TC8.0RC1 invalid key

[Giovanni]

I just installed TC8.0RC1 32bit on a computer running Windows 7 Starter 32 bit. When I hit F4 to edit a .bat file I get the following message:

Code: Select all

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Totalcmd
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Your key is invalid. Please request a new one from newkey@ghisler.com!
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OK   
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The computer in question has not run TC before and there is no key file present in the install folder or ini file folder.

[sztihamer]

Unfortunately I can't reproduce with the .bat files I have in my machine. It just works fine on my 32 and 64bit copy of Total Commander. I tried to reproduce it without any keys in my application folder and it still works!

Can we get a copy of the .bat file you are trying to edit? If we still cannot reproduce the issue that means there's something wrong with your copy of Total Commander. It can be corrupted. Try reinstalling a clean copy and see if fixes the problem!

[Giovanni]

Thanks for testing - I shall try reinstalling as suggested. But the problem is intermittent, sometimes it happens, most of the time it does not, and it is not just .bat files either. I shall make further tests and see if I can find out what exactly triggers it.

[ghisler(Author)]

TC also tries to get the key from the directory where your wincmd.ini is located, maybe you have one there?

[Giovanni]

No, I checked all the usual places and the whole drive(s) too. No traces of wincmd.key or tcmdkey.zip anywhere. As I said, it's a fresh install (both Windows and TC).

[Flint]

Giovanni
You can try to watch what's happening via Process Monitor. Maybe it will cast some light on this problem…

[Giovanni]

I did try that, TC does randomly look for the key file but it never finds it.

[Flint]

Giovanni
What do you mean "randomly"? I strongly doubt that TC uses randomization to scan arbitrarily chosen places in the file system. If I met such problem I would try to find out the following:
1) Which particular places does TC search trying to find wincmd.key?
2) How does system react to these attempts? "File not found"? "Path not found"? Something else?
3) After which of the attempts does TC show the message? What is the difference between this particular system call and all the previous ones (which did not cause this message)? Inaccessible path, unusual error code, Unicode characters in the path, invalid symlink, etc. — there are many possible triggers which might be the source of the problem.

[Giovanni]

By randomly, I mean that it does not check for the keyfile every time that I hit F4 to edit a file. For example, it may check on the 4th, 15th and 21st attempts but not at other times. I doubt that TC would constantly check for the keyfile - that would be too time consuming for the application to do it for every single operation, as well as making it far too easy for certain types of people to circumvent the checks(!). When it does check, it systematically looks in the same places, ie (off the top of my head) install folder, ini folder, system folder. Process monitor does say that the file is not found, but the message does pop on on the particular system.

[ghisler(Author)]

Please try re-downloading TC from our own server:
http://www.ghisler.com/amazons3.php

I checked my code, and it aborts the check when the key file cannot be found, or reading from it fails.