Eric'o'theque!
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Help for Windows Live Photo Gallery not starting on Windows Server 2008 (W2K8)

 

Problem: I installed Windows Live Essentials on my W2K8 box and it silently does nothing when I try to start it up. What to do?

Answer: (most likely) Install the Desktop Experience pack.

Since WLPG is a desktop program, you do need to make sure that some of the fundamental aspects of a desktop environment are present on your machine. The lean, mean W2K8 install doesn't have it by default. So when you go to start Windows Live Photo Gallery on W2K8 nothing seems to happen due to a dependency check and WLPG silently fails to launch.

A KB article with more details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969151

If that doesn't work for you, I'd like to know.

And, yes, I know: follow-up question: Dude, why didn't you let me know that's what I need to do vs. silently fail on me?

Sorry. I have excuses but none of them good. We decided to stop blocking the install on W2K8 since folks were bright enough to circumvent the installer and get the MSIs directly. This came up late and by then, for WLPG, it was a matter of timing and risk and shipping and localization blah blah blah etc.

Follow-up to the follow-up: are you going to fix this? Yes, it has been fixed and W2K8 users won't run into this when the next version is released.

 
Comments: Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link



<< Home
Eric Richards' place of techno (as in technology) happiness, rants, and corporate love. I work in Microsoft Office as a development lead.

My Photo
Name: Eric Richards
Location: Redmond, Washington, United States

Non-technical stuff going on with EricRi in the Northwest.

email: Eric_Richards at ericri dot com

Lots More About Eric.

Eric-isms
Archives
May 2005
August 2005
November 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
May 2008
July 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
June 2009

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The postings (and comments) here represent personal point of views and in no way represent the point of view or official opinions of my employer (Microsoft Corporation). The postings here are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. And if you're reading this blog, you're not only incredibly discerning, you're also knee-weakening good looking.


More blogs about Eric Richards.

Powered by Blogger