WP9 cannot initialize in XP by multiple users

[DavidWang]

We install WP9 in XP as an Admin, but now it only works when we log on by Admin. When we log on by common user, it shows "cannot initialize". How can we make it work by multiple users.
I got advice that I need edit registry, but I don't know which key need be change and what is it's value.

Please give me advice!

David Wang

 

[DonKlein]

WP9, Service Pack 4 (Help About version 9.0.883) was the first release designed for Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Earlier releases of WP9 may run ok on the newer operating systems, provided that you give all users admin rights and/or if registry hacks which are posted in other threads on this forum solve the problem. I have no reason that the registry changes do not work, I just have not had reason to try them.

 

[8484]

Hi David,

I am having the same problem loading WP9. I'm not sure if you got the problem resolved. I load WP9 as the workstation administrator and everything works fine. When I add the workstation to the domain and log on as a user with out domain rights I get a "cannot initialize templates error". I am confused because I am not sure if I'm loading it wrong or what. It worked for me one time but the writing tools didn't work. I have no idea what I did for it to work for me that one time. Thanks for any advice anyone can give me.

 

[DallasKelsey]

I would love to see this software shrivel up and croak. I would be much happier administering a 100% Microsoft Office world (not that I *love* Microsoft's software, but at least it works most of the time!).

It is such a pain to administer, seems to have no mind toward network security, and their technical support is so abysmal and expensive as to defy logic. Well, to be fair, I should mention that this is only the case when Corel's Technical Support team is actually taking support calls: we always seem to call when they are having their "team meeting" and the entire company huddles in some room somewhere and they don't even accept support calls (yes, this occurs during business hours...and I think it's monthly!!!). Regardlesss, we do work extensively with WordPerfect, and administer and push it out successfully to remote sytems using unattended install/option scripts to set it up on machines where the users have no administrator rights. This has, in general, worked well for us.

We actually saw this problem in 9 and 10 both. Version 8 was too unstable on Win2k and up, so we dumped it with great haste in favor of 10.

There are several things which may work, so here are a few ideas (some of which are Corel's, not mine ):

1. [Editor's Choice] Dump WordPerfect and go to MS Office. There. Problem solved. If this is not feasible (as, unfortunately, it was not for us), see #2.

2. Change your entire network security paradigm and make all of your users full administrators. This is always Corel's initial suggestion (one of my personal favorites...I guess in Canada there is no such thing as security...though I'm sure their network admins would disagree with this approach as much as most of us would!) Alternatively, have them log out of the domain session, and have them log in as local administrators, giving them full license to screw their PC's up even more. Presto! Either way, the template problem is solved. This does actually address the problem, and may be suitable for some situations. Of course, if things were this simple for most people, this thread wouldn't exist! If this sort of solution would have you pacing the floor at night worried about what you may encounter back at the office, read on.

3. Find out which keys/files need what security changes and apply them locally on the PC. The trick here is... What keys, what files, and what security? We actually have asked Corel numerous times to tell us which keys/files need what access adjusted on the local PC, and it usually takes days or weeks to get an answer. When the answer comes, it's usually "We don't know...have you tried making your users full administrators?". Very productive use of a support incident (which is expensive). If you do not feel like changing your network security, see below. However, I'm sure this would work if someone could produce/discover that elusive file/key information, this solution would be somewhat workable, if clumsy.

4. Blame Microsoft, it's their fault, because they made the operating system secure and it "messes up" [that's a technical term, kids] our software. Yet another helpful tip actually given many times by Corel (for this and many other problems we have experienced). But if blame assignment isn't your bag, continue to option #5.

5. Upgrade to WordPerfect Office Suite 10. Clearly this is not feasible or economic in many situations. Suite 9 was so plagued with problems when running on Windows 2k and greater that this is still the de facto response most of the techs will give. It took 4 (count 'em ... FOUR) service packs just to get this POS to run on the Win2k kernel in a manner that their tech support would field calls. Any other version of 9 or earlier suites were not supported. Regardless, the upgrade is fairly inexpensive (right around $90 or so, as I recall, assuming no Paradox/Pro configuration is needed). If it is, I think it may add $40-60 or so (can't really remember). However, if you upgrade to 10, you're not necessarily out of the woods as this is the version where we had this problem most frequently. You may still want to read #6.

6. Make sure that, once WordPerfect is installed, it is not opened by the administrator prior to establishing the Default User profile. Typically, most administrators make changes to the initial/default user template on a deployed or new PC using the User Profiles utility in Win2k/XP. If WordPerfect is opened by an administrator, and that profile being used to subsequently copy over the Default User profile, everything explodes. This was a huge problem for us, since WordPerfect needs the CD/installation source files the first time a given user runs it (which is problematic and clumsy). We tried to set it up so that the default profile already had what it needed to use the software, but this, in turn, brought over security issues that translate into the dreaded "cannot initialize templates" issue. If this fails, try #7.

