Lost my software. I'm lost.

[Ann]

This morning my software Guide stopped working. I have it on a CD, and my computer just kicked out my portable CD-player.

My antivirus program, McAfee, has started asking me to delete files and generally be more careful recently. If I am extremely unlucky, McAfee has decided that Guide in itself is a problem. I have had problems with Guide before. A computer-sassy friend of mine once helped me install Guide on my hard disk, but after a while my hard disk kicked Guide out, and it refused to accept it again. That is why I use a portable CD-player and play Guide from a CD.

For now, my Guide is trapped inside my dead CD-player, and I can't get it out. I'll take it to a reasonably big department store where they sell computers, phones and things like that, and ask them to help me, perhaps, get my Guide out. I don't know if it's going to work, because my CD-player is perfectly "blank", with no buttons or commands or anything on it, and it works by installing it to a computer and giving it commands through the computer. But my computer refuses to have anything to do with my CD-player.

I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to use Guide again. I feel lost.

Ann

[orin stepanek]

This morning my software Guide stopped working. I have it on a CD, and my computer just kicked out my portable CD-player.

My antivirus program, McAfee, has started asking me to delete files and generally be more careful recently. If I am extremely unlucky, McAfee has decided that Guide in itself is a problem. I have had problems with Guide before. A computer-sassy friend of mine once helped me install Guide on my hard disk, but after a while my hard disk kicked Guide out, and it refused to accept it again. That is why I use a portable CD-player and play Guide from a CD.

For now, my Guide is trapped inside my dead CD-player, and I can't get it out. I'll take it to a reasonably big department store where they sell computers, phones and things like that, and ask them to help me, perhaps, get my Guide out. I don't know if it's going to work, because my CD-player is perfectly "blank", with no buttons or commands or anything on it, and it works by installing it to a computer and giving it commands through the computer. But my computer refuses to have anything to do with my CD-player.

I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to use Guide again. I feel lost.

Ann

Oh wow! I hate it when my computer has internal issues! If you can; maybe you can reset your computer to a day or two earlier!
Sometimes that has helped me out!

[Ann]

This morning my software Guide stopped working. I have it on a CD, and my computer just kicked out my portable CD-player.

My antivirus program, McAfee, has started asking me to delete files and generally be more careful recently. If I am extremely unlucky, McAfee has decided that Guide in itself is a problem. I have had problems with Guide before. A computer-sassy friend of mine once helped me install Guide on my hard disk, but after a while my hard disk kicked Guide out, and it refused to accept it again. That is why I use a portable CD-player and play Guide from a CD.

For now, my Guide is trapped inside my dead CD-player, and I can't get it out. I'll take it to a reasonably big department store where they sell computers, phones and things like that, and ask them to help me, perhaps, get my Guide out. I don't know if it's going to work, because my CD-player is perfectly "blank", with no buttons or commands or anything on it, and it works by installing it to a computer and giving it commands through the computer. But my computer refuses to have anything to do with my CD-player.

I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to use Guide again. I feel lost.

Ann

Oh wow! I hate it when my computer has internal issues! If you can; maybe you can reset your computer to a day or two earlier!
Sometimes that has helped me out!

Thanks, Orin. Unfortunately, I suspect that my Guide CD itself may be the problem.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

This morning my software Guide stopped working. I have it on a CD, and my computer just kicked out my portable CD-player.

My antivirus program, McAfee, has started asking me to delete files and generally be more careful recently. If I am extremely unlucky, McAfee has decided that Guide in itself is a problem. I have had problems with Guide before. A computer-sassy friend of mine once helped me install Guide on my hard disk, but after a while my hard disk kicked Guide out, and it refused to accept it again. That is why I use a portable CD-player and play Guide from a CD.

For now, my Guide is trapped inside my dead CD-player, and I can't get it out. I'll take it to a reasonably big department store where they sell computers, phones and things like that, and ask them to help me, perhaps, get my Guide out. I don't know if it's going to work, because my CD-player is perfectly "blank", with no buttons or commands or anything on it, and it works by installing it to a computer and giving it commands through the computer. But my computer refuses to have anything to do with my CD-player.

I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to use Guide again. I feel lost.

