How do I fix this...

I don't know quite what to call this problem but...

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?

Thanks!

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Jim Thompson wrote:

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?

Perhaps a config setting in the application to allow only 1 instance of
it. Or perhaps it is an old version which is not supported on Win7.

http://www.orcad.com/resources/orcad-downloads
General development and support for the OrCAD PSpice® Schematics
product has been discontinued. We will, however, continue distribution
of PSpice Schematics as a download as an aid to our customers who wish
to continue using it. *(NOTE: Schematics can only be run on 32-bit
Operating Systems; Windows 7 and earlier)*.

You never mentioned the program's version. Pspice is up to version 16.6
released 25-Sep-2012 before getting discontinued. For whatever version
you have, you should check its system requirements. There are also
Student and Professional editions. Presumably the Pro version has more
features than the Student version. Which edition did you have on
Windows XP and which edition on Windows 7? Same version on each? Is
there an .ini file you can copy from Windows XP to Windows 7 to make
sure the separate installations use the same configuration?

I found some folks asking about PSpice over at:
http://community.cadence.com/cadence...gy_forums/f/27

On Sun, 1 Nov 2015 13:56:06 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?

Perhaps a config setting in the application to allow only 1 instance of
it. Or perhaps it is an old version which is not supported on Win7.

In WinXp there was only one _instance_, but two windows in that
instance.


http://www.orcad.com/resources/orcad-downloads
General development and support for the OrCAD PSpice® Schematics
product has been discontinued. We will, however, continue distribution
of PSpice Schematics as a download as an aid to our customers who wish
to continue using it. *(NOTE: Schematics can only be run on 32-bit
Operating Systems; Windows 7 and earlier)*.

I'm running v15.7 professional.


You never mentioned the program's version. Pspice is up to version 16.6
released 25-Sep-2012 before getting discontinued. For whatever version
you have, you should check its system requirements. There are also
Student and Professional editions. Presumably the Pro version has more
features than the Student version. Which edition did you have on
Windows XP and which edition on Windows 7? Same version on each? Is
there an .ini file you can copy from Windows XP to Windows 7 to make
sure the separate installations use the same configuration?

Yep, exact same INI file.


I found some folks asking about PSpice over at:
http://community.cadence.com/cadence...gy_forums/f/27

Thanks, I'll try there.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Jim Thompson wrote:
I don't know quite what to call this problem but...

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?

Thanks!

...Jim Thompson

Try a search on

"windows 7 double click opens window but not file"

I could find a few similar reports, but with different
programs. One poster here, thinks the file association
for matlab, points to the wrong binary file (like, to
a wrapper file, rather than a true binary, or vice versa).

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentr...space-in-win-7

So perhaps the issue has to do with the registry
entry for the file association.

You could try a search on

"pspice file association"

but the results don't look very interesting.

Paul

On Sun, 01 Nov 2015 19:31:22 -0500, Paul wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
I don't know quite what to call this problem but...

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?

Thanks!

...Jim Thompson

Try a search on

"windows 7 double click opens window but not file"

I could find a few similar reports, but with different
programs. One poster here, thinks the file association
for matlab, points to the wrong binary file (like, to
a wrapper file, rather than a true binary, or vice versa).

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentr...space-in-win-7

So perhaps the issue has to do with the registry
entry for the file association.

You could try a search on

"pspice file association"

but the results don't look very interesting.

Paul


Thanks, Paul! Certainly there's a fix... and, at my age, 75, Win7 is
likely my last OS... I just switched to Win7 last month :-}

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Jim Thompson wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer) would
open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic. Clicking
on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second file as
well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a
royal PITA.

How do I fix this?

Perhaps a config setting in the application to allow only 1 instance
of it. Or perhaps it is an old version which is not supported on
Win7.

In WinXp there was only one _instance_, but two windows in that
instance.

That means the program uses an MDI (multiple document interface) to show
a window for each doc rather than SDI (single document interface) mode.

Sometimes a program that opens another window forgets to set focus to
that window (i.e., sets its z-axis to zero) so it is on top. With the
1st window open, double-click on the file which you expect should open a
2nd windows, and then move the 1st window around. Maybe the 2nd window
opened but it is beneath the 1st window.

Another cause for not seeing a window is that it previously got
positioned outside the screen area. It is open but off screen. When
you look at the icons in the Windows taskbar and hover the mouse over
the one for PSpice, is there 1 or 2 icons for windows of PSpice? If the
2nd window is offscreen, use Alt+Tab to select that window and hit
Alt+Spacebar to open its control menu even though you won't see it. Hit
M to select Move the window and use the arrow keys to move the window
around. You might get a piece of it onscreen so you can drag it in.
Alternatively, you could right-click on the Windows taskbar and select
to tile or cascade the currently open windows. That will move offscreen
windows to onscreen.

