[BUG] - PhotoDemon is not starting

[dataneim]

the version 2024.7 and version 9 is not starting in windows 11 PC 64 bit, 64Gb RAM. When double clicking on exe file, it shows the opening logo and then disappears in 3 seconds. In the task manager, it leaves exiftool.exe(32) in the memory. If you start the program 3 times and disappear 3 times, in the task manager I can see 3 lines of exiftool.exe(32).

The troubleshoot document says that unzipping from legacy zip program might cause the issue, in my case I used few different zip programs. Also, I made sure that App\PhotoDemon\Plugins folder is healthy.

I downloaded version 8, this is okay. But as mentioned above, ver 9 and 2024.7 is having this weird problem.

[tannerhelland]

Hello @dataneim . I apologize that it's taken me a few days to reply.

Thank you for trying a few different zip programs (that would have been my first guess). This is the first time I've heard of this issue on the 2024.7 build, so I don't have an immediate solution to suggest!

Sometimes aggressive antivirus software can lock down one or more of the third-party libraries that ship with PhotoDemon. This might explain the logo appearing and then disappearing before the program actually starts. A quick check of VirusTotal shows that one AV provider mis-flags something in PhotoDemon's zip file, which is always frustrating:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/8b2ee00a926beed6a9e2598c84c0f43afdcff0428ef76ce13c04087272c885f7

Can I ask you to try the latest PhotoDemon nightly build and tell me if that works for you? Here's a direct link:

https://github.com/tannerhelland/PhotoDemon/releases/download/PhotoDemon-nightly/PhotoDemon-nightly.zip

If the nightly build also doesn't load, it might still have enough time to generate one or more debug logs in the /Data/Debug subfolder. If it does produce any files there, can you attach those files here so I can take a closer look? I'd love to get this solved for you.

Thank you!

[dataneim]

Hello,

Above given nightly built also does not load, below is the debug file I copy/paste content. Before running, I already put the PhotoDemon into Microsoft Defender approved list to ensure my antivirus does not cause the issue.

Few plugin seems missing as below, they are not in zipped file neither.

---

-- PHOTODEMON DEBUG LOG #3 --

Date: 10-20-2024 Time: 18:34:40 Session ID: 939e5f3f1460 Compiled: True First run: False

-- SYSTEM INFORMATION --

OS: Windows 11 64-bit (10.0.22631) Processor cores (logical): 32 Processor features: DEP, MMX, PAE, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 System RAM: 66917 MB Max memory available to PhotoDemon: 4194 MB (real), 82751 MB (hypothetical) Memory load at startup: 21%

-- PROGRAM INFORMATION --

Version: PhotoDemon 2024.8 alpha (build 46) Translation active: False Language in use: en GDI+ available: True

-- PLUGIN INFORMATION --

CharLS: available ExifTool: available EZTwain: available FreeImage: available libavif: MISSING libdeflate: available libheif: available libjxl: MISSING libwebp: available LittleCMS: available LZ4: available pdfium: available pspiHost: available resvg: available zstd: available

