine.
I’ll send you a PM with the link to a build.

Ok, it happens to be that I have got an old Windows 7 32 bit machine. Need to test on that one ?

Yes please try it on that one meanwhile.

not seen yet

@Stefan Adelsberger – at my side everything you mention works with my builds. Is your problem solved now ?

I’m still trying to break it down to a small sample project.
Is there no way to figure out what’s happening behind the scenes?

you could use Sysinternals DebugView (the Sysinternals suite is freely available from Microsoft Technet). It will very likely tell you more about what is happening to the app. You should also take a good look at the Windows event viewer. Here is a how-to for Windows 7, in case you need it.

Just to clear the obvious… The universal runtime is installed, and it is the correct version, right?

The correct version of Universal runtime is installed.
In the Windows event viewer there are no entries regarding the app.
I’ll try the Sysinteransl suite - thanks for the hint.

OK. So the obvious is taken care of. And the usual suspects were already cleared… So, we’re shooting in the dark. Bear with me if the questions are a bit silly:

  • In the event viewer, I suppose that you looked not only at Windows / Application, but also Windows / System?
  • Is your application trying to access restricted areas of the filesystem?
  • Did you try to run the application with elevated priviledges (run as administrator - even if the user is a member of the admin group)?
  • Is the application trying to load a plugin that may not be in the expected location?
  • I suppose that you used an installer for the application, and not just a copy of the build folders.

Waiting to see what the OP answers are to these questions, but for me:

[quote]In the event viewer, I suppose that you looked not only at Windows / Application, but also Windows / System? -YES
Is your application trying to access restricted areas of the filesystem? -NO … Specialfolder.documents only and it exists
Did you try to run the application with elevated priviledges (run as administrator -YES
Is the application trying to load a plugin that may not be in the expected location? NO
I suppose that you used an installer for the application, and not just a copy of the build folders. YES[/quote]

I am getting very short on inspiration. Here is one longshot:

spyware and other types of malware sometimes not detected by AV programs can cause application crashes. There are documented cases. While the likelyhood is low, I still would suggest to download (install and run…) a trial copy of Malwarebytes and scan the troublesome computers. Malwarebytes saved my rear end on a few occasions when my AV did’nt find anything - I changed AV since. The trial version is fully functional for a couple of weeks.