I'm befuddled. What does:

"In Windows 7, 64-bit, I just created a new user account (administrator) and I've been stress testing VP11 for the past couple of hours without a SINGLE crash. I've been trying all the things that I know that have caused me crashes before. Working with Pro Titler or other NewBlueFX plugins, Chroma Keys, adjusting sliders, adjusting sliders while the timeline was playing. Using video files of different resolutions. So far it's been rock solid."

that have to do with:

"I really think its because I've had too many of the wrong video codecs installed over the past few months"

???

Bob.

Is there a difference between creating a new User Account or just shutting off the User Account control?
JJK

Bob, what do you mean by, "what do you mean"? Are you implying that whatever codecs are present theyll be there regardless of the User account? Is that what you're suggesting?

Cheers

G

If Bob implies what you guess, Grazie, then he is right. Yes, some application installers do offer the choice between "just for the current user" or "for all users of the system" - but certainly, the codec packs are not one of them...

Piotr

"Bob, what do you mean by, "what do you mean"? Are you implying that whatever codecs are present theyll be there regardless of the User account? Is that what you're suggesting?"

I meant I haven't a clue what connection there is!

Seriously, I was not implying anything. I thought an administrator equivalent account had access to everything in terms of running code, not certain though hence my question.

Bob.

To all:

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried running Vegas on a virtual machine? If so, what kind of results have you gotten?

Geez farrs...take a chil-pill.

"Geez farrs...take a chil-pill."

Well, Bob is probably just trying to look at things objectively and not get the guy's hopes high on some cause-and-effect that does seem perhaps improbable. On the other hand, we've all run into situations where we try all kinds of things out of desperation--and wham, all of a sudden something works. It seems like it's attempt x that did it and so we assume it is. But maybe it was attempt y. Or w or v or...

In this case, it seems like it was Lee's attempt x.
Until proven otherwise, hey, more power to him and I hope it keeps working.
Stranger things have happened in computers...

Interesting observation. I never have more than one account (administrator) and my Vegas installations are rock-solid stable. Always have been.

We had the observation, that starting V11 with admin rights increases the overall stability. Maybe that is the same here.

Okay, I'll be a little more specific in my observations and statements. Both (old and new) accounts were Administrative accounts. I never had my UAC on at any time with either accounts.

Creating a new account is somewhere in between doing nothing and reinstalling Windows completely. When I create a new account a lot of things change. Some programs need to be reinstalled, some plugins have to be re-authorized. And the default programs to view, write or whatever certain media change back to Windows default. And I'm sure there are a lot of other differences going on when you start a new account.

All I know is that I've added several video codec packs over the last couple of months, in hopes of making buggy or crashing situations better. I got to the point where I began having problems in programs where none were there before. Including more crashes in VP11.

Things got so buggy that if I moved any kind of slider controller in certain video programs, all my desktop icons would blink off and back on again.

And I read in Experts Exchange similar problems, and one of the first solutions they suggest is to simply start a new user account. Which I did and the difference is amazing. After I do a little more investigating, I can figure out exactly what the differences are, as far as which video codecs are being used.

Maybe as part of our specs, we should add what video codecs are being used, because I think that and certain drivers are key factors in all of these crashes.

EDIT: I continued stress testing VP11 this morning, throwing everything I can think of at it, and making it perform heavy duty functions. Still no crashes. I'm absolutely astonished!!!!

If what you're saying is repeatable and/or capable of being tracked down, then SCS needs to be officially informed of this.

Good work!

G

There are plenty of per-user settings stashed away in hidden folders in your account folder It seems entirely possible that a new account with a new set of these could make a difference. Also, consider that your current account would have been set up when you installed Windows7. Maybe there are settings files in this old account that ought to have been reset as windows updates were applied.

I'll give this a shot a bit later today. Computer at home has problems with Vegas, computer at work has problems with Adobe updater, maybe they'd both be helped by setting up a new account.

Rob

Nice one Rob. Get this to SCS, ASAP.

G

"There are plenty of per-user settings stashed away in hidden folders in your account folder It seems entirely possible that a new account with a new set of these could make a difference"

Thank you, that is what I hadn't thought of and hence my original question. I was thinking purely about User Access Control.

I think it's also possible there'll be registry entires under "current_user" that Vegas stores. These are probably also migrated if you do an upgrade, I think this is how presets are carried forward from say V10 to V11.

This makes a lot of sense and seems to fit nicely with a number of user experiences e.g. uninstalling V10, cleaning the registry and then installing V11 fixed crash problem. Doing that would be the same as running V11 under a different user name.

Bob.

Do we have a cunning plan?

Hope so!

G

"Do we have a cunning plan?"

It's certainly a very easy thing to try.
Just create a new user account, log into Windows as that user and see if that cures any problem. This is much simpler and risk free compared to unistalling, registry cleaning etc.

If that is making a difference to stability for anyone then they definately should be reporting this to SCS. Knowing this would dramatically reduce the number of different scenarios a developer would have to work through looking for a bug.

Bob.

Good.

And of course, would SCS be testing under these conditions?

G

Are you saying you added 3rd party codecs like Avid DnX? And that might be the culprit in the crashes? I'm suspicious too of outside codecs and even some that are bundled with Vegas. I have zero reason to feel that way, just my spider sense.

Also, is this all you're doing? control panel>user account>manage accounts>create new account

Ghost Tree:
Yes I've added video codecs such as Cedocida DV and K-Lite Codec Packs, along with some Codec identifiers, tweakers, etc. It got to be a big clusterF***
I wouldn't have even tried doing all this if I had Vegas running and rendering properly. Some new codecs allowed me to add certain file types to a project, while other codec packs allowed me to view what was rendered (where I couldn't view the file before). Again, it got to be really messy and started effecting things like Daz Studio, WinAmp, other 3D software , even Google Earth. Anything that relied on a video codec.

And yes, in Windows 7: Control Panel>User Accounts and Family Safety>Add or remove user accounts.

I have been running this way for a long time. I did have a spell of bad crashes with 511 until I got the latest beta driver from Nvidia.

I do have some bad DLL's that Windows can't fix and once in a while crashes from Vegas but still quite useable.

Once I finally get caught up with the projects this week I will start test re-installs of Windows 7. One will be on top of Vista like I now have because some software will only run that way and the other will be Windows 7 only. I will then see what arrangement gives me the best results with Vegas.

I will also continue to run my current setup to keep things going because the re-installs and testing will take some time to do.

No doubt SCS uses clean systems to develop Vegas with. That means clean drivers, codecs, DLL's and whatever's. Also the BETA testers should have the same.

NLE's will make unclean and/or faulty systems obvious. And there is not one NLE that will be 100% crash free on a below par system! It will naturally vary from one system to another and one NLE to another.

Bottom line, do not expect crash free results on an unclean system! Now I need to clean-up my dirty system. LOL!

Special Note: I use the LOL above to show I am saying this in a serious but humorous way. The problem with text only is one can seem to be growling about something when they are not. This is not always obvious when posting replies.

Also, my screwed-up brain does not always give me the word(s) I want. The old word game as in what was that stupid word I want?????? Dang it all I will have to figure out a stupid way of saying it instead!

So please do not be too hasty to reply negatively.

I better quit before my brain cuts another fart! LOL!

Leee:
After creating a new user account with administrative privilages, did you delete the old user name, or do you now have 2 user names?
I've found that having multiple user accounts can create real headaches with some applications.
Thanks, Donald