I Task Manager's Processes tab, you should see the memory footprint of
the PSpice program go up when you open the 2nd document. Does it?

On Sun, 1 Nov 2015 22:28:38 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer) would
open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic. Clicking
on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second file as
well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a
royal PITA.

How do I fix this?

Perhaps a config setting in the application to allow only 1 instance
of it. Or perhaps it is an old version which is not supported on
Win7.

In WinXp there was only one _instance_, but two windows in that
instance.

That means the program uses an MDI (multiple document interface) to show
a window for each doc rather than SDI (single document interface) mode.

Sometimes a program that opens another window forgets to set focus to
that window (i.e., sets its z-axis to zero) so it is on top. With the
1st window open, double-click on the file which you expect should open a
2nd windows, and then move the 1st window around. Maybe the 2nd window
opened but it is beneath the 1st window.

Nope. The windows are always within the "cage" of the PSpice
Schematics editor.

From within PSpice Schematics I can do file/open, and open another
window... just doesn't work from Explorer.


Another cause for not seeing a window is that it previously got
positioned outside the screen area. It is open but off screen. When
you look at the icons in the Windows taskbar and hover the mouse over
the one for PSpice, is there 1 or 2 icons for windows of PSpice? If the
2nd window is offscreen, use Alt+Tab to select that window and hit
Alt+Spacebar to open its control menu even though you won't see it. Hit
M to select Move the window and use the arrow keys to move the window
around. You might get a piece of it onscreen so you can drag it in.
Alternatively, you could right-click on the Windows taskbar and select
to tile or cascade the currently open windows. That will move offscreen
windows to onscreen.

I Task Manager's Processes tab, you should see the memory footprint of
the PSpice program go up when you open the 2nd document. Does it?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:22:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 01 Nov 2015 12:13:47 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I don't know quite what to call this problem but...

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?

I do not have a copy of the Orcad software you are using; but, I encountered a similar issue with Adobe
Acrobat Pro. To resolve the issue in Acrobat, I accessed "Preferences", "advanced security settings" and
disabled the "Sandbox Protections" - "Protected View".

If you root around in Orcad, you might find a similar option. Good luck.

I tried to install my old Adobe Acrobat Pro v7 to Win7 and it threw
all kinds of crap, refused my license... would only run "trial"...
tried to suck me into "subscription" licensing... tossed it.

Bought Foxit PhantomPDF on sale for $57.85... far superior product.

PSpice Schematics is old-school, runs on an ini file. No
"preferences" drop-down anywhere.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:22:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 01 Nov 2015 12:13:47 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I don't know quite what to call this problem but...

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?
I do not have a copy of the Orcad software you are using; but, I encountered a similar issue with Adobe
Acrobat Pro. To resolve the issue in Acrobat, I accessed "Preferences", "advanced security settings" and
disabled the "Sandbox Protections" - "Protected View".

If you root around in Orcad, you might find a similar option. Good luck.

I tried to install my old Adobe Acrobat Pro v7 to Win7 and it threw
all kinds of crap, refused my license... would only run "trial"...
tried to suck me into "subscription" licensing... tossed it.

Bought Foxit PhantomPDF on sale for $57.85... far superior product.

PSpice Schematics is old-school, runs on an ini file. No
"preferences" drop-down anywhere.

...Jim Thompson

I'm guessing the software you're using, would be something
like this.

http://www.orcad.com/resources/orcad-downloads

"OrCAD PSpice Schematics Installer

General development and support for the OrCAD PSpice
Schematics product has been discontinued. We will, however,
continue distribution of PSpice Schematics as a download as
an aid to our customers who wish to continue using it.
(NOTE: Schematics can only be run on 32-bit Operating Systems;
Windows 7 and earlier).

You are strongly urged to fulfill your simulation circuit entry
needs with OrCAD Capture.

Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.6
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.5
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.3
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.2
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.0
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 15.7 ---
"

Each of those is a stub installer, that refuses to install unless
some existing software products are already installed. So I can't
test that.

*******

I can test Orcad Capture.

I installed ORCAD157Demo.exe (713,178,112 bytes) and
the capture.exe call in the start menu is:

C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\capture\capture.exe -CIS -i "C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\Capture"

The bizarre part for that one, is a second invocation is
not interested in allowing *any* command line options
except the file to be opened. Like

capture.exe foo.dsn

If you enter the first form, it tries to open "-CIS" as a
data file, rather than interpreting it as a command line
option.

