Any ideas on this one?
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Rebooted my Work PC after, I dunno, couple weeks, and when it came back up I have this on the screen:
I think this might actually be the worst error message ever. I checked MSConfig and all the file paths in there seem to be accounted for... any ideas? How do you even diagnose something like this?
Edit: I just remembered, I had to install Java so I could some some shitty IDE that's based on Eclipse... and Java stuck some shit in MSConfig, so no doubt this is Java-related.
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I think if Windows really couldn't find its Program Files folder, you would've known it long, long before this little box popped up. Keep using it until something more diagnostically valuable pops up.
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@Master Chief said:
I think if Windows really couldn't find its Program Files folder, you would've known it long, long before this little box popped up. Keep using it until something more diagnostically valuable pops up.
The problem isn't that the Program Files folder is missing; it's that some script is using the path to it as a command line argument without quoting it. The space then causes it to be treated as two or more arguments. Thus it complains about "C:\Program" being missing.
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@Someone You Know said:
The problem isn't that the Program Files folder is missing; it's that some script is using the path to it as a command line argument without quoting it. The space then causes it to be treated as two or more arguments. Thus it complains about "C:\Program" being missing.
Yeah, but it's not any of my startup processes (at least not directly), which means one of my startup processes at some point is calling
Shell.Open( C:\Program Files this path is invalid );, and the poor shell is just as confused as I am no doubt.But now I'm 90% sure it's this Java updater shit it added to my startup list.
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Does Windows have any sort of program like [url=http://linux.die.net/man/1/xwininfo]xwininfo[/url]? Then you could just click on the window to get a summary of information including its originating program...
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I would see if you can install process explorer and see if it can help diagnose it. I would say its java though.
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@Xyro said:
Does Windows have any sort of program like xwininfo? Then you could just click on the window to get a summary of information including its originating program...
Probably?
Wouldn't help anyway. The window's from Explorer. The problem is, I don't know who told Explorer to open that path.
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@delta534 said:
I would see if you can install process explorer and see if it can help diagnose it. I would say its java though.
What I'd need is something that could "pause" the execution of login items, then hook Explorer to tell me what messages were being sent to Explorer and from whom. Does Process Explorer do that?
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Did you install the latest 1.6 release or the latest 1.7? We're having all sorts of chaotic problems at work today due to installation of the latest 1.6 release on Win 7.
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I'm trying to figure out if it can do that, it looks like it might not be able to do that. Fuck, I hate errors like this.
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Have you ever heard of [url=http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml]startup.cpl[/url]? It can't do any fancy things like pausing execution of login programs or anything, but it does allow for the non-destructive disabling of all startup items. With a couple of well placed binary chops, you could probably narrow it down pretty fast.
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I think he's using windows 7 so that is not needed.
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Check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for an unquoted path to a file that no longer exists?
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@CaptainCaveman said:
Did you install the latest 1.6 release or the latest 1.7? We're having all sorts of chaotic problems at work today due to installation of the latest 1.6 release on Win 7.
How would I find that out? I can't find anything in the Control Panel it installs.
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You can click on the about button in the control panal app to show the version of java that is being used.
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@Xyro said:
Have you ever heard of startup.cpl?
What does it do that MSConfig doesn't? Look identical to me...
Also the author seems completely ignorant of MSConfig, which has been around since at least Windows 2000, because he:
1) Wrote an exact clone of it,
2) Thinks "Windows Vista, after all these years, finally has a very good startup manager built-in;"Idiot.
@Xyro said:
Filed under: startup.cpl, we can still blame Microsoft for the stupid decision of giving a critical directory a space in its name
Stupid? Seems pretty good at rooting out a lot of stupid bugs from shitty developers. Just maybe we should stop pretending that it's 1976 and spaces don't exist.
[quote user=""]Check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for an unquoted path to a file that no longer exists?[/quote]
I guess that's the next step. There's only 4 unquoted paths in the startup list, and none of them are Java.
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@delta534 said:
You can click on the about button in the control panal app to show the version of java that is being used.
Sez 1.6.0_26-b03
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@blakeyrat said:
@CaptainCaveman said:
Did you install the latest 1.6 release or the latest 1.7? We're having all sorts of chaotic problems at work today due to installation of the latest 1.6 release on Win 7.
How would I find that out? I can't find anything in the Control Panel it installs.
You could ask java by running "java -version"?
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@blakeyrat said:
I guess that's the next step. There's only 4 unquoted paths in the startup list, and none of them are Java.
Perhaps it's not Java then. I'm not seeing the exact same problem you are, I'm getting missing dll errors. Eclipse itself isn't completely evil, but any My*Eclipse I've ever installed has been of the Devil and must be destroyed.
