Win 7 and Snagit 9

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For years I have used Snagit with all versions of Windows and find it, for me, a very useful tool. When I switched to Win 7 I had a) installation problems, and b) misbehaving Snagit add-ins for MS Office and IE 8. I’ve been working with Techsmith to solve the problem but without success at this point. I’m wondering if anyone else has had this problem and found a solution for it. I’m not faulting Techsmith, but may get over the hurdle is someone else had the same problem and found a solution. The easy part, which I worked out, was the Snagit Add-In when I installed Snagit on my Win 7 Pro (64-bit). IE 8 and all Office (v 2007) components kept crashing for no apparent reason. I disabled and removed these add-ins and the problem went away. Techsmith says Snagit 9 fully supports Win 7 64-bit but did say that there were reported problems with Outlook and Word and not with IE 8. I found all Office apps and IE 8 suffered from the problem.
Now the hard one. Every time I try to install Snagit the installation hangs at the very end (invariably with “2 seconds remaining”). Even after hours of waiting, it never completes and I have to end the process. I found no shortcuts for Snagit on Desktop nor Start menu after the abort, but seemingly all files are there in the Programs directory. Techsmith suggest creating my own shortcut to the executable and this did work – Snagit and Snagit Editor worked (no add-ins installed). I was still unhappy with this and wanted a truly “clean” install. I decided to uninstall it and try it again but Snagit would not un-install! Techsmith then told me to delete all files in the Programs/Techsmith/Snagit folder and delete two registry keys. I did this but attempted re-installation never got off the ground, the Windows Installer said that Snagit was not there! At Techsmith’s advice I then used Microsoft’s uninstall utility cleanup tool. This did the job because then I could successfully start the installation again. Installation proceeded but hung again at 2 sec. remaining. After aborting there was no executable left and only a couple of empty folders in Programs/Techsmith/Snagit folder. I deleted all these and tried removing all registry keys referring to Techsmith use Norton utilities. Installation still failed.
Being a glutton for punishment I tried the Snagit installation on my laptop with Win 7 Home Premum 32 bit. – again it hung but with “6 seconds remaining”. After aborting, Snagit shortcuts showed up on desktop and start menu but point to nothing. BTW each time I’ve tried the installation it has been after a fresh boot, 1) anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall disabled, 2) no other apps running other than typical services.
Sorry for the long story, but there might be a clue as to what is happening.

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Are you running the installs “As administrator”?

Joe

--Joe

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Boy, if Techsmith tech support can’t get you through this, it’s gonna be a tough road. I use SnagIt on Win7 Ultimate x64 just fine. I came across one minor error and contacted tech support, whereupon they said “We should update you to 9.1.3 since that’s the only version that’s windows 7 supported.” Thus, you definitely want the latest version, which I’m sure is what you’re trying to install.

When I come across perplexing and persistent problems like this (I’m like you and won’t give up), I try it on a clean install. I either create a virtual environment using something like Windows Virtual PC or I restore a clean image of my OS using Acronis True Image (then restore my current environment afterward).

Anyway, if it works OK in a clean environment, you know there’s something in your current configuration. In drastic cases, a clean install might be in order. If it doesn’t work in a clean environment, then things get *really* complicated, like starting to suspect various hardware drivers. Hope this helps. Good luck.

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9.1.2. runs fine on 2 x desktops with Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit. Clean install seems to be the best way to avoid issues. A great program.

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Thanks for replies, guys! I was using Snagit 9.1.3 – same problems with Snagit 9.1.2. I did do a clean install of Win 7 on both my desktop and laptop. I’ve experienced no other anomalies in using Win 7 nor my usual programs. I just completed a trial installation of Snagit with full process monitoring at Techsmith’s request. I’m transferring the logfiles to
Techsmith as we speak.

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I was able to successfully install 9.1.3 on a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit laptop and haven’t had the conflicts you described. Can you get the latest dot-release and try that?

Oops – saw you’d already tried that after I posted …

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I’ve had to log into the ‘administrator’ account in order to successfully install Snagit 9.x and some other packages such as MS Office 2007 in Win7 64 Home Premium.

For those that haven’t already enabled the ‘administrator’ account see http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/enable-the-hidden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista.

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You do NOT need to log in as the Administrator, all one needs to do is right click the setup/install file and select Run as Administrator.

There is NO need in exposing “The Administrator” account for anyone to use.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I’ve found the problem in installation of Snagit on my Win 7 systems (Pro & Home Premium). Techsmith came through for me. They had me run a full process monitoring with Microsoft’s Process Monitor while I was attempting an install of Snagit 9.1.3. The log file (humongous I might add) was FTP’d to Techsmith support and they quickly came back that the process TFService.exe appeared to be the problem. This process is used my PC Tools ThreatFire, which I use. I uninstalled ThreatFire and then successfully installed Snagit – problem solved!! I then re-installed ThreatFire and it is causing no apparent problems with use of Snagit.

Thanks to all of you for you input!

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TFService.exe appeared to be the problem. This process is used my PC Tools ThreatFire, which I use. I uninstalled ThreatFire and then successfully installed Snagit – problem solved!! I then re-installed ThreatFire and it is causing no apparent problems with use of Snagit.