7. We have had some success with this last approach as well. Our experience was on Version 10, but I have a hunch it may work on 9 also. It is somewhat labor intensive as it must be done at each machine and can take quite a while depending on its speed and other factors.

a. Close all apps, and have the instatllation source (wether network or CD or what-have-you) handy.

b. Access %UserProfile%\Application Data\Corel and rename the entire folder (it can be deleted later, but just keep it in case something goes wrong or user customizations perhaps contained in the template/*.wpt file may be needed later).

c. Then, being still logged in as the user (with no administrator rights). Rename \\HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Corel to something else.

d. If the default user profile was set up to include an already launched installation, this needs to be scrapped also. Either rework the Default User profile by renaming (or, preferably, deleting) these files there as well, or start over on a new machine with a ¡§virgin¡¨ Default Profile.

e. Launch WordPerfect again. This should invoke the configuration process again, pulling settings from both the Default User profile *and* the installation source¡Kagain, be sure to have whatever source was initially used handy or this process will stop halfway and you¡¦ll have to back out

That typically does it for us. If it does work, you can then go back to the other keys/folders and pull whatever settings you may need. If settings are unimportant, or you already moved them, or you are anal retentive (like me), it is not a problem at this point to delete the renamed folders. On the other hand, it does not seem to mess anything up to leave them on the PC renamed. If you think that sounds fun, just wait until you have to migrate settings from 8 to 9/10. It's a hoot!

Hopefully this spares somebody the toils of dealing with the foolish cat-and-mouse games we had to go through to get this to work here (no, I¡¦m not bitter!) ƒº


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

 

[DallasKelsey]

I would love to see this software shrivel up and croak. I would be much happier administering a 100% Microsoft Office world (not that I *love* Microsoft's software, but at least it works most of the time!).

It is such a pain to administer, seems to have no mind toward network security, and their technical support is so abysmal and expensive as to defy logic. Well, to be fair, I should mention that this is only the case when Corel's Technical Support team is actually taking support calls: we always seem to call when they are having their "team meeting" and the entire company huddles in some room somewhere and they don't even accept support calls (yes, this occurs during business hours...and I think it's monthly!!!). Regardlesss, we do work extensively with WordPerfect, and administer and push it out successfully to remote sytems using unattended install/option scripts to set it up on machines where the users have no administrator rights. This has, in general, worked well for us.

We actually saw this problem in 9 and 10 both. Also, 9 and version 10 (before SP1) liked chewing up documents created in 8 and spitting them out into corrupt files. Document corruption went from a "1% of the time" kind of a thing to a "20% of the time kinda thing." What a mess. Version 8 was too unstable on Win2k and up, so we dumped it with great haste in favor of 10.

There are several things which may work, so here are a few ideas (some of which are Corel's, not mine ):

1. [Editor's Choice] Dump WordPerfect and go to MS Office. There. Problem solved. If this is not feasible (as, unfortunately, it was not for us ), see #2.

2. Change your entire network security paradigm and make all of your users full administrators. This is always Corel's initial suggestion (one of my personal favorites...I'm sure their network admins would disagree with this approach as much as most of us would!) Alternatively, have them log out of the domain session, and have them log in as local administrators, giving them full license to screw their PC's up even more. Presto! Either way, the template problem is solved. This does actually address the problem, and may be suitable for some situations. Of course, if things were this simple for most people, this thread wouldn't exist! If this sort of solution would have you pacing the floor at night worried about what you may encounter back at the office, read on.

3. Find out which keys/files need what security changes and apply them locally on the PC. The trick here is... What keys, what files, and what security? We actually have asked Corel numerous times to tell us which keys/files need what access adjusted on the local PC, and it usually takes days or weeks to get an answer. When the answer comes, it's usually "We don't know...have you tried making your users full administrators?". Very productive use of a support incident (which is expensive). If you do not feel like changing your network security, see below. However, I'm sure this would work if someone could produce/discover that elusive file/key information, this solution would be somewhat workable, if clumsy.

4. Blame Microsoft, it's their fault, because they made the operating system secure and it "messes up" [that's a technical term, kids] our software. Yet another helpful tip actually given many times by Corel (for this and many other problems we have experienced). But if blame assignment isn't your bag, continue to option #5.

5. Upgrade to WordPerfect Office Suite 10. Clearly this is not feasible or economic in many situations. Suite 9 was so plagued with problems when running on Windows 2k and greater that this is still the de facto response most of the techs will give. It took 4 (count 'em ... FOUR) service packs just to get this POS to run on the Win2k kernel in a manner that their tech support would field calls. Any other version of 9 or earlier suites were not supported. Regardless, the upgrade is fairly inexpensive (right around $90 or so, as I recall, assuming no Paradox/Pro configuration is needed). If it is, I think it may add $40-60 or so (can't really remember). However, if you upgrade to 10, you're not necessarily out of the woods as this is the version where we had this problem most frequently. You may still want to read #6.