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@cdosrun said:
Check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for an unquoted path to a file that no longer exists?
No good; all paths check-out, quoted and non.
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You could create a text file with this content:
echo %* pause
and save it as c:\program.bat. This script should then tell you the remainder of the command line.
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This is just a guess but could you get Process Monitor to run on startup? If it finishes loading before that dialog pops up, maybe you could find out where that incorrect path is being read from.
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That is a dirty hack, do it.
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Why not use CCleaner to disable startup items until the box stops popping up? Process of elimination.
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@fatbull said:
You could create a text file with this content:
echo %*
pauseand save it as c:\program.bat. This script should then tell you the remainder of the command line.
You are a mad scientist and I love it. Rebooting now!
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@blakeyrat said:
@fatbull said:
You could create a text file with this content:
echo %*
pauseand save it as c:\program.bat. This script should then tell you the remainder of the command line.
You are a mad scientist and I love it. Rebooting now!
Two results to report!
1) whatever program/script caused that dialog ran only once, so... I guess problem solved? It might have been leftover from an installer?
2) Microsoft's way ahead of us:
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I've seen this many times and like someone above mentioned, it's from a non-quoted program files path. Check the properties of everything in All Programs -> Startup and look for unquoted paths to C:\Program Files.
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He did that already, and it seems to have gone away.
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Doh you updated while I was replying. There are other registry keys and .bat files that run only once, the next time you reboot. It was probably some cleanup bat file from an un/installer that misquoted the Program Files dir.
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@error_NoError said:
Doh you updated while I was replying. There are other registry keys and .bat files that run only once, the next time you reboot. It was probably some cleanup bat file from an un/installer that misquoted the Program Files dir.
Yah, that's my new working theory too. Still could have been Java, though.
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Java programs make that mistake all the fucking time, it seems.
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@blakeyrat said:
You are a mad scientist
Thank you. I updated my profile accordingly.@blakeyrat said:
Wow. But on second thought, it seems reasonable to check this, considering how CreateProcess parses a command line.
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@blakeyrat said:
@Xyro said:
Filed under: startup.cpl, we can still blame Microsoft for the stupid decision of giving a critical directory a space in its name
Stupid? Seems pretty good at rooting out a lot of stupid bugs from shitty developers. [...]
Oracle@blakeyrat said:
Rebooted my Work PC after, I dunno, couple weeks, and when it came back up I have this on the screen:
You could use Process Explorer to find the parent process of the dialog box. It may give some more info.
[...] How do you even diagnose something like this?
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The problem is the way that the exec command in C works in Windows. It works in a very stupid way; spaces in arguments are changed to separate arguments unless you put quotation marks; this should be the job of the shell but Windows does it differently
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This thread goes to show how many people actually read the thread before replying. Which is, apparently, next to no one.
Btw. blakey, you could use Process Explorer to check things out. Also make sure there are no unquoted paths in your Autorun. What is the version of the Java you recently installed?
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@blakeyrat said:
Also the author seems completely ignorant of MSConfig, which has been around since at least Windows 2000, because he:
1) Wrote an exact clone of it,
2) Thinks "Windows Vista, after all these years, finally has a very good startup manager built-in;"Idiot.
@derula said:
Filed under: [url=http://forums.thedailywtf.com/tags/Also+startup.cpl+really+shows+a+great+level+of+ignorance_2E00_/default.aspx]Also startup.cpl really shows a great level of ignorance.[/url]
[b]SORRY! GEEZ![/b]
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@blakeyrat said:
@Xyro said:
After reading this thread I started noticing the inconsistency in naming used by Microsoft. For example there's "C:\Program Files" (has a space in it) and "C:\ProgramData" (no space).we can still blame Microsoft for the stupid decision of giving a critical directory a space in its name
Just maybe we should stop pretending that it's 1976 and spaces don't exist.Elsewhere, Windows has a few directories with spaces in the name, but mostly there are no spaces in names ("SoftwareDistribution", "ServiceProfiles") and the winsxs directory uses underscores in sub-directory names ("amd64_1394.inf.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_beafdf583b909e3f"). All of these naming conventions are perfectly fine but it seems like they really should pick one and stick with it.
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@El_Heffe said:
@blakeyrat said:
@Xyro said:
After reading this thread I started noticing the inconsistency in namingwe can still blame Microsoft for the stupid decision of giving a critical directory a space in its name
Just maybe we should stop pretending that it's 1976 and spaces don't exist.
used by Microsoft. For example there's "C:\Program Files" (has a space
in it) and "C:\ProgramData" (no space).C:\ProgramData? What the hell is that?
