Laptop GPS World

I've been reading all the problems that people are having. I too have the same problem. Not only with 2008 but I still had 2005 and it did the same thing after working fine for 6 months (registry not copied correctly). This happened about mid November. Did microsoft do something at that time that messed up some of us?

The early part of December is when I experienced the problem with 2008.

I bought 2007 and installed a little over a month ago and it is still working !!!

I'm just hoping it keeps going until we get home the first week in March.

I personally don't think it's near as good as Streets but you miight want to try

Microsoft "Live Search Maps" as a temporary help. It's free.

http://maps.live.com/

Wish you luck.

Regards,

Mike Flannigan

I used S&T 2006 last year and the year before, and it worked fine. For a while I had 2006 and 2008 both installed and 2006 worked and 2008 didn't. It looks as if I will be using 2006 this year too, unless I get Delorme.

I have not heard anything from Microsoft since Bijal's post in late December. It would be interesting to know if Microsoft is still working on the problem or is just ignoring us.

I have to assume they are not working on it or they just don't think they need to answer us people who are having a hard time with their software, that we paid for ????

Regards,

Mike Flannigan

tenbear: Did you call into tech support and try to follow up on your earlier dialog? Technical support is not done through forums, but one-on-one over email and phone. When individual employees post on forums, as bijal did, this sometimes creates unrealistic expectations that all further support will be done on the forum. I do not expect that bijal or anyone else from Microsoft tech support is reading this thread currently. You should contact tech support directly to follow up. If you don't have a case number, they might still be able to look it up given the appropriate details.

(Now, this is not to say that tech support people shouldn't monitor forums. Marvin mentioned PR a while ago in this thread. Actually, the line between PR and tech support is a thin one. An ostentatious show of public tech support can provide lots of good PR.)

Same comments to Mike Flannigan, plus the additional comment that you seem to have unrealistic expectations. To a certain extent, your inexperience with computers adds to this. Configuration/setup issues are the thorniest problems with user-installed software. Software is usually tested on clean computers: no viruses, no spyware, no junk. This is not a realistic simulation of the environment to which software is subjected in the real world. Recall the most recent post from bijal:

Translation: "Streets and Trips doesn't seem to be causing the problem. We can't find any apparent cause."

Now, I personally am not convinced that you can't find out the problem. It is really difficult to catch external problems, but not impossible. You can drop a monitoring program onto affected PCs. If you can then get S&T working again, you can check to see when these keys go away, and try to correlate that to some other activity. Typically, however, tech support does not have the expertise to do so, but the development team must get involved.

This is why I encourage anyone having problems to go to tech support. Mouthing off on forums may feel good, but it doesn't get the problem any closer to being solved.

I appreciate your comments and your criticism of my experience.

It seems to me that if it is not a problem with Streets & Trips 2008, instead of my computer, logic would dictate I would have NOT been able to install 2007 and have it run very well, as it is doing now.

I have installed Streets on at least 2 computers for the last eight to ten years and have NEVER had a problem.

If this is due to my negligence, why are there so many other users complaining about the same problem, about ONLY 2008 ??

Oh, by the way, why would I pay $35 for tech support for an item I only paid $37 for ????

TenBear did that and he has gotten nowhere ! He has the right to complain much more bitterly than I do.

I have "Advanced Windows Care V2" that I use frequently. At least once a week.

P.S. My computer has NEVER had a virus. I have been computing since my first Gateway in the early 90's, at least 5 to 8 hours daily.

I apologize for my ignorance.

Sincerely,

Mike Flannigan

S&T2008 has also died unexpectedly for me, and while I'm travelling, making it hard to try the old uninstall/reinstall tactic. Unlike most people, though, mine offers no error message at all, it just refuses to run. If I watch Task Manager closely it'll briefly appear and then disappear.

This started after the recent critical updates from Microsoft. Nothing else has changed on my system. Windows XP Professional.

I have tried using FileMon and RegMon to see if it was failing to find a file or registry key but found no real clues other than to suggest the problem might have to do with the software activation system in S&T 2008. If I delete the Automap registry key in HKCU/Software/Microsoft, S&T 2008 will run long enough to ask me to agree to the license agreement, ask if I want to register now or later, and then exits quietly as usual.

Nothing appears in the Event Viewer when I try to run it.

I have S&T 2007 at home, so when I get home in a few days I can try using 2008 data with 2007 software as others have done, but that doesn't help me right now, on the road, where I need S&T the most.

