Access denied error to slickEdit config and tag files?

[emerkel]

Hi,

I am a noob at slickEdit so this is probably a stupid question, I will take the flames if you can help me.

I keep getting Access Denied errors whenever I try to change a configuration (for example unchecking the box on the Cool Features dialog labled "Show on startup".  The exact error message I get is;

"Failed to save configuration to 'C:\Documents and Settings\emerkel\My Documents\My SlickEdit Config\11.0.2\vslick.sta'.

Access denied"

Additionally I get the same message periodically for tag files. 

No files are marked read only in the slick edit config directory on my machine at the address listed in the dialog, on my home machine this is at "C:\Documents and Settings\emerkel\My Documents\My SlickEdit Config\11.0.2" but I get the same errors on my work machine as well.

I only have one instance of slickedit running and the file isn't open in any other editor/program.

I have lots of questions and am trying to read and search for the answers before I post, but this one I couldn't find and so I am asking for your help.

Thanks

Eddie

[emerkel]

Ok I think I have figured this out myself and if so I believe it has to do with me having had one or more trial versions installed on my machine and it not getting rid of demo settings before and perhaps not uninstalling cleanly? 
I uninstalled my licensed version of the app and there were several dlls and exe's left in the win folder of the install directory.  I made sure none of these were registered by running regsvr32 against each one and then deleted them, the remaining folder structure and all the config files left in My Slick Config in my documents.  Once I reinstalled SlickEdit I opened up a project that I had been having other issues with (related to SlickEdit crashing any time I tried to debug) and everything works so far, including step through debugging on a Visual Studio 2003 console app and dll.  I am happy now but perhaps the SlickEdit folks should clean up past demos better, since I am sure I have had several versions of demos on my machines while I finally built up the nerve to go ahead and plunk down the $300 to buy it.  Now that I can debug and it doesn't crash every time I am happier

Thanks

Eddie

[emerkel]

Spoke too soon, I am getting the errors again and it's back to crashing on debug, which bites.  If anyone has a clue about this I would love the help.

[Graeme]

Did the access denied problem come back *after* slick crashed?  If so, perhaps the crash cause the access denied problem because slick died with vslick.sta or a tag file open.  For the record, on my system (WinXP), it's not all that uncommon for me to get errors from Windows explorer like "can't delete file because it's in use by another program" which I can't explain.  Does rebooting get rid of the access denied problem (I don't think it works for me).  WinXP is very lacking in providing information on "access denied" errors or how to resolve them.  Can you open and save vslick.sta in Notepad (with slick not running)?.  Can you delete vslick.sta with slick not running.

Reports of slick crashing are fairly rare but I'm not sure how many people debug Vis Studio apps from vslick.

Maybe you could try to isolate the cause of the debug crash.  If Windows thinks 'C:\Documents and Settings\emerkel\My Documents\My SlickEdit Config\11.0.2\vslick.sta' is in use, you could try to overcome this by using a different config folder.  You can use the -sc switch when you invoke slick  -sc somefoldername.  If somefoldername is empty, slick willl create a new config there.  With slick open, use help ->about to check what the current config folder is.  If that gets rid of the access denied problem, maybe you could try to debug a minimal VStudio app and see if you can get a reproducible scenario of when it crashes.  (Which OS do you use?)

You could also check and load the hotfixes on the support page of the main slick website, just in case.

Last but not least - if you've spent a while configuring slick already, backup your config folder first.  It's possible to transfer the existing config to a new config folder at a later time once you've solved the other problems.

Graeme

[emerkel]

Ok thanks Graeme, I will do all these things you have suggested and get back with you, btw I am using Windows XP Pro both at home and at work.

I appreciate it.

Eddie

[emerkel]

I got help from the support people about this a while back and was just browsing and thought I would share what they told me about the situation.  My memory is fuzzy, but what I recall then telling me is whenever slick crashed, it didn't really die all the way, the gui was just gone.  When I started it again, I was actually starting a NEW instance, and the original instance that was still running had a lock on the files in question.  What the support gurus told me to do if this happened was to check in the TaskManager to see if there was more than one vs.exe running as a process.  If so, close slick and once it's gone kill the other process.  Then you can restart slick and be warm and dry.  That worked for me. 

The end of the story is after that few nights I was having that problem I haven't had anything like that happen again, so I am sure I was doing something I shouldn't, but I needed to be doing it and even with the crashes slickedit got me through

Thanks

Eddie