The real point Microsoft is trying to get out is that if you should never, ever, ever hard-code a path name in your program. They get this message across by semi-randomly renaming folders from time to time. It's inconsistent, and it's kind of stupid (80% stupid that they have to, 20% stupid that they do), but if it produces better software then I'm all for it.
I don't see why you think the winsxs directory should have any kind of naming standard, considering it's all internal use only stuff. If you're even looking at it, you're doing something wrong. Other than that I mildly agree that naming should be consistent, but I think it's better that programs don't hard-code paths and if naming were consistent they would. So, priorities.
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@drunken monk said:
All this for the one low price of: Your Integrity!
It's not a lack of integrity that raises Java to #1 on the "this probably is causing all my problems" list. It's an excess of experience.
But kudos on being entertaining.
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@blakeyrat said:
The real point Microsoft is trying to get out is that if you should never, ever, ever hard-code a path name in your program. They get this message across by semi-randomly renaming folders from time to time. It's inconsistent, and it's kind of stupid (80% stupid that they have to, 20% stupid that they do), but if it produces better software then I'm all for it.
I agree that hardcoding is dangerous, but why would you say that the inconsistent naming was done with discouraging hardcoding as the reason? The simpler explanation is surely that different groups or whatever within MS just did things differently, and no one coordinated between them. Or possibly that views on this sort of thing evolved as time went on (e.g., Documents and Settings -> Users).
Do you have a reference for that decision, or is this just another blakeyconjecture?
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@boomzilla said:
Do you have a reference for that decision, or is this just another blakeyconjecture?
You should know by now that I know all, and I see all.
Well, whatever. I don't care about the name change, except for the shitty programs that ignore it and still create their own "My X" folders inside Documents. (Video games seem to be a major offender here-- they all go together at some secret meeting and decided everybody on Earth wanted a "My Games" folder there. Uh. Vista and Windows 7 have a named folder for that you dumbshits! Stop using "My Games!" WHY ARE GAMES PROGRAMMERS SO UNIVERSALLY SHITTY!!!
But anyway, I know all, and I see all. ooOOOooOOooOoOOOoOoo
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Err, Blakey? The first game I ever had dump save data in Documents/My Games was Halo, which has a nice big Microsoft Studios avi in the start sequence. Many of my other MS games save there too. I might have once read they endorse using the folder. And nothing actually uses the Saved Games folder.
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@nexekho said:
Err, Blakey? The first game I ever had dump save data in Documents/My Games was Halo, which has a nice big Microsoft Studios avi in the start sequence. Many of my other MS games save there too. I might have once read they endorse using the folder.
Two points:
1) Halo was published by Microsoft, it wasn't developed by them
2) Microsoft groups have 100% autonomy, they're just as likely to do something wrong as any other software development group
@nexekho said:
And nothing actually uses the Saved Games folder.
Yeah, I think I just finished complaining about that, but thanks for repeating it, maybe someone here had their short-term memory surgically removed.
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@blakeyrat said:
...except for the shitty programs that ignore it and still create their own "My X" folders inside Documents. (Video games seem to be a major offender here-- they all go together at some secret meeting and decided everybody on Earth wanted a "My Games" folder there.
Dead Space installs some of its stuff in a folder called My Documents\My Games\Electrontic Arts\Dead Space. So, not only are its developers guilty of the abuse you describe, but they misspelled the name of their own publisher while doing it.
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@Someone You Know said:
So, not only are its developers guilty of the abuse you describe, but they misspelled the name of their own publisher while doing it.
Maybe they just don't like their publisher any more than anyone else apparently does?
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@blakeyrat said:
Just maybe we should stop pretending that it's 1976 and spaces don't exist.
Well, from a text parsing point of view, how would you suggest the parsing code is written so that it can cope with spaces being both an allowed character within parameters (in this case, directory names) AND an allowed delimiter between parameters? It's not just the decision to put a space in a 'critical' directory name, though obviously that highlights this anomaly beautifully.
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@Cad Delworth said:
@blakeyrat said:
Just maybe we should stop pretending that it's 1976 and spaces don't exist.
Well, from a text parsing point of view, how would you suggest the parsing code is written so that it can cope with spaces being both an allowed character within parameters (in this case, directory names) AND an allowed delimiter between parameters? It's not just the decision to put a space in a 'critical' directory name, though obviously that highlights this anomaly beautifully.Uh, quotes? Isn't this a solved problem? Like... 20 years ago solved? Like... why the fuck are you even bringing this up as if it were in any way a factor solved? Besides, we're talking about Windows-- if you're using CMD in Windows, you're probably doing something wrong.
