Advanced WP8 problem - Profile migration breaks WP8 1

[topher2798]

This is going to be a long post. Here goes:

We're in the process of a huge domain migration here at my work. We've run into a really nasty bug with WordPerfect 8.

Now some background. We are visiting each workstation on the network (we're talking about 18,000 total) and migrating them to a domain in an Active Directory environment running in mixed mode. Basically setting the workstation to log into the domain and then we have these users log in with their domain account.

Before the migration process each user is logging into a Novell NDS tree and no domain. Therefore, windows is storing local profile information for each account on the workstation.

Now, once a user logs into the domain for the first time from their workstation, Windows creates a new profile for them. Now we need to preserve all of the users personal settings so we are migrating their profiles. According to Microsoft, the "preferred" way to do this is: Log in as local admin, back up the "Default User" profile directory, then delete the contents of "Default User", then copy the contents of the users local profile directory into the "Default Users" profile directory. Then log off and log into the domain as that user. Windows creates a new profile for them based on the contents of the "Default User" profile, which in this case is a mirror image of the users old local profile. This technique retains EVERYTHING, including the users shortcuts, favorites, documents, security information ,etc.... Once the user is logged in and a new profile has been created for them, we log back out and log in as admin. Then replace the contents of "Default User" with the backup that we created from before.

Now, here's the problem. On Windows 2000 Professional workstations, any profile that is migrated with this technique can no longer run Wordperfect 8 unless their domain account is in the workstations local adminsitrators group. This is unacceptable. We cannot have every user on our network with administrator rights to their workstations, we'd be looking at a support nightmare once these people start realizing that they have the rights to install those goofy little screensavers and get into their control panel settings and change things.

The error is rather generic and says, "WPWIN8.exe has generated errors and will be closed. You must re-start the application. However, re-starting the application generates the same error and still kicks the user out.

Now once we put these users in the local administrators group, the error goes away and they can work just fine. However this is not an acceptable workaround. Any other new profiles created on these workstations run wordperfect just fine without needing to be "administrators". The migrated ones are the only accounts that are experiencing this odd bug.

I've opened a support ticket with Microsoft regarding the problem but so-far, the support technician is clueless as to what is causing the issue.

I have tried installing SP7 for wordperfect and SP3 for Win2K Pro but the problem still exists.

Any ideas?

 

[DonKlein]

topher,
You may want to explore a newer version of WordPerfect, at least test it to see if issues clear up. Service Pack 4 of WP9 was a significant re-write of WP to fix problems that occurred when running prior WP versions on Windows 2000 and XP. While I am not certain what SP4 modified, we know that the user profiling in Win2k is significantly different than it was in prior versions of Windows. I can also tell you that Corel's "C-techs" who post to the Corel newsgroups strongly suggest upgrading to at least WP9, SP4 when running on Win2k or WinXP.

Good Luck,
Don
(From a much smaller network where users have workstation admin rights - and sometimes shoot themselves in the foot)

 

[BlackburnKL]

Have you checked the default folders WP8 uses? Is it possible that one (or more) of them are not available to a regular user, but is to an administrator? BlackburnKL

 

[topher2798]

Thanks for the replys guys. Unfortunatly, it's not quite that simple as just upgrading everyone. We literally have thousands of workstations running WP8. The cost of upgrading every workstation would be staggering. Besides that, the majority of I.S. is trying to push WordPerfect out of the organization and move to MS Word via Office XP.

Problem is, there are still a lot of executives that insist on using WordPerfect because they don't want to have to learn a new word processor, and I'm sure you understand what kind of "pull" that executives have.

We HAVE checked the directory structure and rights assignments for the corel directory and all of it's subdirectories, we've granted the everyone group full control to that directory structure (along with a registry hack), which was what allowed us to run WP8 on Windows 2000 Pro to begin with.

 

[celeron895]

Can you post the registry hack that you used?

 

[topher2798]

Well, it's hardly a "Hack" so to speak. More of a registry rights re-assignment. Just to be safe, we didn't target only the Wordperfect areas of the registry, we "attacked" the whole SOFTWARE key just to avoid pitfalls with other crusty old apps we have to run here too. Things like Lotus 1-2-3. Here's the steps we took for the registry rights re-assignment:

1. Run regedt32.exe (has to be regedt32 NOT regedit)
2. Select the window HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ON LOCAL MACHINE
3. Select the SOFTWARE key
4. Click SECURITY from the menu bar
5. Click PERMISSIONS
6. From the Security section, highlight USERS
7. Check the option FULL CONTROL
8. Click APPLY
9. Click the ADVANCED button
10. Highlight USERS from the “Permission Entries” section
11. Click VIEW/EDIT
12. From the permissions section, uncheck the DELETE option from the “Allow” column
13. Click OK
14. Click APPLY before continuing to the next step
15. Check the option “RESET PERMISSIONS ON ALL CHILD OBJECTS AND ENABLE PROPAGATION OF INHERITABLE PERMISSIONS”
16. Click APPLY again
17. Click YES at the security dialog warning box
18. Click OK to the message about registry editor not being able to set permissions on some keys
19. Click OK back at the access control settings for the SOFTWARE key
20. Click OK back at the permissions for SOFTWARE dialog

Thats it. Oh, besides granting the everyone group more rights to C:\corel and all subdirectories we also gave them more rights to the C:\Program Files directory and all subdirectories.