The %path% the tool installed was:

%SystemRoot%\system32;
%SystemRoot%;
%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\specctra\bin;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\PSpice;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\PSpice\Library;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\Capture;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\fet\bin;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\bin
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\pcb

By not installing in Program Files like an ordinary program,
the program can write anything it wants into the OrCAD tree.
Including leaving .DSN and .opj files in the capture folder
(files with no file name and just an extension).

*******

Now, when you double-click the file, the OS uses the file
type association, to launch a program. So what do I see
here in Windows 7 for OrCAD Capture ?

I see that a file ending in .DSN, if I do Properties on
it, it says:

Data Source Name
Opens with: Unknown application

so no association was set up by the program installer.
I could change that I suppose, so the associated program
would be

C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\capture\capture.exe

with no command line arguments. And then maybe the
thing would work.

I suspect the file association for your .scn for the
PSpice Schematics program, is defined. And you'll need
to look at it to see how it is set up.

To see how file associations work, you can look at some
samples here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...s-restore.html

I've only copied a tiny bit of a .reg file from
the page. This one is part of the default association
of a .bmp file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp]
"Content Type"="image/bmp"
@="Paint.Picture"
"PerceivedType"="image"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\OpenWithList\MSPaint.exe]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\ShellNew]
"ItemName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74 ,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,\
6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65 ,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,6d,00,73,00,70,00,61,00,69,00,6e,00,74,00,2e,00 ,65,00,78,00,65,00,2c,00,\
2d,00,35,00,39,00,34,00,31,00,34,00,00,00
"NullFile"=""

The chunk at the end, is not binary. That is actually
a text string, consisting of double-byte text. Since
the string is actually ASCII where I live, every second
byte is 0x00 and can be ignored. The other bytes
are then ASCII encoded, and you can look them up
for their ASCII equivalent. "@%systemroot%\system"
and so on.

So to start, I'd be very interested in what
Regedit shows for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT tree,
for the .scn extension.

*******

Since my first invocation of capture takes different
parameters than the second invocation, it means
I cannot (safely) double-click a file like a
..DSN if OrCAD isn't already running. Since the
invocations may require different parameters.

When I was testing this, my attempts to execute capture.exe
commands resulted in no visible effect. But
after issuing enough commands, an error dialog
popped up, where capture had accessed memory outside
the valid area. So it had actually been alive all
along, but was "hiding".

This is definitely old-school software. And it's
a good thing it played "chicken" and installed
in C:\OrCAD rather than in Program Files area,
since it would never get away with abusing that
area with the approach it is using.

You may be able to fix it. Since I don't have
a copy of PSpice Schematics installed, I'm just
guessing that the same people who designed that,
designed OrCAD Capture CIS. You could start with
the file association, and compare what is there,
versus doing properties on the Start Menu
item, which may be passing actual parameters
to start the program for the first time.

The environment is chock-full of configuration
possibilities. The Start Menu shortcut explicitly
spelled out the path, even though the installer
has also messed with %path% and put all the necessary
pointers in there. And in the Capture install folder,
is a Capture.ini file which is filled with pointers
to make the software work. So it's loaded with
configuration possibilities. And didn't seem to leave
anything to chance, except for the file association.
Do properties on the .scn file of your choice and
see if any file association is present. Because
double-clicking on that .scn file, will be using
the file association to control launching.

Paul

On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 11:50:52 -0500, Paul wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:22:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 01 Nov 2015 12:13:47 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I don't know quite what to call this problem but...

In WinXP double clicking a PSpice Schematic file (in Explorer)
would open the PSpice schematic editor and load that schematic.
Clicking on a second schematic (in Explorer) would load that second
file as well (in an new window in the schematic editor).

In Win7, the first file is loaded... the second double-click just
brings the editor back up, but doesn't load the second file... a royal
PITA.

How do I fix this?
I do not have a copy of the Orcad software you are using; but, I encountered a similar issue with Adobe
Acrobat Pro. To resolve the issue in Acrobat, I accessed "Preferences", "advanced security settings" and
disabled the "Sandbox Protections" - "Protected View".

If you root around in Orcad, you might find a similar option. Good luck.

I tried to install my old Adobe Acrobat Pro v7 to Win7 and it threw
all kinds of crap, refused my license... would only run "trial"...
tried to suck me into "subscription" licensing... tossed it.

Bought Foxit PhantomPDF on sale for $57.85... far superior product.