Ann

All CD players have a little pinhole on the drawer itself or near it. Push a stiff wire or pin in and press hard and it should pop the drawer open. That said, CD/DVDs are pretty obsolete technology for computer storage, and not very robust. You should not be running off of it. You should have done an install that copied everything to your hard drive. Once you've installed, you shouldn't need the CD again.

[Ann]

This morning my software Guide stopped working. I have it on a CD, and my computer just kicked out my portable CD-player.

My antivirus program, McAfee, has started asking me to delete files and generally be more careful recently. If I am extremely unlucky, McAfee has decided that Guide in itself is a problem. I have had problems with Guide before. A computer-sassy friend of mine once helped me install Guide on my hard disk, but after a while my hard disk kicked Guide out, and it refused to accept it again. That is why I use a portable CD-player and play Guide from a CD.

For now, my Guide is trapped inside my dead CD-player, and I can't get it out. I'll take it to a reasonably big department store where they sell computers, phones and things like that, and ask them to help me, perhaps, get my Guide out. I don't know if it's going to work, because my CD-player is perfectly "blank", with no buttons or commands or anything on it, and it works by installing it to a computer and giving it commands through the computer. But my computer refuses to have anything to do with my CD-player.

I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to use Guide again. I feel lost.

Ann

All CD players have a little pinhole on the drawer itself or near it. Push a stiff wire or pin in and press hard and it should pop the drawer open. That said, CD/DVDs are pretty obsolete technology for computer storage, and not very robust. You should not be running off of it. You should have done an install that copied everything to your hard drive. Once you've installed, you shouldn't need the CD again.

Absolutely, Chris. Problem is, I did install it to my hard drive. After a while though, my computer refused to accept Guide, and "kicked it out". I installed it again, and it worked for a while, and then it stopped working again. That's when I got myself a CD player and and so that I could use Guide that way.

I hope I will be able to use it again.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

This morning my software Guide stopped working. I have it on a CD, and my computer just kicked out my portable CD-player.

My antivirus program, McAfee, has started asking me to delete files and generally be more careful recently. If I am extremely unlucky, McAfee has decided that Guide in itself is a problem. I have had problems with Guide before. A computer-sassy friend of mine once helped me install Guide on my hard disk, but after a while my hard disk kicked Guide out, and it refused to accept it again. That is why I use a portable CD-player and play Guide from a CD.

For now, my Guide is trapped inside my dead CD-player, and I can't get it out. I'll take it to a reasonably big department store where they sell computers, phones and things like that, and ask them to help me, perhaps, get my Guide out. I don't know if it's going to work, because my CD-player is perfectly "blank", with no buttons or commands or anything on it, and it works by installing it to a computer and giving it commands through the computer. But my computer refuses to have anything to do with my CD-player.

I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to use Guide again. I feel lost.

Ann

All CD players have a little pinhole on the drawer itself or near it. Push a stiff wire or pin in and press hard and it should pop the drawer open. That said, CD/DVDs are pretty obsolete technology for computer storage, and not very robust. You should not be running off of it. You should have done an install that copied everything to your hard drive. Once you've installed, you shouldn't need the CD again.

Absolutely, Chris. Problem is, I did install it to my hard drive. After a while though, my computer refused to accept Guide, and "kicked it out". I installed it again, and it worked for a while, and then it stopped working again. That's when I got myself a CD player and and so that I could use Guide that way.

I hope I will be able to use it again.

Ann

Do you have the latest version? If not, I'd suggest getting it. Not very expensive.

And personally, unless you spend a lot of time on Russian porn sites, I'd advise uninstalling any antivirus software. It isn't really needed if you exercise just a modicum of common sense, and it almost always introduces problems. Especially with Windows 10, the built in protection is very good.

[Ann]

All CD players have a little pinhole on the drawer itself or near it. Push a stiff wire or pin in and press hard and it should pop the drawer open. That said, CD/DVDs are pretty obsolete technology for computer storage, and not very robust. You should not be running off of it. You should have done an install that copied everything to your hard drive. Once you've installed, you shouldn't need the CD again.

Absolutely, Chris. Problem is, I did install it to my hard drive. After a while though, my computer refused to accept Guide, and "kicked it out". I installed it again, and it worked for a while, and then it stopped working again. That's when I got myself a CD player and and so that I could use Guide that way.

I hope I will be able to use it again.

Ann

Do you have the latest version? If not, I'd suggest getting it. Not very expensive.