 

[Compnstuff]

Have you tried updating policies on each machine. Sounds as if you are moving from local logon to domain logon. This will cause domain security policies to supersede local. You may want to check domain policies for conflicts. I had the same problem with other programs and had to allow local logons and correct local policies to default to domain.

HTH,
Comp

 

[topher2798]

Yeah, we looked into the policy issue. That wasn't causing the problem.

Come to find out, after the migration into the domain, Wordperfect was still trying to access files in the "old" user's local profile directory.

What we ended up doing to "fix" the problem is we gave the domain account full control access to the "old" local account's profile directory. That stopped the errors.

 

[Brandon53]

The problem has to do with rights in the system registry. If you run regedt32, browse to HKLM\Software\Corel, then go to the security settings, you need to add the "Everyone", "Full Control" group to the key. (This is done logged in as an administrator.) Log off, log back on as a domain user and it will work.

 

[escapeman]

Brandon53
I run regedt32, browse to HKLM\Software\Corel, then went to the security settings, an added the "Everyone", "Full Control" group to the key.
When I launch Word Perfect, I got this message "Perfect Script failed to update system registry please try using regedit". I click on the message and WP started. How do I get rid of this message.

ESCAPEMAN

 

[Mekkins]

A bizarre new twist to the Win2K / Third-Party software permissions issue:

I've just swapped out some old NT computers in one of our classrooms with brand new Compaqs running Windows 2000. This particular classroom happens to be the only classroom on campus that teaches WordPerfect. I get them loaded with WordPerfect 8 (because nobody has written a decent book for 10, I'm told), login as the classroom account and promptly start getting the "wpwin8 has generated errors" error. The pickings on Google were pretty slim (only 3 hits), but there's a link to my old Tek-Tips compadres. I try Brandon53's advice on changing the permissions to the Corel key with regedt32 and by golly it works! No error messages whatsoever. Now here's the Weird Part:

We're still running an NT network and policies set on classroom accounts don't allow access to the printer folder. So I have to setup network printing under my profile and then copy it to the classroom account. After I've done that, I log back on as the classroom and I'm getting the wpwin8 error again! What the f***???? I delete the profile, log on (without printers) and WordPerfect works again. Copy my profile over, and WordPerfect breaks again. Too freaky. Microsoft really knows how to write some buggy code. Anyone got any advice on the way around that one?

 

[Luke0n]

I am also experiencing the "WP8win.exe has caused an error in windows." error. Tried everything on this Thread and WP8 still crashes after I remove the local admin rights. Power User privellages won't even suffice. Upgrade is not an option. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Appreciated
Luke0n

 

[DallasKelsey]

If you are going to run upgrade to a secure network, you will incur more expense (ESPECIALLY in an environment with 18,000 PCs) fielding all of the technical issues you will encounter from running the WordPerfect 8 suite than you would by simply upgrading. If upgrading is not an option, your alternatives are 1.) see lots of errors, many of which will require rebuilding at worst or re-installing at best, or 2.) downgrade your OS. Otherwise, you want to have your cake and eat it too it seems. If you are upgrading your OS...then it is quite possible (if not likely) you may also need to upgrade some software.

I can appreciate that WP10 may not have any great texts written for it (most likely becuase the software itself isn't that great), but geez...you're 3 versions behind what's current, and a full 2 versions behind the oldest supported software to run on Win2k or XP.

I cannot imagine planning a network migration for that many PCs without budgeting for software upgrades! It's like budgeting for a car with no wheels. The other major thing here is that version 8, unlike the newer versons (since 9 SP4, I believe), does not use profiles as such to store settings. They are all stored in subfolders under Program Files on the local PC (unless it was a network install)--and don't forget to get the pesky "C:\My Files" contents as well, as the lion's share of errant documents will land in there. And do not let anyone tell you to simply rename the wp8us.wpt file to wp10us.wpt then transfer to the appropriate folder. This will bring over toolbars but screw up a bunch of other things and surpress many functions of 10...

The only success we ever had running version 8 on Win2k was by giving full rights to the users. It was the worst time in my life!

Dallas S. Kelsey, III
DKelsey-at-CHGLaw-dot-com
Cox, Hodgman, & Giarmarco, P.C.
Troy MI 48084

 

[123dutch]

I've installed WP8 on my wife's computer after installing ME in stead of W95 and I saw (in Dutch) WPWIN8.EXE made an error, restart if the problems will remain. So I restarted a few times but nothing changed.
I found - it is a worldwide problem (!) - in Spanish a probable solution. Take a look at:

http://www.corelclub.org/faqs_wordperfect8.htm

and there nearly at the bottom of the page at point 9,3.
I will try it myself.

 

[msnovl]

Not sure if this has already been posed, but I recently encountered that same "wpwin8.exe generated errors" problem.

I resolved it by exporting the COREL key in HKCU registry hive of a known good user profile... and importing into the problem child. WP came up this time as expected.

Also on WP SP7 / 2000 SP3.

Hope this helps.

~ Phil