Now with Win-7 64bit ... FS issues

[RJHollins]

Hello Gang,

Well ... Let me just say that its' been an challenging/adventuresome past year.

Due to family issues, we had to sell our house and move to a new place. Unfortunately, my Dad never got to see the new house, but at least we have Ma in a new, lovely home in a beautiful neighborhood. A quiet road, very nice neighbors, and a pasture in the backyard with beautiful horses. The sun sets everyday in our backyard view.

It took me several months of packing ... including the closing down of my mastering control room.

Now that we've moved, and have much of the unpacking done, I've been working toward getting things [and business] set up in the new place. This includes designing and building a new Mastering Suite. It will be bigger [and hopefully] even better. Expensive as all get out ... but no way to work without it.

Anyway ... several weeks ago, we had a power glitch that seems to be the culprit that hit my trusty ole computer. It took out the video card AND the motherboard. I had been planning that I'd do a new build ... just not so soon

So .... the research began ... using my iphone brutal. My brother loaned me a computer [that needed work, loaded with viruses, etc] .... got it up and running, and completely the learning search.

So much had changed since my quad-core build with XP-32 Pro. [nearly 8 years old]

I salvaged the case, 6 hard drives, Plextor burner, HP printer, scanner, and my audio interface.

Purchased an MSI X99a SLI Plus motherboard, with 16 gigs DDR-4 RAM, 850 watt Corsair power supply, Noctua DH-14 CPU cooler [thing is HUGE], and powered with an Intel i7-5820K processor, along with a new NVidia card, a couple WD SATA-6 2-tera hard drives to add to the other 6. Had to also replace my old CRT monitor with a new Dell U2412M LED monitor with 1920x1200 rez. Plus ... added a new Wireless connector for internet. I think that's most everything

Got it all put together and decided to install Win-7 Pro 64-bit OS. [I get a free upgrade to Win-10 down the road if I want].

The past few weeks ... installing/testing all my important programs, apps, and plugins. Some program installers had both 32/64 included. Some of my old stuff was 32-bit, and I've have to upgrade $$$ to get 64 version. I could spend another fortune doing all that ... but I want to delay that for the time being. Most everything is working ... so I'm pretty happy.

I can say ... the new computer flies.

During all this, I've tried to keep up on the FS board. I've just installed FS on my new system ... seems to be running OK. I've transferred in my old User Toolbox, and dragged my FS project folder to the new location.

What does this all lead up to ???

I put together some FS projects [mostly for personal use], but had some fellow audio engineer friends that were also interested in my projects. They mostly all had 64-bit systems ... but seemed to have basic problems getting things to work. Everything worked on my 32 system [or I'd work to fix it], but it seemed the basic stuff would fail on 64 ... I had no real way to test this .... UNTIL NOW !

OK ... I load in one of my projects ... find a problem at the very start.

My program uses a 'user database' that the program creates. I was very careful to write these to 'un-protected' file locations with the help of the local FS GURU's.

But I now find a bug ... The FOLDER primitive.

The 'output' of the FOLDER prim identifies where the exe or VST was installed.

Now, I'm very new to 64-bit systems .... but with this new build, I have 2 PROGRAM folders on my main C drive.

One of them is for 64-bit apps, the other for 32-bit apps.

One is called 'Program Files', the other .... 'Program Files (x86)'. OK.

The problem ... the FOLDER prim does NOT add the (x86) in the path identity. Because of this, files that should auto-load behind the scene never do.

OK ... this is the first issue ... there may be others ... AND, it is very possible that I'm a part of the error ... what new.

I call on the 'Great Minds of FS' to rescue me from my own tribulations and ignorance ... again, of course

Meanwhile ... hope everyone is well. I see some very interesting topics happening. Hope I can join in ... ahh, mostly me just watching and trying to learn ... anyway ... Thanks for taking time to read through this, and hope there is a solution or correction.

Sincerely.

[Spogg]

Hi RJ

Good to hear things are coming straight for you.

I think I mentioned elsewhwere that I originally tried x64 Windows 7 but had problems with a few of my 32 bit only programs (not just Audio/music). For this reason I only use 32 bit Windows. I seem to recall that one of the big issues was related to folders, probably naming system incompatibility.

Cheers

Spogg

[RJHollins]

hmm ... I thought I was the last 32-bit hold out

Well ... too late for me now, I transition. I can say that, beside the new architecture, the 16 gig of RAM has been quite liberating.

As to FS issue. It sounds like we found similar things with folders and such.

I DID go quite a bit into all this with MUCH help from the GURU's here at FS. I thought I had built in the safety net so that both 32/64 would play nice, but I see a fundamental flaw displayed in the output of the FOLDER primitive.

I wonder if there is a clean workaround, OR, if I'm doing something wrong.

2nd question ... When I installed Win-7, it asked about backward compatibility to XP ... I clicked YES I wanted this.

I wonder is that why I have 2 unique 'Program File' folders on my main C drive ???

I have suspicion that this might be the reason the FOLDER prim is not functioning properly .... although it SHOULD glean the proper path the file was launched from.

How to fix ? Glad to supply any additional info if this would help. Just ask

[RJHollins]

hello ?!?!

Can anyone just confirm on this FOLDER primitive ?

Thanks Guys. I'm thinking about how to proceed forward.

Thanks

[Walter Sommerfeld]

Hi RJ,

here is what i know about it:

1. Have a look here for UAC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Account_Control

2.Progs now use C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\YourPathName for their ini's, logs or external tools...
(I use some AHK compilations in conjunction with my FS.exe)
=> System Folders: see Docs Page 477

3. Start programs elevated from a batch file: http://www.winability.com/elevate/

4. Hint: Shell Execute now has 'runas'... => see Docs Page 424

5. The Pro's can even embed Tools inside FS (with help from DWB

Cheers,
Walter

[MyCo]

Just tested it. When I put the generated EXE into the x86 program folder and run it, FS shows it correctly. Maybe you've accidently put the program file into the 64bit program folder?

[RJHollins]

Hi Guys,

I double checked ... FS installed in Program Files (x86), as well as my VST plugin made from FS [they are in the VST folder in x86.

The issue I'm seeing has to do with the readout from the FOLDER primitive. It does not seem to be including the (x86) in the path name. All other parts of the path are showing correct. This cause the error.

OK ... when I get back tonite, I'll try to put together a test schematic on this.

[RJHollins]

OK ... just did a quick test before heading out.

The FOLDER prim is WORKING correctly. Putting the VST in both locations [64 x86] returned the proper path.

This is good ... but it means the special module I was using from one of the toolbox collections is the culprit for me to look into.

Nonetheless ... thanks Guys for confirming. I at least have a direction to examine.

[RJHollins]

Next issue please.

I'm now seeing issue within many of my projects that happened when running on 64-bit system.

To refresh ... I did all my projects on Win-XP - 32bit. Basically, they worked fine .... or I could see a problem and look to fix.

Here's a strange issue that has surfaced.

The DropDown list SELECTORs.

If they are running within the FS program ... they ALL work as expected. However, exporting them as a VST, I'm finding several 'selectors' do not work.

In this test, I had included old selector designs from Synthmaker. These work everywhere, both in the FS interpreter and when exported as VST's.

Why do the others not work

I'm posting this little test schematic, and hope the local GURU's would be kind enough to look inside and spot the problem.

Thanks Guys.

Test loading 32-64 - 1.fsm

(12.22 KiB) Downloaded 790 times

[Spogg]

I know this isn't in the spirit of this thread but why not dual boot and use 32 bit for Flowstone?

Cheers
Spogg