Huh?! You said earlier: “I did do a clean install of Win 7 on both my desktop and laptop.” If PC Tools’ ThreatFire (or any other such utility) was installed, that IS NOT considered a clean install!! Advising a clean install is meant to eliminate all other software as a potential problem.

Folks, a clean install of Windows is just that: clean! Meaning NO other software. Sheesh!

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Huh?! You said earlier: “I did do a clean install of Win 7 on both my desktop and laptop.” If PC Tools’ ThreatFire (or any other such utility) was installed, that IS NOT considered a clean install!! Advising a clean install is meant to eliminate all other software as a potential problem.

Folks, a clean install of Windows is just that: clean! Meaning NO other software. Sheesh!

A clean install may have been done, and then these other programs were installed BEFORE Snagit, it is still a clean install of the OS.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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A clean install may have been done, and then these other programs were installed BEFORE Snagit, it is still a clean install of the OS.

But the point of the clean install was to troubleshoot the failing SnagIt install! You are probably correct, but it’s still lunacy.

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But the point of the clean install was to troubleshoot the failing SnagIt install! You are probably correct, but it’s still lunacy.

One should never be asked to do a clean rebuild just to trouble shoot a program install.
The term “Clean install of a OS” is Clean vs a Upgrade at the time the OS is installed.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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But the point of the clean install was to troubleshoot the failing SnagIt install! You are probably correct, but it’s still lunacy.

No, you don’t need to do a clean install, just a clean boot.How would you do a clean install for every product?

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No, you don’t need to do a clean install, just a clean boot.How would you do a clean install for every product?

My original post stated: “When I come across perplexing and persistent problems like this (I’m like you and won’t give up), I try it on a clean install. I either create a virtual environment using something like Windows Virtual PC or I restore a clean image of my OS using Acronis True Image (then restore my current environment afterward).”

A true clean install requires some effort, but pays off many times over when situations like this arise, and does provide a clean install for every product. A clean boot did not help this fellow at all because he had other interfering software. If you fire up a virtual machine with nothing but the OS installed, then try installing your software, you’ll know a lot more. For example, if he *had* installed SnagIt on a clean image without any 3rd-party software, it would have installed just fine, thus leading one to suspect other installed software in his current/main configuration.

I guess I don’t understand why this is so difficult to understand. It’s Troubleshooting 101. Isolate the problem. Can’t do that when you have a hundred different apps, utils and tweaks in your current environment. Any one of those items may be the culprit. He (or TechSmith support) eventually discovered that it was his security software that was preventing the install. I was simply trying to provide some help. He can take it or leave it (the latter of which he did). Fine. To each his own.

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My original post stated: “When I come across perplexing and persistent problems like this (I’m like you and won’t give up), I try it on a clean install. I either create a virtual environment using something like Windows Virtual PC or I restore a clean image of my OS using Acronis True Image (then restore my current environment afterward).”

A true clean install requires some effort, but pays off many times over when situations like this arise, and does provide a clean install for every product. A clean boot did not help this fellow at all because he had other interfering software. If you fire up a virtual machine with nothing but the OS installed, then try installing your software, you’ll know a lot more. For example, if he *had* installed SnagIt on a clean image without any 3rd-party software, it would have installed just fine, thus leading one to suspect other installed software in his current/main configuration.

I guess I don’t understand why this is so difficult to understand. It’s Troubleshooting 101. Isolate the problem. Can’t do that when you have a hundred different apps, utils and tweaks in your current environment. Any one of those items may be the culprit. He (or TechSmith support) eventually discovered that it was his security software that was preventing the install. I was simply trying to provide some help. He can take it or leave it (the latter of which he did). Fine. To each his own.

You say, “A clean boot did not help this fellow at all because he had other interfering software.” How would the other software have interfered if he did a clean boot? It never would have been in memory.

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You say, “A clean boot did not help this fellow at all because he had other interfering software.” How would the other software have interfered if he did a clean boot? It never would have been in memory.

The other software *wouldn’t* have interfered on a clean install (clean boot has nothing to do with it) — that’s the whole point! SnagIt would have installed and worked perfectly, allowing the user to conclude that some other software is interfering with the install. Exactly which piece of software would still be a question, but a app such as PC Tool’s ThreatFire would have been waaaay up my list as potential culprits.

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The other software *wouldn’t* have interfered on a clean install (clean boot has nothing to do with it) — that’s the whole point! SnagIt would have installed and worked perfectly, allowing the user to conclude that some other software is interfering with the install. Exactly which piece of software would still be a question, but a app such as PC Tool’s ThreatFire would have been waaaay up my list as potential culprits.

Please explain why a clean boot wouldn’t have done the same thing.

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Please explain why a clean boot wouldn’t have done the same thing.

I apologize, I think we’re talking about the same thing and I made things confusing. By a clean boot (or clean Windows install) I mean Windows newly installed without *any* additional software (patches are OK). It’s the only true test of an application’s compatibility with the OS. My goal was to point out that this could be achieved in a virutual environment so the user wouldn’t have to impact his current configuration. Investing the time setting up a virtual environment with a clean install of Windows pays off dividends in this and many other kinds of troubleshooting and testing, IMHO. Well worth the effort.

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