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VisiLogic and Windows 10


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  • MVP 2023

Hi all, a bit long, but needed.  Sorry.

 

Well.....I have gone back to my stored copy of Win 7, and disabled win10 notifications and downloads.  I have simply had enough of numerous problems with all sorts of things.  The final straw was too much background activity going on reducing speeds to a crawl. Reached the stage where even the taskbar would lock up, and after a while "maybe" come back.  Background services running at 50-91% for days and unable to be killed via any method....hopeless....and no way of finding what started them either....you drill down and get to "that process doesn't exist".  I know that Msoft do a pretty good job at allowing for all the myriad permutations of a computer out there, and that I have unusual PLC & control programs with virtual serial ports on my system that might have got things in loops looking for things that aren't really there, but it was ridiculous.  I don't have anything that unusual.  I've wasted the last 4 days putting up with it, trying to accomplish real work whilst chasing problems that shouldn't exist in the first place.  So I have gone back to the OS that I know I had really stable and fast.

 

For the record, the instances were taskhostw.exe being called by something I couldn't find.  Someone more knowledgable than myself could likely track them down, but I had a good try at it without luck.  It seemed that all the calls originated from task scheduler.  I would get a random start on an instance, then another, then another.  At one time I had 11 of them running...as if there was a failure somewhere so another instance started again without stopping the first.  I suggest you take a really good look at what is being called from scheduler, you will be amazed at the breadth.  A lot of items are classified as "random start" after X time.  I disabled a host of things I felt might possibly be the reason, and also others I felt were simply invasive/ridiculous, but the processes would eventually pop back up and continue running, even for days if left on, so my choices perhaps helped a bit, but didn't cure it.  In 6 months or so when 10 should have matured considerably, I might try doing a clean install, rather than working from the upgrade.  But I'm not that happy at present.

 

I suggest that you periodically have a look at what is running via Task Manager.  And oh yes...in 10 it displays this a bit simply, you might have to use procexp.exe or similar to really see everything.  If you have a few instances of taskhostw running, watch them carefully....when my system was ok I believe that there was only one going.  In hindsight I think that I had the evolving instances gradually building over a few weeks and only noticed them when they really started to hog CPU time.

 

cheers,

 

Aus

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First of all, I attended the 3 day visilogic class with Will in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago and would like to recommend the class for anyone who would like to learn more about visilogic. I found it very helpful.

 

I have been running visilogic 9.8 on windows 10 for several weeks and it has worked fine (set to run as admin). The only issue I have is that I cannot open files from the network. I cannot even get to the network through the file explorer in visilogic, it disappears. If I copy the programs to my computer they work fine. If I double click the network file (in windows explorer) to open it says it cannot open the file and instead opens a new program. I have no problems with any other programs.

 

Any ideas?

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Update: The odd problems of VLP files locking up Explorer whenever Visilogic is installed and the additional error messages that pop up when I open Visilogic seem to be limited to my PC that was upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 that had Visilogic 9.7 on it during the upgrade. I just installed Visilogic 9.8.2 on a fresh install of Windows 10 on a different PC only using the UAC Settings slider to turn off UAC, rebooting, installing, then turning UAC back on and rebooting again. However, there is the extra variable that I used a new installer (9.8.2 vs 9.8.0). So, not exactly a controlled experiment. I will probably try the new installer on the problem PC this weekend and if I still have problems, I'll verify that my upgraded Windows 10 has a valid license and do a fresh install on there, as well.

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hy guys ,i am brasilian and i have a doubt about how to run de PLC Visilogic and U90 ladder in Windows 8.1,i´ve already tried so many time but i cant,always appear run time error,or dont run correctly,somebody help me how to fix this problems,i know that my english isnt perfect but i think that you´ll understand.thanks

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Update2 (In case anyone is having the same problems): I tried installing Visilogic 9.8.2 on my problem machine (Windows 10 that was upgraded from 7). I had the same problems when trying to open folders with VLP files after the installation: it would crash explorer if I got anywhere near a VLP file. It clicked in my head that maybe I needed to uninstall, delete the file extension registration for ".vlp" from the registry, then reinstall. I did so, and everything seems to be working fine, now. You can find instructions for where to find the registry key for deleting a file extension association if you just search the internet.

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  • 8 months later...
  • MVP 2023

Note:  TEMPORARY UPGRADE TO WIN 10

 

Hi all,

 

just bringing 10 into the limelight again, given the "freebie" expiry date is very soon.

 

I'm sure many of you have done this already due to being way ahead of me in computers.  A few months back Msoft (very quietly) changed the allowed procedure for migrating free to 10 from other valid Windows types.  You can now do clean installs and apply the keys from your valid installation of 7 etc.  Previously if you wanted a clean install you had to go through the tedious online upgrade path, get the system details authorised and recorded onto the Msoft systems once finished and then start again with the clean install.  10 works by remembering computer details in their systems and once it is there it sticks, as long as you don't change components (too much? drives?).

