Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jlar310]

I am trying to get MC 12 up and running on my PC at work. I have full Admin privileges on the computer. Windows XP Pro SP2

The install proceeds without error, but when I try to run MC, I get the following:

1. A popup titled JRTools that says "The parameter is incorrect".
2. A popup titled "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" which says "Runtime Error!, Program: ...\Media Center 12.exe, This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information"

And I am unable to cleanly uninstall MC12, again I get "JRTools: The parameter is incorrect".

My first guess at the problem is that our network uses Windows Folder Redirection for both My Documents and Application Data folders. Furthermore, these are redirected to DFS paths. So, My Documents is actually at "\\domain.com\MSP\UserData\username\My Documents" and Application Data is at "\\domain.com\MSP\UserData\username\Application Data". After the install, I find that some new files and folders are created on the folder redirection share OUTSIDE my personal directory:

"\\domain.com\MSP\UserData\gs\username\Local Settings\Temp\RarSFX0\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Media Center 12.lnk"
"\\domain.com\MSP\UserData\r\Media Center 12\" (empty folder)
"\\domain.com\MSP\UserData\J River\Media Center 12\" (empty folder)

I happen to be the chief IT guru around here and our folder redirection strategy has been in place and functioning quite nicely for a while now. So I'm pretty sure that the problem is not caused by a misconfiguration, but is that MC12 is barfing on the network paths.

Are there any workarounds for this? Is it possible to force MC12 to use the "Local Settings" Application Data folder which is ALWAYS a local drive path?

What is the procedure to manually uninstall MC12 so I can start over?

FYI: MC11 installer does pretty much the same thing. Originally, I was upgrading from MC10, but have since uninstalled it in my many attempts to get MC12 to work.

Jeff

[JimH]

Try renaming jrtools.dll.  Reboot and re-install MC12.

[jlar310]

Try renaming jrtools.dll.  Reboot and re-install MC12.

Well, that let me at least start the program. It still is creating all sorts of garbage on the network share, this time some folders with bogus characters were created as well. Again, outside of my personal directory.

It froze when I tried to connect to my home Library Server. And I still can't do a clean uninstall. The Uninstall program still gives "JRTools: The parameter is incorrect". Now, it does the same thing again when starting the program. This is a mess.

So, I'm right back where I started.

[jlar310]

I did some more testing to verify that this problem is entirely because my Application Data folder is on a network path.

I used regedit to modify the following keys to point to an Application Data folder on a local drive:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\AppData
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\AppData

The I reinstalled MC12 and also verified that the following reg keys pointed to local folders:

HKCU\Software\JRiver\Media Center 12\Properties\Library Directory
HKCU\Software\JRiver\Media Center 12\Properties\Thumbnails - Base Path

With these registry settings MC12 ran just fine, no errors, no lockups and no garbage folders created on the network share. But of course, I can't keep the AppData registry keys like this or it will break a lot of other things. Besides, our network Group Policy will just reset those at next login.

I had hoped that perhaps having a local AppData path during the install might force MC12 to always use the local path, but it did not work. As soon as I reverted the AppData reg keys, and ran MC12, it crapped out again with the "Runtime Error" described above. It also creates a "J River" directory on the network share at the top level, *outside* of my personal directory

So, please, please, please believe me when I say your application does not work with the Application Data folder redirected to a network share. And please fix it!!!! Thank you!!!!

FYI: Hacking the registry also allowed me to do a clean uninstall of MC12 without the JRTools error.

Jeff

[DarkPenguin]

I can't duplicate this.  What exactly are you doing?

[jlar310]

I can't duplicate this.  What exactly are you doing?

This is a corporate environment where the user's "Application Data" folder is redirected via Group Policy to a network share. In our case this share happens to be a DFS namespace path. But I would guess that any network path for Application Data is going to be a problem for MC12. MC10 has no problems with this as it stores the library in the Program Files folder.

I can do some further testing to see if DFS is the problem or if it still occurs with a direct path to a network share.