PSpice Schematics is old-school, runs on an ini file. No
"preferences" drop-down anywhere.

...Jim Thompson

I'm guessing the software you're using, would be something
like this.

http://www.orcad.com/resources/orcad-downloads

"OrCAD PSpice Schematics Installer

General development and support for the OrCAD PSpice
Schematics product has been discontinued. We will, however,
continue distribution of PSpice Schematics as a download as
an aid to our customers who wish to continue using it.
(NOTE: Schematics can only be run on 32-bit Operating Systems;
Windows 7 and earlier).

You are strongly urged to fulfill your simulation circuit entry
needs with OrCAD Capture.

Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.6
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.5
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.3
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.2
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 16.0
Download the PSpice Schematics Executable ver 15.7 ---
"

Each of those is a stub installer, that refuses to install unless
some existing software products are already installed. So I can't
test that.

*******

I can test Orcad Capture.

I installed ORCAD157Demo.exe (713,178,112 bytes) and
the capture.exe call in the start menu is:

C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\capture\capture.ex e -CIS -i "C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\Capture"

The bizarre part for that one, is a second invocation is
not interested in allowing *any* command line options
except the file to be opened. Like

capture.exe foo.dsn

If you enter the first form, it tries to open "-CIS" as a
data file, rather than interpreting it as a command line
option.

The %path% the tool installed was:

%SystemRoot%\system32;
%SystemRoot%;
%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\specctra\bin;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\PSpice;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\PSpice\Library;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\Capture;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\fet\bin;
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\bin
C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\pcb

By not installing in Program Files like an ordinary program,
the program can write anything it wants into the OrCAD tree.
Including leaving .DSN and .opj files in the capture folder
(files with no file name and just an extension).

*******

Now, when you double-click the file, the OS uses the file
type association, to launch a program. So what do I see
here in Windows 7 for OrCAD Capture ?

I see that a file ending in .DSN, if I do Properties on
it, it says:

Data Source Name
Opens with: Unknown application

so no association was set up by the program installer.
I could change that I suppose, so the associated program
would be

C:\OrCAD\OrCAD_15.7_Demo\tools\capture\capture.ex e

with no command line arguments. And then maybe the
thing would work.

I suspect the file association for your .scn for the
PSpice Schematics program, is defined. And you'll need
to look at it to see how it is set up.

To see how file associations work, you can look at some
samples here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...s-restore.html

I've only copied a tiny bit of a .reg file from
the page. This one is part of the default association
of a .bmp file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp]
"Content Type"="image/bmp"
@="Paint.Picture"
"PerceivedType"="image"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\OpenWithList\MSPaint.exe]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\ShellNew]
"ItemName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74 ,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,\
6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65 ,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,6d,00,73,00,70,00,61,00,69,00,6e,00,74,00,2e,00 ,65,00,78,00,65,00,2c,00,\
2d,00,35,00,39,00,34,00,31,00,34,00,00,00
"NullFile"=""

The chunk at the end, is not binary. That is actually
a text string, consisting of double-byte text. Since
the string is actually ASCII where I live, every second
byte is 0x00 and can be ignored. The other bytes
are then ASCII encoded, and you can look them up
for their ASCII equivalent. "@%systemroot%\system"
and so on.

So to start, I'd be very interested in what
Regedit shows for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT tree,
for the .scn extension.

*******

Since my first invocation of capture takes different
parameters than the second invocation, it means
I cannot (safely) double-click a file like a
.DSN if OrCAD isn't already running. Since the
invocations may require different parameters.

When I was testing this, my attempts to execute capture.exe
commands resulted in no visible effect. But
after issuing enough commands, an error dialog
popped up, where capture had accessed memory outside
the valid area. So it had actually been alive all
along, but was "hiding".

This is definitely old-school software. And it's
a good thing it played "chicken" and installed
in C:\OrCAD rather than in Program Files area,
since it would never get away with abusing that
area with the approach it is using.

You may be able to fix it. Since I don't have
a copy of PSpice Schematics installed, I'm just
guessing that the same people who designed that,
designed OrCAD Capture CIS. You could start with
the file association, and compare what is there,
versus doing properties on the Start Menu
item, which may be passing actual parameters
to start the program for the first time.

The environment is chock-full of configuration
possibilities. The Start Menu shortcut explicitly
spelled out the path, even though the installer
has also messed with %path% and put all the necessary
pointers in there. And in the Capture install folder,
is a Capture.ini file which is filled with pointers
to make the software work. So it's loaded with
configuration possibilities. And didn't seem to leave
anything to chance, except for the file association.
Do properties on the .scn file of your choice and
see if any file association is present. Because
double-clicking on that .scn file, will be using
the file association to control launching.

