Maxim DL 6 continual annoying popup in win 10

[astronomer2002]

After installing Maxim DL 6 (6.29) on my win 10 desktop PC I have been getting an annoying popup every time I touch the program, and  quite often when it isn't even running.

What I get is a message box showing "Please wait while windows configures Maxim DL 6" and a scrolling bar that sticks around for ages.

Looking at file defaults I can see Maxim is the default for several file extensions - but I am not using any of those (.fts, .fits, st10-st9, .237, .255). A separate program, Photoshop, is default fo.fit files.

I have put up with this for some time as I haven't really been using the program much for a period, and now the support period is over, of course.

The program works, but this is very irritating and regardless of pressing cancel on the popup Maxim will not respond until the messages stop. Then I will open another file and the pestering starts again.

I haven't been able to find anything on the web about this - but there are loads of articles/forum entries about the same popup referring to Microsoft Office. These are not helpful and I do not get these popups in Office programs in any case.

 

Anybody come across this or could offer any suggestions? I have alread tried removing, rebooting, and re-installing Maxim DL.

Thanks in advance

 

Ian B

 

 

 

[scotty38]

I did read somewhere else about the same message (different app) and a suggestion was checking the permissions of the application directory under Program Files. If not already try changing to full access and see if it helps

Edited August 18, 2023 by scotty38

[Oddsocks]

8 hours ago, astronomer2002 said:

 

I have put up with this for some time as I haven't really been using the program much for a period, and now the support period is over, of course.

 

Hi Ian.

Support for MaxIm DL has no expiry date, you just need to register on the Diffraction Limited support forum and follow the steps to confirm your serial number as described here:

https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/pages/TechSupportHowTo/

Once you have completed steps one and two as described in the linked webpage you will be able to request help from the developers via the MaxIm DL specific forum, under the Cyanogen Software sub-forum.

Technical support is open-ended and always available to you, it’s only access to software updates and upgrades that has an expiry date and you can purchase extensions for that if you have a need for a later version for some reason.

——————————

The pop-up message you are seeing is a Windows error rather than a bug specific to MaxIm DL and I could only find a couple of references to it when I checked the MaxIm forum today. The pop-up message occurs when the program installer failed to register the program correctly in the Windows Registry.

Uninstalling - reinstalling MaxIm won’t fix the problem because uninstalling normally doesn’t clear the bad registry entries.

With MaxIm already installed try downloading and running the stand-alone Microsoft “Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter” which will attempt to fully uninstall MaxIm DL and clear any Windows Registry entries that the normal uninstall process leaves behind, then try to reinstall Maxim again:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed-cca7d1b6-65a9-3d98-426b-e9f927e1eb4d

If that doesn’t help then register on the MaxIm support forum as described above and ask for help from their support staff.

William.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Oddsocks

[Oddsocks]

Hi Ian

A late P.S.

Browsing the forum again this morning I noticed your desktop screenshot has shortcut icons for Borland C++, a development IDE that I last saw used in Windows over twenty years ago, didn’t know it was still around.

Since MaxIm and it’s installer were (possibly) written using C++ and your Borland C++ install may have overwritten the shared C/C++ runtime libraries that all applications written with C or C++ will use I would suggest that before doing anything else you manually install the Windows 10/11 compatible C/C++ redistributable runtime components.

This is easy to do, just download and run both these C/C++ redistributable installers from the official Microsoft distribution server, you need to install both the 32bit (x86) and 64bit (x64) installers on a 64bit Windows O.S.
If you are running a 32bit version of Windows you just install the 32bit (x86) redistributable:

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

If you want to read the Microsoft overview for the linked files you can find that here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-GB/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170

After you run both the redistributable installers you must reboot Windows to make the updated C++ libraries active and after that you can run the Microsoft troubleshooter that I posted in my previous reply before attempting to reinstall MaxIm.

If you need to write C or C++ scripts I would use an IDE that was compatible with Windows 10/11 and get rid of Borland, AFAIK it’s long been unsupported and incompatible with Windows 10/11.

 My own preference for C++ script development is either Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code, both of which are free and fully compatible with current Windows platforms.

HTH.

William.
 

[astronomer2002]

Thankyou for the replies - I shall try support......

The copy of Borland C++ is a file backup from an older 32 bit PC that runs the product - it isn't installed on this PC (win 10 64 bit). Just here as a backup of the installer files and the code (CPROGS). Once lost it's gone forever and I still do fixes for code I've written.

 

It appears to be an issue related to just .fit files as if I go to a folder with just jpg or tif files in it then the popup doesn't occur

 

On this PC Photoshop is the default app for .fit files. There seems no way to associate Maxim with Fits files, or remove Photoshop as the default app. I have other programs that display fits files, and they can be set as default - but Maxim doesn't appear.

 

 

Ian B

[astronomer2002]

It took several attempts to join Diffraction Ltd support as I got several "sorry, your application failed" email messages - but got there in the end. The response was helpful, but not very. I had kind of worked out Maxim DL REQUIRES you to have it as the default for .FIT files. It is not what I wanted as I have several other FITs programs, but it appears the expensive commercial software is not as flexible as the many free software programs that do the same job.

It also required a lot of digging to find Maxim DL as despite several removal and re-install cycles it still did not appear as an option to open fits files. (as I said, not a problem for FREE programs). From the 'open file with...' windows prompt I had to search the disk for the Maxim DL intalled program and associate it from there. Following this Maxim doesn't produce the popup any more when opening .FIT files.

A solution, but a less than deleriously happy owner of this pricey software.

 

Ian B