I have a strange set of problems with Audacity: version 2.0.4 running (or not running) on Windows 7.
It was fine. Then onetime when I tried to start it it apparently wouldn’t start. However when I looked in Task Manager the process audacity.exe was running. But it wouldn’t stop when I tried to stop it. I uninstalled Audacity using Control Panel, though it wouldn’t fully uninstall and the process remained active in Task manager. I did a scan but found no issues. I tried to reinstall it and got various messages about problems which I won’t try to list. I tried to manually remove audacity.exe but the computer told me the process was in use in a version of Audacity already running.
The only way to stop the process audacity.exe was/is to switch off the computer (and I think disconnect it from the mains). I did this and then uninstalled or manually removed all the relevant files that I could see (couldn’t think of anything else to do being ignorant) including audacity.exe and the Audacity folder. Then I reinstalled it from http://audacityteam.org/download/ using audacity-win-2.0.4.exe. Everything went fine. But (you’ve guessed it) Audacity wouldn’t start and the same cycle of problems and messages started again. I went through this process a couple of times. I did notice that in Task Manager the installer seemed to be running twice…eventually I removed one but it didn’t seem to help in the end.
So somehow I seem to always end up with an invisible version of Audacity running. I realise that this problem has probably nothing specifically to do with Audacity but is a confusion in the machine, but any suggestions would be gratefully received! It’s not life threatening (I hope) but I like Audacity.