Paul

Thanks, Paul! Lots of information!

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Jim Thompson wrote:


Thanks, Paul! Lots of information!

...Jim Thompson

I don't see anything right now, to suggest
why it would behave any different/better
on WinXP. The installation should behave
about the same on an older OS.

Paul

On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 13:25:07 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:09:38 +0100, FredW wrote:


Do you really think an OS (any OS) will last for 25 years?
Never happened, will never happen.


Unix has been around for well over 40 years now.


Yes, since 1969--46 years.

But that's like saying that Windows has been around since 1985--35
years. It's also true, but both statements are irrelevant to FredW's
correct statement "Do you really think an OS (any OS) will last for 25
years? Never happened, will never happen." Fred clearly was referring
to a *version* of an operating system, not just a name like Windows or
Unix.

On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 12:14:50 -0500, Paul wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:


Thanks, Paul! Lots of information!

...Jim Thompson

I don't see anything right now, to suggest
why it would behave any different/better
on WinXP. The installation should behave
about the same on an older OS.

Paul

When I installed the simulator portion of PSpice the installer
_did_not_ add the license path to the environment. Gave me heartburn
for awhile until I tracked it down and manually added it.

M$hit did something in Win7 that causes some registry and/or
environment things to not get written/written-properly :-(

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Mon, 02 Nov 2015 12:14:50 -0500, Paul wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:

Thanks, Paul! Lots of information!

...Jim Thompson
I don't see anything right now, to suggest
why it would behave any different/better
on WinXP. The installation should behave
about the same on an older OS.

Paul

When I installed the simulator portion of PSpice the installer
_did_not_ add the license path to the environment. Gave me heartburn
for awhile until I tracked it down and manually added it.

M$hit did something in Win7 that causes some registry and/or
environment things to not get written/written-properly :-(

...Jim Thompson

It's true that there are some differences in
how things work.

The general theme on the newer OSes, is it would
appear the boss at Microsoft said to the Microsoft
design community:

"I want you to use all the features we
put in this software"

In the case of the Registry, the Registry entries
actually have permissions. On the newer OSes,
you will find some entries belong to Trusted Installer
and not to the Administrator. This can make it a
challenge to modify things. If a naive program
installer comes along, maybe it bumps into
some portion of the Registry that is protected
that way.

A compliant installer, would call a "service" in the
OS to go and change things owned by TrustedInstaller.
I think the main purpose of this approach, is to
annoy end users when stuff breaks and needs to be
fixed. I don't really think it adds anything significant
to system security (it's like "security theater").

When the installer runs, there are some heuristics
that are used. I didn't know about this until just
yesterday. Apparently, a program can have a "manifest"
that says it needs to run elevated, run as administrator,
run at the highest level and so on. For older programs
that lack such a manifest, the Microsoft program loader
uses the file name as a hint. If it sees "setup.exe"
it launches the thing as Administrator, and
you see a UAC prompt on the screen. It may also
recognize certain name-brand installer packages
and "do the right thing" for them.

Now, imagine some old school, non-standard software
comes along. What if the heuristic fails and
some portion of the install doesn't get elevated ?
Then, the user might want to elevate the master
part of the install, to "help" the process.

Right-click the EXE, "Run As Administrator"

I did notice that when the OrCAD software started
to run, it tripped the Windows Firewall on outgoing
connections. Implying it was attempting to use
particular port numbers for license communication.
You have to be careful to tick the "yes" on those,
or it may prevent future attempts to contact a license
server. I don't know if this was for, say, a
floating license setup. But that's the first
time I've ever seen the Windows Firewall do
*anything* here. No other software tripped that
thing.

The newer versions of Windows have also been
carefully designed, to use *every* feature of the
NTFS file system. Including Alternate Streams.
Even when such things don't make a lot of sense,
and could be implemented in other ways. This
requires that users learn a lot about their
new OS, when setting things up.

Paul

En el artículo , Jim
Thompson escribió:

M$hit did something in Win7 that causes some registry and/or
environment things to not get written/written-properly :-(

Suggestions (I've not read all replies, apologies if these have already
been suggested):

* run the main pSpice executable in XP compatabile mode. Find the .exe
file, right-click, and choose "Troubleshoot compatability mode".

* try holding down Shift or Ctrl while you double-click the second
pSpice file to open it. Shift and Ctrl are behaviour modifiers - you
may find that does the trick.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")