 

I haven't looked yet, but apparently programs like Belarc will now pop up the same key for every 10 installation, even though you enter your numbers! 

 

As "progress" is always happening and eventually I will have to shift over to keep things secure, (and also because I am cheap!), I have temporarily loaded clean installs of 10 onto all my computers so that they are correctly registered in the Msoft vaults.  You can check it is ok with a quick look in the Computer/Properties window and look for the "Windows is Activated" bits.  Take screen shots that include all the details so that you can prove it later if necessary.  I have then gone back to whatever I had on that puter....for now.  Eventually when I feel ok about it, (and no doubt Msoft will constantly make it harder to remain "old") I'll shift over to constantly using 10. It is a little bit of dicking around copying and saving partitions etc, but in my case it is saving significant $s and well worth the time.

 

The one clanger might be Msoft changing the rules yet again.  Time will tell.

 

Edit:  I should mention that some people say that after upgrading, Msoft only allows 31 days from that time and then the 7 licence expires.  Some of my 7's are well past that time and still going fine.

 

Cheers,

 

Aus

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • MVP 2023

Hi again all,

I run one of my laptops on 10 as a test case to try things and see whether Msoft have fixed issues. Today it has decided that it wants to update a lot of things, and has so far consumed 2.5Gb of my limited bandwidth.  It is still going, and looks like it is getting an entire new version of 10 if I believe the update list, so it will likely be around 4Gb by day's end.  I know I can set it to share things it downloads with other systems on my network once it gets them, and also tell it not to use "expensive" connections, but this isn't really the point.  (and do I really trust Msoft to not use the "peer" setting to spread it further, even though I've told it not to?  Nup!)

The problem is the way it updates, based on the arrogant thinking that everyone has unlimited bandwidth and endless Gbs to play with.  It has been a PITA having reduced speeds today, all because Msoft decrees that their needs TAKE PRIORITY.  And I can't do much about it, short of disabling the connection, because it will resume things once I hook it back up. I have implemented throttling of the connection, but then it sits there for ages sulking, and still consuming lots of processor activity.  This update inflexibility was, and still is, a major deal breaker for me.  So 10 still gets my thumbs down at present.

 

cheers,

 

Aus

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  • 7 months later...
  • MVP 2023

Hi all,

just another observation that might be of use.  I run some W10 computers on sites that want it.  I still stick with 7 myself for the myriad of reasons already noted.

In answering a question on the U90 forum, I thought I'd elaborate here.

W10 shifted itself onto version 1607 on all these puters in the last few months.  (Start/run/"winver")    During this, and at other "bigger than what I don't know" updating, it resets a myriad of user preferences back to what Msoft want.  That is correct, YOUR preferences get turned back to what they want.  Many crucial things like "Don't you dare touch my drivers", "Run System Restore"  "Generally let me decide what I want to happen in MY computer" are changed to either off or Msoft is in charge again.

In my case having driver updating again available to Msoft resulted in a system becoming unbootable.  It was right PITA that took a day to fix, as I had to go back through various Macrium images to find what had happened, by actually loading each one.  Eventually discovering the preferences "resetting" and working from there to have everything back to what I wanted.  All my backups after 1607 went in would work fine up to the last one, but then during use up would pop "Windows has finished repairing your disc and you need to restart" or words like that after a little while.  The drive then had corrupted boot files.  Thanks a million Msoft!  You change my settings and because of that you can change crucial stuff to what YOU deem best, and make my system fail.  All under the cover of "Well....you didn't have driver updating not allowed turned on" and so we did it! 

So....the point of the lecture, dear students, is that if you are on 10, make sure to routinely check that crucial preferences are still set at where you want them.  It is one of those things the OS/Msoft will do that you are totally unaware of until something happens that causes you to look at them.  You may then utter statements like "I didn't do that" or "Leave my settings alone you horrors" or words more forceful than that..........I did!

Truly I find the arrogant nature of this OS appalling.  Some parts of it are ok, but for now I am still sticking with 7 if I can.

cheers,

Aus

 

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  • MVP 2023
8 hours ago, tmoulder said:

Anybody try running an unmodified Win 10 host and running Win7 or XP on a virtual machine?

I have tried this in the past as W10 running 7 on both a desk and laptop, and I had trouble with correctly interfacing to com ports.  It was meant to work, but wouldn't operate correctly on the systems.  I think the only way to know for sure is to try it, though, as I feel it is very system dependent.

My final solution which works fine was to set up the laptop as a dual boot.  I was able to add in a 7 partition copy after installing 10, and then adjusting the booting to allow selecting both.  I have read somewhere that 10 doesn't like this sequence of setup, but it all works ok.

cheers,

Aus

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  • 5 months later...
  • MVP 2023

Elsewhere I've been commenting about Hotwires issues re Win 10.  My client's computer that was trying to update to 1703 had continually reset all the settings I had set to my choices.  As well, it got stuck in a loop where it used endless Gbs of data again downloading the update each time it "failed".  I only noticed because I got advice from the ISP that the limits for that site had gone way over normal.  Huh?  Gee......update history shows 6 attempts now....all failed.

