RA 2008 won't start

[SCShell]

Hey there,
Yup....nothing, nada, rien! Tapping fingers while I wait too. Bummer.
Here's to being patient.
Steve

[dan.dankert]

Any update to this?
We have another 2 computers now that have this issue!

Dan

[david.kingham]

Nope, it's been how many months now? Maybe it's time for them to hire an outside consultant to look at this. This is just insane.

[Rols]

I'm actually getting kinda used to starting it through the task manager. Although not right, it's been working just fine.

[Scott D Davis]

I'm trying to find a topic that was just yeterday (I think) on the newsgroups that mentioned deleting 2 registry keys, and then everything was fine....hope I can find it!

Update: Found it! Try this...hope it helps!

I finally figured out the issue with Revit not launching and wanted to explain the issue and the fix. There was a specific issue with certain desktops receiving a Data Execution error on logon from Windows Explorer. This error is more of an annoyance then a real problem. To resolve the issue it was recommended (based on several Internet forums) to update the registry with a few Application Compatibility flags to disable the error. The registry updates fixed the Windows Explorer errors. However, for some unknown reason these registry keys prevent Revit from launching. The fix is to delete the registry keys. No need to make any modifications to the Revit installation. The following two registry keys need to be removed if they are present:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers\
REG_SZ: $WinDir\Explorer.exe

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\NoExecuteState\
REG_DWORD: LastNoExecuteRadioButtonState

Once deleted a reboot of the machine and launch of Revit runs successfully.

Happy Revitting.... Autodesk, where do I send the bill

[dan.dankert]

Scott,

All of our computers with issues had the first entry in the registry.
After deleting, all work now.

Thanks!
Dan

[david.kingham]

Incredibly it seems to work, just have to back to seeing that damn data execution error again..oh well

and for everyone else, save this as a .reg file to get rid of these keys

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\WINDOWS\\explorer.exe"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\NoExecuteState]
"LastNoExecuteRadioButtonState"=-

[cparsons]

Hey Guys,

This is driving us nuts as well. We have a ticket in with Autodesk but have not heard anything back yet.

The funny thing with us is that changing the registry settings above does not work. What those settings are essentially doing is changing the Windows DEP settings. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352 for more information from Microsoft on this. We changed the boot.ini to use all of the 4 options listed by microsoft with no luck.

Fresh local installs, fresh network deployments of Revit 2008 SP2 all with the same results.

Right now we have having users right-click the shortcut, click run as, and enter their credentials. That's right, you don't need any other permissions.

This is terrible and the strangest part is that it is only happening with Revit. I have over 100 apps installed on my laptop and I don't see this with any of them.

Anyone else making progress here?

Thanks,
Chris

[david.kingham]

Strange, since we've deleted those keys nobody has had the problem (76 different computers)

Here's the .reg file we run after every install

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Revit Architecture 2008\CadManagerControl\CommunicationCenter]
"EnableCommunicationCenter"=dword:00000000
"MaintenancePatchNotificationOption"=dword:00000000
"LocalPatchListLocation"=""
"EnableNonPatchNotifications"=dword:00000000
"DataPollingURL"="http://webservices.autodesk.com/CommCntrLinkCollectionRequest"
"DataPollingAltURL"=""
"UseAltURL"=dword:00000000
"PreviewMode"=dword:00000000
"EnableSerialNumberPassing"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\WINDOWS\\explorer.exe"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\NoExecuteState]
"LastNoExecuteRadioButtonState"=-

[cparsons]

Thanks David.

We tried a different route (below) and so far so good on 4 computers. But again, I'm worried we'll run into the Data Execution Errors in Windows Explorer again.

Chris