The timing of this problem, coinciding with Microsoft's recent updates, makes me wonder if a lot more people are in a similar situation (and maybe haven't even had a chance to notice yet). I sent M$ a bug report for what little good that is, but for now I am having to muddle through with Google Maps I can't even print out.

I had what I would consider the exact same problem. I also am traveling, for 3 months, I purchased Steets 2007 and installed it successfully and it is working fine, so far.

I'm not suggesting this is even close to Streets but it might be of help to you temporarily. Of course it is a web based program. You can print from it. It's free.

http://maps.live.com/

Luck,

Mike Flannigan

Can't print from here, no printer in the hotel room. For now I just get text directions from Google Maps and put them into my cell phone, and live without GPS. Feel a bit of a fool to have lugged all this stuff with me only to have it all stop working unexpectedly mid-trip, though, like so much dead weight. I probably won't get S&T working by Tuesday afternoon (my drive back to the airport), but it'd sure be nice.

I don't know how much time you want to spend on this. However, if you're interested you might want to look back at - bijal - and his first post where he said it is most likely a registry problem. With Marvin's help I found out that was the problem in my case.

Then if you'll look back four posts from here to - taoyue - his post says bifal says it doesn't look like a problem with Streets 2008.

Since I continually see more and more posts on this forum and on newsgroups regarding this same problem with 2008, I have to conclude Microsoft has decided to blame it on something other than their software ?????? You can draw your own conclusion.

I'm going to stay with 2007 and just write off the expenses and time I have spent on this.

Wish you luck.

Regards,

Mike Flannigan

I already put a lot of time into it, but clearing out the registry entirely didn't help. By default my registry looks like what bijal says is "right", and if I remove that and run S&T, it asks for the license agreement, leaves the registry like what he says is "wrong", and then behaves precisely the same as if it's "right". I think this is a new cause, related to software activation and the recent system update.

I'm not sure who suggested this - turn off UAC and insall. I did this and installed 2005. It worked. However when I turned UAC back on - it gave the registry copied.... I also was able to install 2008 and it works as long as I do not turn UAC on. Let me know if it works for anyone else. Bijal, would you be able to find out why this is happening? Thanks.

taoyue
I have not contacted tech support since the problem was escalated to the development team. I will try it tomorrow and see what they say. As far as I know my computer is clean, no virus, no spyware and no junk. Certainly something is different between S&T 2006 and 2008 since 2006 runs fine and 2008 doesn't, even when both were installed at the same time.

I agree that everyone with this problem should contact Microsoft tech support. That is the only way they will know the real extent of the problem.

Hunter Green
I received no error message when S&T died, it just refused to run. when I reinstalled it it got as far as the registration screen and no further. On subsequent attempts to run it, it just didn't run.

lynperry
S&T 2008 failed on my laptop running Win XP with no UAC. It ran fine on my desktop with Vista, UAC & all.

This morning I thought I would need to add into this already 6 page long thread that I just joined the growing group of people who own Streets & Trips 2008, but cannot use it.

Long story short: a few days ago I had a problem with my Windows Vista installation on my mobile computer, which necessitated me to reformat my hard drive and do a clean installation of Vista. I installed Vista last night. This morning I installed all recommended Windows updates. After that, the very first program I decided to install was Streets & Trips 2008. I inserted the Streets & Trips DVD into the PC, and proceeded with installation "the usual way". Installation completed, I then restarted my PC (just to be on the safe side), and then I attempted to start my newly installed S&T 08 on a new Vista. The program did NOT start(!). I went to the registry to check if it appeared to be the same issue talked about in this thread. Hmm, the registry looked OK(!), yet my S&T 08 does not want to start.

I managed to solve my starting problem rather quickly, and I will share here the simple step I took to do it. Perhaps it may help some readers (but I'm sure it will not help everyone).

I uninstalled S&T 08, restarted PC, and inserted DVD into PC. When I was prompted to start installation, I canceled and I didn't proceed with installation. Instead I opened Windows Explorer and navigated to my DVD drive D:\. I then right-clicked the file named DVDRun and from the menu that opened up I selected "Run as administrator". (I think I could have done the same with the Setup_ST application file to achieve the same.) MS Streets & Trips 2008 installed, and to my pleasant surprise it even started and it seems to work just fine.

I hope this may help at least a small percentage of people for whom S&T 2008 doesn't want to start after a seemingly successful installation.

__________________
Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Interesting clue. I'm logged on as an admin and my S&T has run fine for months before the recent Windows update turfed it, plus I don't have the DVD with me to do a reinstall, so I doubt it will help me. But I bet that when the coders look at the program they'll find it bailing out at the same point for both of us.