I have ended up downloading the iso file and applying this.  It all went ok and the system is happily running on 1703.  But not quite.  Before the iso update was applied I found that everything was again ticked the way Msoft want it to be, so I again changed everything back to what I wanted.  After the update I had to do it all again.  Honestly.....hopeless.

As well, control panel has now disappeared from the main links available, as they are trying to shift everyone over to the new style settings windows....which are soooo much better and easier to use...NOT!   If you need control panel, which still exists but they are making it hard to find, running "control" from the run box is the easiest solution.

cheers,

Aus

 

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5 hours ago, Andyrusty said:

I am attempting to install visilogic on my win10 PC.

During installation i get "An installation support file could not be installed    catastrophic failure" and the install halts

Does anyone have a way to fix this problem?

 

I don't know if it will fix your specific problem but I had no more problems since I gave access to the VisiLogic installation-path for all users. That's what I did :

1. Create a directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\Unitronics"

2. Start explorer, right click on that directory and go to the tab "security", select "users (....)" in the upper half and change permissions for "users" to "full control" in the lower part.

3. Now install VisiLogic in that directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\Unitronics"

This gives read/write-access to that specific directory to all users. Since then, I didn't face any problems - even though I didn't change the UAC settings (what was recommended by Unitronics for Windows 10).

 

HTH,

Lars

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Hi;

I had the same problem last week with that same message.

Tried to Uninstall Visilogic 9.8.31  - That came up with the Catastrophic error  message.

I wanted to try out Visilogic 9.8.64.

Blundered my way thru it,  made some mistakes on the way, but finally got Visilogic  9.8.64  to install.

Has your computer recently done Windows 10 Updates?

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  • 2 months later...

I have encountered the same problem as Andyrusty.  "An installation support file could not be installed    catastrophic failure"   I can neither uninstall or install any version of Visilogic.  I have tried

Bisku's suggestion to no avail.  Visilogic just stopped working one day.   I am running Windows 10 and "Remote Access" seams to be working fine.  I was wondering if anyone has had this problem and found a solution.

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  • MVP 2023

I am wondering whether everyone's sudden failure issues are related to Win10 again taking over driver updating without you knowing.  I check this regularly and it is often turned back on.  In my mind it should stick, but Msoft obviously disagrees with that opinion.  It might explain why things suddenly change on you.

If you don't know the means to turn it off, here it is again:  Control Panel/System/Advanced system settings/Hardware tab/ Device Installation Settings/click NO etc.

cheers,

Aus

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  • 3 weeks later...

I found the solution for the "An installation support file could not be installed    catastrophic failure"  problem.  There was an InstallShield folder leftover from a previous VisiLogic installation that was forcing this error.  To get around this, go to Program Files(x86) > InstallShield Installation Information.  Search thru the folders there until you find the one associated with VisiLogic.  I made a folder elsewhere and moved the files to it.  I was afraid to delete it until I was sure I had the right one.  I was then able to install the latest version of VisiLogic without any problems at all.  I hope this info might help someone else encountering the same problem.

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  • 3 months later...

I just bought a new computer. I tried everything to install the newest version of Visilogics ( 9.8.65 build 0 at the time of this post ). This includes temporary turn off and eventual removal of pre-installed  anti-virus software ( which I would have done sooner or later any how ). The hardware in my laptop is upgraded but I went from a 4 year old MSI laptop to a brand new MSI laptop both running windows 10 home edition and I had zero issues on my previous laptop. Final Solve is an old cure all. Install in windows safe mode.  Hold Shift while you click reset in Windows 10.

I never gave the program the opportunity to run standard. I use Windows 7 compatibility mode and Run as Admin.  I know from previous experience this was the most stable way to run it on my old Windows 10 laptop so why deviate  now.  

My original problem seemed to start the install but once past the initial unpacking screen the install window seemed to be non-existent. When looking through task manager it was visibly taking up memory but at zero CPU usage. I gave it just over 5 min before I killed it the first time, some may think that isn't enough time, but I promise you it is with the PC specs i'm running. Something in windows 10 was preventing the install from progressing and I was not sent a error message in any form.  Even so I am willing to bet using safe mode will bypass the majority of, but not all issues listed in this forum string.

Lastly: I did mess with user permissions in the install file prior to trying this, but safe mode without internet is very pliable. If need be you can change permissions once your in safe mode, but if you don't have to I wouldn't.

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Check the following:

       Control Panel - Programs and Features -   Unitronics Visilogic - Is it there? - Uninstall it.

      C: Program Files(x86)     Unitronics     - Unitronics VisiLogic_C      --- Delete it

      C: Program Files (x86)     Common Files --  Unitronics     --   Delete It

 

Clean out   Temp Files   -- User ( your Profile) AppData- Local-Temp

You can also contact Unitronics Support  and they may do a remote session on your computer to help you.

 

 

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