And personally, unless you spend a lot of time on Russian porn sites, I'd advise uninstalling any antivirus software. It isn't really needed if you exercise just a modicum of common sense, and it almost always introduces problems. Especially with Windows 10, the built in protection is very good.

Unfortunately, I do have the latest version, which is, I think, at the very least ten years old.

I also think my antivirus is causing some problems. The other day I wanted to check what movies were on at a local cinema, and I wasn't allowed to find out, because my antivirus deemed the homepage of the movie theater unsafe.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Absolutely, Chris. Problem is, I did install it to my hard drive. After a while though, my computer refused to accept Guide, and "kicked it out". I installed it again, and it worked for a while, and then it stopped working again. That's when I got myself a CD player and and so that I could use Guide that way.

I hope I will be able to use it again.

Ann

Do you have the latest version? If not, I'd suggest getting it. Not very expensive.

And personally, unless you spend a lot of time on Russian porn sites, I'd advise uninstalling any antivirus software. It isn't really needed if you exercise just a modicum of common sense, and it almost always introduces problems. Especially with Windows 10, the built in protection is very good.

Unfortunately, I do have the latest version, which is, I think, at the very least ten years old.

I also think my antivirus is causing some problems. The other day I wanted to check what movies were on at a local cinema, and I wasn't allowed to find out, because my antivirus deemed the homepage of the movie theater unsafe.

Ann

It looks like the latest version, 9.1, is about 5 years old. But perhaps it is time to take the author's advice, and move on to something else. Guide is dated and (in the author's words) showing its age. It isn't under active development anymore. There are better alternatives out there, especially when used in combination with the many online tools and catalogs that are available.

[Ann]

Do you have the latest version? If not, I'd suggest getting it. Not very expensive.

And personally, unless you spend a lot of time on Russian porn sites, I'd advise uninstalling any antivirus software. It isn't really needed if you exercise just a modicum of common sense, and it almost always introduces problems. Especially with Windows 10, the built in protection is very good.

Unfortunately, I do have the latest version, which is, I think, at the very least ten years old.

I also think my antivirus is causing some problems. The other day I wanted to check what movies were on at a local cinema, and I wasn't allowed to find out, because my antivirus deemed the homepage of the movie theater unsafe.

Ann

It looks like the latest version, 9.1, is about 5 years old. But perhaps it is time to take the author's advice, and move on to something else. Guide is dated and (in the author's words) showing its age. It isn't under active development anymore. There are better alternatives out there, especially when used in combination with the many online tools and catalogs that are available.

Maybe. I'm not yet mentally ready for that, however. I'll try to reinstall Guide first, but I'm going to need help, and it won't happen today.

Ann

[Orca]

Ann - I assume you are running Windows 10?

I would echo Chris' recommendation of not using 3rd party AV software. Unless you have it pared down (adding exclusions, etc.) it will be more intrusive than helpful. The modern version of Windows Defender is actually pretty solid.

That said, you might try running the app in compatibility mode. Right click on the executable, then click the Compatibility tab, tick "Compatibility Mode" and select Windows 7. It's a long shot but sometimes this can help older software.

Once again, as Chris pointed out, wrestling with old software often isn't worth the hassle - especially if there are alternatives. Have you looked at Stellarium? I've used it for years, it's pretty good. There's even a web version out now that works pretty well: https://stellarium-web.org/

[Chris Peterson]

Ann - I assume you are running Windows 10?

I would echo Chris' recommendation of not using 3rd party AV software. Unless you have it pared down (adding exclusions, etc.) it will be more intrusive than helpful. The modern version of Windows Defender is actually pretty solid.

That said, you might try running the app in compatibility mode. Right click on the executable, then click the Compatibility tab, tick "Compatibility Mode" and select Windows 7. It's a long shot but sometimes this can help older software.

Once again, as Chris pointed out, wrestling with old software often isn't worth the hassle - especially if there are alternatives. Have you looked at Stellarium? I've used it for years, it's pretty good. There's even a web version out now that works pretty well: https://stellarium-web.org/

The author claims compatibility with W10, but also says it hasn't been under active management or development for several years, and offers the suggestion to move on to something else. That's a pretty good indicator that you're living on borrowed time trying to keep an app going.

[Galatic Spacewarp]

Sorry about that. [*]comfoting pat on the back[*]