Jeff

[jlar310]

Confirmed that it is not DFS in particular that causes the problem. I tweaked my registry (see above) to point directly to the real path of the network share and MC12 choked on it as before. It seems MC12 can not handle the situation when the user's Application Data folder is not on a local drive.

Jeff

[Matt]

Is it possible you don't have network permissions for folder creation?

Tom (DarkPenguin) had MC running fine off a network share this morning.

[jlar310]

Is it possible you don't have network permissions for folder creation?

Yes I have permission. I happen to be the network admin. We are using off-the shelf Microsoft Group Policy to store user files on network shares. It has been working quite nicely for over a year now with no permissions problems.

Tom (DarkPenguin) had MC running fine off a network share this morning.

I guess that depends on what you mean by "running off a network share". Sure, MC can read media files from a share, but where is your "Application Data" folder? On a stand-alone system, it's at C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data. This is where MC 11 and 12 store the Library. For me, Application Data is at \\domain.com\MSP\UserData\username\Application Data\. And as I've said before, MC12 is creating a "J River" folder at \\domain.com\MSP\UserData\". It also creates some garbage folders with non-printable characters at that same folder level. So it's not even using the appropriate full path to my Application Data folder. I've seen other apps choke on a networked AppData before, a previous version of Macromedia Flash, for one.

[Matt]

I guess that depends on what you mean by "running off a network share". Sure, MC can read media files from a share, but where is your "Application Data" folder?

He used my network share.  I'm down the hall.

We understand what you're saying, but can't reproduce it. 

Something more is happening and we're trying to understand what it might be.

[jlar310]

I'm not sure what other information I can offer. It may be a quirk that only happens when Group Policy determines the AppData path. I will say that it definitely worked OK when I modified the registry key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders\AppData to be a local vs. network path. Are you changing that reg key to point YOUR AppData to the network path?

Maybe this will help: The top level network share (\\domain.com\MSP\UserData) permissions are configured according to Microsoft KB 288991:

Administrators Group: Full Control: This folder, subfolders and files
SYSTEM: Full Control: This folder, subfolders and files
CREATOR OWNER: Full Control, Subfolders and files only
Authenticated Users: Read Attributes, Read Extended Attributes, Create Folders/Append Data, Read Permissions: This folder only

This scheme let's users create new folders which are private to them, but still accessible to administrators.

[jlar310]

OK, I've got more for you. I created a share on the server and made it read/write for Everyone. Then I modified the "User Shell Folders\AppData" reg key to point to that folder and reinstalled MC. Then MC worked OK. So it's something about the permissions scheme we use that is causing the problem. However I am reluctant to modify our network permissions just so I can play my music.

One other thing to note about the permissions is that users can create folders at \\domain.com\MSP\UserData, but they can not browse that folder directly. So maybe MC is trying to stat the folders at each level along the path -- just a guess.

Is there any way to tell MC to use a different folder out side of "Application Data"?

[jlar310]

One other thing to note about the permissions is that users can create folders at \\domain.com\MSP\UserData, but they can not browse that folder directly. So maybe MC is trying to stat the folders at each level along the path -- just a guess.

This is the problem! The Microsoft recommendations for permissions on network shares for folder redirection make the root shared folder (UserData in my case) non-browsable by regular users. I figured it's not the end of the world if my users can list the contents of this folder, so I enabled the "List Folder/Read Data" permission for "Authenticated Users" for this folder only and now MC works fine.

I would still argue that MC does not play nice with a secure corporate environment. I have had to reduce my security ever so slightly to make it work. I don't see why MC can't go straight to the full path of the Application Data folder instead of stopping along the way at the root of the share. Most applications have no problem with my original permissions configuration: Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Adobe, Skype, Real Player, QuickTime, Java... Shall I go on?

If you choose to address this issue, you should have a reproducible case now. Let me know if there is any more information I can provide.

Hey, you guys are in the Twin Cities, right? Can I come work for you? You've already got one day out of me for free!

Jeff

[DarkPenguin]

Thanks for your help finding a reproducible case.  Nice detective work.