---

-- SESSION REPORT --

-DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | Debugger initialized successfully RAM | 6:34:40 PM | CURRENT: 41,048 K | DELTA: +41,048 K | SESSION MAX: 42,200 K | GDI: 69 (71) | USER: 133 (133) DC: 2 | HWND: 0 (0:0) | FONT: 10 | DIB: 27 (MNU: 0) | ICON: 0 (0:0) | TIMER: 0 (0:0) | UC: 36 -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | (The following 31 actions were logged prior to initialization.) -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | (They are presented here with their original timestamps.) <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (1) Detecting Windows version... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (2) Initializing all program directories... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (3) pdFSO.AppPathW reports: App.Path equivalent: D:\MY DOCUMENTS\DOWNLOADS\rabo\ <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (4) PD base folder is D:\MY DOCUMENTS\DOWNLOADS\rabo\ <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (5) PD data folder points at D:\MY DOCUMENTS\DOWNLOADS\rabo\Data\ <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (6) Loading all user settings... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (7) (Note: this PD instance is unique; no other instances discovered.) <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (8) Initializing high-priority plugins... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (9) (note: libzstd is configured for single-threaded (blocking) mode) <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (10) zstd is ready. Max compression level supported: 19 <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (11) lz4 and lz4hc compression engines are ready. <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (12) libdeflate initialized in 1 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (13) LittleCMS initialized in 0 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (14) LZ4 initialized in 0 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (15) zstd initialized in 0 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (16) pdResources reported: Loading core resource collection from file... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (17) Gradient collection has never been extracted before. Extracting now... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (18) ICC profile collection has never been extracted before. Extracting now... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (19) 3D LUT collection has never been extracted before. Extracting now... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (20) Scanning for language files... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (21) Timing report: pdTranslate / load cache file - 0 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (22) Timing report: pdTranslate / scan files in official folder - 4 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (23) Timing report: pdTranslate / scan files in user folder - 0 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (24) Timing report: pdTranslate / everything else - 1 ms <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (25) Determining which language to use... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (26) Applying selected language... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (27) Initializing theme engine... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (28) pdTheme reported: successfully loaded theme file: Default_Dark.xml <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (29) Analyzing current monitor setup... <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (30) Found primary monitor: 31.5" 3840x2160 LG HDR 4K (powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090) <BCK< | 6:34:40 PM | (31) System-wide DPI currently set to 115% -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | (End of pre-initialization data) (USM) | 6:34:40 PM | Building font cache... -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | FYI - number of fonts found on this PC: 165 (USM) | 6:34:40 PM | Initializing clipboard interface... (USM) | 6:34:40 PM | Initializing viewport engine... -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | Initializing low-priority plugins... -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | CharLS initialized in 1 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | (ExifTool version OK!) -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | ExifTool initiated successfully. Ready to process metadata. -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | ExifTool initialized in 4 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | EZTwain initialized in 1 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | FreeImage initialized in 0 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | WARNING! Plugin ID#4 (avifdec.exe) is missing. Scanning alternate folders... -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | WARNING! Plugin ID#4 (avifdec.exe) wasn't found in alternate locations. Initialization abandoned. -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | libavif initialized in 0 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | libheif initialized successfully. -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | libheif initialized in 3 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | WARNING! Plugin ID#7 (djxl.exe) is missing. Scanning alternate folders... -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | WARNING! Plugin ID#7 (djxl.exe) wasn't found in alternate locations. Initialization abandoned. -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | libjxl initialized in 0 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | libwebp initialized in 1 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | pdfium initialized in 1 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | pspiHost initialized in 1 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | resvg initialized in 1 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | WARNING! Plugin ID#4 (libavif) was not initialized. -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | WARNING! Plugin ID#7 (libjxl) was not initialized. -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | 13/15 plugins initialized successfully. (USM) | 6:34:40 PM | Loading import/export libraries... (USM) | 6:34:40 PM | Initializing window manager... -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated toolbar_Toolbox in 8.6 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated layerpanel_Search in 5.3 ms /TMR/ | 6:34:40 PM | Timing report: right toolbox / search panel - 15 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated layerpanel_Navigator in 4.8 ms /TMR/ | 6:34:40 PM | Timing report: right toolbox / navigator panel - 17 ms -DBG- | 6:34:40 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated layerpanel_Colors in 4.0 ms /TMR/ | 6:34:40 PM | Timing report: right toolbox / color panel - 24 ms -DBG- | 6:34:41 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated layerpanel_Layers in 9.6 ms /TMR/ | 6:34:41 PM | Timing report: right toolbox / layers panel - 50 ms -DBG- | 6:34:41 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated toolbar_Layers in 1.9 ms /TMR/ | 6:34:41 PM | Timing report: right toolbox / everything else - 11 ms -DBG- | 6:34:41 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated toolbar_Options in 0.1 ms (USM) | 6:34:41 PM | Initializing image tools... -DBG- | 6:34:41 PM | 320 actions registered this session. (USM) | 6:34:41 PM | Initializing user interface... (USM) | 6:34:41 PM | Preparing program menus... -DBG- | 6:34:41 PM | Interface.ApplyThemeAndTranslations updated FormMain in 23.3 ms

[tannerhelland]

Thank you very much for the follow-up information. The debug log helps a lot - it looks like the program gets 90% of the way toward loading, and then crashes right before the main window is displayed. I've never seen this behavior before.

I am close to committing a huge batch of code changes to nightly builds. As part of my work, I will add additional debug logging around the problem area to see if I can figure out where exactly the problem is occurring. I will also update some 3rd-party plugins to perhaps see if the issue lies with them. (Some plugins do not ship with PhotoDemon by default - so it's OK that some are flagged as "missing".)

Thank you again for your patience and feedback. I'll pop back to this issue when I have a new nightly build ready for testing.

[tannerhelland]

Here is another thing you might try. (Idea comes from ShrekerNil in https://github.com/tannerhelland/PhotoDemon/issues/592 .)

Create a batch file (perhaps called test.bat) in PhotoDemon's folder.

Edit that file in Notepad and place one line in it:

start "" "PhotoDemon.exe"

Save the file, then double-click it in Explorer. Does this work to start PhotoDemon?

(Thank you in advance for your help 🙏 )

[dataneim]

thanks for suggestion, I have put it in windows batch file, but same problem there. I am using Windows 11 Pro ver.23H2, maybe it is windows version specific bug. ShekerNil says his/her OS is Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 21H2.

Strangely, few months ago i installed Blender 3D latest version at that time, it gave the exact same problem, i waited 2 months or so, they keep releasing minor updates, the latest one is now running without problem.