6. Make sure that, once WordPerfect is installed, it is not opened by the administrator prior to establishing the Default User profile. Typically, most administrators make changes to the initial/default user template on a deployed or new PC using the User Profiles utility in Win2k/XP. If WordPerfect is opened by an administrator, and that profile being used to subsequently copy over the Default User profile, everything explodes. This was a huge problem for us, since WordPerfect needs the CD/installation source files the first time a given user runs it (which is problematic and clumsy). We tried to set it up so that the default profile already had what it needed to use the software, but this, in turn, brought over security issues that translate into the dreaded "cannot initialize templates" issue. If this fails, try #7.

7. We have had some success with this last approach as well. Our experience was on Version 10, but I have a hunch it may work on 9 also. It is somewhat labor intensive as it must be done at each machine and can take quite a while depending on its speed and other factors.

a. Close all apps, and have the instatllation source (whether network or CD or what-have-you) handy.

b. Access %UserProfile%\Application Data\Corel and rename it, something like corel.old or something should suffice (it can be deleted now or later, but just keep it in case something goes wrong or user customizations perhaps contained in the template/*.wpt file may be needed later).

c. Then, being still logged in as the user (with no administrator rights), rename \\HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Corel to something else in the registry. If you do not know what the registry is, I suggest you first do some reading on it...screwing up what you do in there can completely FUBAR your system!!!

d. If the Default User profile was set up to include an already launched installation, this needs to be scrapped also. Either re-work the Default User profile by renaming (or, preferably, deleting) these files there as well, or start over on a new machine with a "virgin" Default User profile.

e. Launch WordPerfect again. This should invoke the configuration process again, pulling settings from both the Default User profile and the installation source files. Again, be sure to have whatever source was initially used handy or this process will stop halfway and you¡¦ll have to back out

That typically does it for us. If it does work, you can then go back to the other keys/folders and pull whatever settings you may need. If settings are unimportant, or you already moved them, or you are anal retentive (like me), it is not a problem at this point to delete the renamed folders. On the other hand, it does not seem to mess anything up to leave them on the PC renamed. If you think that sounds fun, just wait until you have to migrate settings from 8 to 9/10. It's a hoot!

Also, if you are trying to figure out how much fun it will be to visit every stinking PC in your entire company/enterprise with the stupid CD in order to do this, I strongly encourage you to try using a Network installation instead. That way, when a user runs WordPerfect for the first time, the CD is not needed and no prompt is give--it just intelligently pulls the files it needs from the original installation location.

To be fair, I will give Corel partial kudos for at least employing Windows Installer technology in version 10 (at least, I can't remember for 9 and before), which means that (in theory, anyway) it can be remotely administered and installed from a central location on a network. This can be used to install WordPerfect to all PC's with whatever components/options you want (though it still needs to be done using a system account or administrator account). One caveat however--if you are using Paradox in your build, test this approach and take Paradox for a test run after installing before going hog wild with the rollout. As I recall there are some post-install updates that must be run on Paradox just to get it to run...though these may not have been peculiar to the Network installation method. This even worked surprisingly well in version 8 back in the days of Windows98. Oh, would that things were so simple again...

Hopefully this spares somebody the toils of dealing with the foolish cat-and-mouse games we had to go through to get this to work here. This was frustrating some of us to the point of tears at points. Good luck! (no, I'm not bitter!)


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

 

[DallasKelsey]

SORRY in my last post...in step number 7c, *don't* change \\HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Corel, but rather
\\[COLOR=##ff0000]HKey_Local_User[/color]\Software\Corel. My bad...

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

 

[rytis]

We worked on this througout the summer and actually got WP8 to work on our 2000 and XP professional workstations. As was said earlier, Corel support is non-existent, or consists of "Buy 12!".

We downloaded copies of filemon and regmon, which are great tools for telling you what is being hit when an app runs. Ran these as admin on a development box, and fired up WP. Tons of info generated. Granted you have to filter like mad (turn off as many services as you can so you only see what wp is doing), because the output goes into the thousands of lines in no time, but it gave us lots of great info to work with.

Besides the obvious of giving users full access to the Corel folder and the HKLM\Corel reg keys, we found a couple dozen other keys. We only use the Word Processor, not the entire suite, but even that took months to figure out and test through. Then when finished we put together a security profile which we apply on workstations.

We also found that we need to initialize both WP and the macro editor Perfect Script as Admin, then apply the security template. Likewise, we had to have a printer added, WP8 does not like a pc with no printer defined.

