fails to launch on Windows 7

[kptame]

I downloaded Audacity a few weeks ago, it opened fine and I recorded some files.

Today I tried to reopen my project files, and nothing happened.

I tried to reopen Audacity, it told me it was already running, when nothing was showing on the screen.

So I uninstalled and reinstalled - still nothing.

So I uninstalled, and downloaded the 1.3 beta version with the same result.

What I mean by 'nothing' is that I click on the icon and nothing happens; nothing opens, nothing launches. If I go to the task manager, it doesn't show as a running application, but it does show in the Processes tab.

Please advise.

Thanks
Kim

[steve]

Uninstall 1.2.6, (it's very old and no longer maintained and on Windows it can interfere with Audacity 1.3.x opening)
Kill Audacity in the process tab (or reboot).
Then follow the instructions here to reset the Audacity 1.3.12 preferences http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audac ... defaults_2
Then restart Audacity.

[kptame]

Hi. Thank you.

I tried that, and still have exactly the same problem. Audacity will not launch.

Kim

[steve]

Have you tried running the audacity.exe file directly rather than launching Audacity from a link?

[kptame]

I posted this in the downloading and installation forum, now that seems to be locked.

Steve had started answering this.

I downloaded Audacity a few weeks ago, and made some project files. Now when I try to open the program, nothing happens; by which I mean nothing appears on the screen, nothing opens or launches.

If you click the icon again, it tells you Audacity is already running, when it isn't.

If you bring up Task Manager, it does not appear in the applications tab, but does appear in the Processes tab.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, and also altered the config file as Steve suggested.

I have also tried running the .exe file directly, rather than the desktop icon. Still nothing happens!

Very strange, when it worked perfectly well the day I downloaded it, but hasn't worked since.

Thank you
Kim

[kozikowski]

Good you're here in this section. Now you're at the mercy of the turning of the earth. The elves are all over the planet and it may take a bit of time for morning to come where they are. I'm in Los Angeles and I'm getting ready to go to bed. I'm a Mac elf, so I'm not going to be much help.

Do you have your Windows set to Automatic Update? Many people do and they post that they didn't change anything, but suddenly, Audacity fails. You may not have changed anything, but Microsoft may have.....

Do you have auto-updating virus software? Same problem.

Koz

[steve]

I've merged the previous topic with this one.

I use Windows (reluctantly) but only XP and Vista.

I presume that you do not get any error message when you first try to launch Audacity?

Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound (if you're using "Classic View" there's a direct link to "Sound" in the Control Panel), then click on the "Recording" tab.
You should see something similar to this:

Check in both the Playback tab and the Recording tab. What devices are listed in each?

Before trying to run Audacity check that it is not listed as a running process, and if it is, end it before trying to start Audacity properly.

It may also be worth trying Audacity in compatibility mode:
Right-click over audacity.exe, click Properties and change compatibility mode to Vista SP2 or XP SP3.