Flare v 4.2 crashing after recent XP update

[madcapnewbie]

I just recently did a microsoft windows update this past friday and since Monday, Flare has been crashing constantly, displaying an error that is most likely an XP error. But just curious if any other user with XP has experienced any problems.

Thanks

[Robotman]

I'd attempt an uninstall/reinstall of Flare as a first stop.

[RamonS]

And if that doesn't work uninstall the XP updates one after another to see what caused the problem. If you find out please let MadCap know so that they can kick their software partners up in Redmond.

[Andrew]

I'm using a fully updated Flare on XP here at work, and I am not having any crash problems. It could be some kind of conflict with other software / hardware you are running, or it could be that the patch didn't install properly.

If you have XP set to record restore points, restore back to before the update and see if the crashes are gone.

[SteveS]

Don't forget the .Net frameworks. They can be affected by updates and require an installation of the latest version (as opposed to patching the existing version) to work properly.

[madcapnewbie]

@SteveS

When you say .Net frameworks, what do you mean?

[SteveS]

The .Net frameworks are provided by Microsoft to allow programs developed using .Net (including Flare) to operate. They are a pre-requisite for Madcap products.

Flare 4 requires .Net framework 3.0 or later (if you are using win2000 you also need .Net framework 2 and the frameworks are all exclusive so you need both - I realise you have XP, but others reading the forum with a similar problem might not). When you download Flare the download site gets you to install the framework as well, but this does not take into account subsequent updates.

The KB also says you need SQL Compact Edition.

I'd open the add and remove programs dialog from the control panel, make sure 'show updates' is selected and checkto see if either the frameworks or SQL Compact have been updated recently. If they have it might be a good place to start.

HTH

[KevinDAmery]

The .Net frameworks are provided by Microsoft to allow programs developed using .Net (including Flare) to operate. They are a pre-requisite for Madcap products.

And they are plural because you have have multiple versions installed at the same time (i.e. you can have 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 all installed on the same system - I know that sounds goofy, but that's the way Microsoft designed it....)

[RamonS]

Although there are really only two frameworks: 1.x and 2.x. Anything above 2.0 is an extension, not a drastically different framework. My guess is that was done for reasons of staying backward compatible.