Some of the tougher keys to find and give access to included HKCR\wp8doc, wordperfect.perfectscript, coreloffice.writingtools, etc. There were two files in the Windows folder that users needed access to:

\windows\pfp80jpr.{pb
\windows\pfp80jcm.{pb

We generally only have one user per workstation, so profile migration has not been an issue for us... yet. But we'll see.

I've had to troll the net, corels's newsgroups, etc. for simple answers. It's sad there was not one site. Google's archives of the corel newsgroup helped too. So far so good.

Rytis

 

[tryingeverything]

Well, let me ask/add another twist. We use Novell zenworks to "roll out" applications including WP Office 2000. Some of our PCs are now Windows 2K machines. Our problem now is that as an administrator we "roll out" the application, but when a new user logs onto that PC WP has to be "verified" (reset) for that user profile. We have PCs that have a potential of 80 users that can log onto any PC. "roaming" profiles don't work for us.

Does anyone know of a way to set up default user OR all user profiles to contain the writing tools, etc. so that each user doesn't have to have their user profile updated on that machine the first time they log on.

 

[DallasKelsey]

Not to sound like I'm hopelessly beating a (broken) drum, but I believe support for centralized preferences/profiles came with official "support" in a later iteration, possibly version 10 or at least 9 SP 4. One idea might be to get a copy of the current version, and see how this function is utilized in it. It may then be possible to kludge version 9 into working in the same way.

What about the standard approach of setting up the PC's default user profile, making whatever changes/enhancements are necessary security/and otherwise in order to get all the applications running, then making that the Default User profile for the machine? Alternatively, you could possibly script the registry/file security changes that apply? You could probably utlize some sort of third-party data synchronization tool to keep all the files synchronized, but it's strange that with 80 roaming users, you can have 0 roaming profiles, no?

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

 

[jimbuddy]

Actaully, wp9 has 3 service packs that you can download from their site. the 4th service pack is not a download and has to be sent from corel.. fact wp9 does run on xp but has issues. if you search on corels web site or feel the need to talk to there support people. you will find that wp9 is not supported in xp and corel will tell that.

corel article (753976.

thanks for reading.

 

[jimbuddy]

the link to corel

http://support.corel.com/scripts/ri...in=&p_li=&p_faqid=753976&p_created=1070476417

 

[Tawnee]

I found a fix that worked for me so hopefully you might find it helpful.

We're running Wordperfect9 on Win XP pro...

Change permissions in the registry so the user has full rights to \\HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Corel

Change permissions on the local hard drive so the user has full rights to c:\Program Files\Corel

GO to Start-Programs and RIGHT click Wordperfect and choose properties. Click the compatability tab- choose to run in compatability mode as Win98/Win ME.

Click OK and log in as the user. It worked for me... Good Luck....

 

[voltus]

Tawnee suggestion works wonderfully, but still one more problem, I could not print anything from wordperfect. This problem does not happen when I use the admin to run wordperfect. Any suggestion on this ?? Thanks in advance ..

 

[Tawnee]

Voltus-
What's the printing problem? I know here I had a problem with WordPerfect not recognizing network printers when a users logged in. When logged in as admin, when I hit print, nothing happened, WordPerfect crashes, no errors, no printer screen. I installed a SP for WordPerfect office suite which fixed my printing problems as admin, but took away the writing tools made no effect on standard users... I'm still playing around with it- so if you have any ideas...

 

[Tawnee]

Voltus,
I hadn't been made aware of any printing problems from users so I tested it on my machine. Logged in as admin, it crashed when I tried to print. Logged in as a user, it didn't recognize the network printers (but didn't crash).
I installed a SP for Wordperfect office suite which fixed my printing problem logged in as admin but blew away my writing tools.
SP had no effect on user, writing tools still work and printers still not recognized.
Is this the same issue you're having? With network printers? I'm still playing around with things here so I'll let you know if I figure it out.

 

[khobson]

Check your windows evironment path for temporary files. This is usually c:\tmp or c:\temp. Allow all users permission to those folders.

Otherwise, a reinstall of the print driver may be needed.

 

[voltus]

Tawnee,
When I log in as admin, no problem at all, I can open documents and print from network printer (I have never used the writing tools).
When I log in as user, after following your recommendation, I could open up word perfect, but the problem is when I print, I could see the network printer in the printer list(recognized) but nothing gets to print.

Thanks Tawnee.
PS.Khobson, I will try your suggestion, and will let you guys know about it. Thanks all ...

 

[voltus]

Khobson,

Tried your suggestion, but still no luck with the printing.

 

[khobson]

You need wp9 service pack 4 installed for it to work in xp properly. Click Help and then About in wp. You need 9.00.883. See this link for more details:

http://wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4818

 

[khobson]

You can also review this link for printer problem troubleshooting.

http://wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3905&perpage=10&pagenumber=1