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jimnshell, My best guess at this moment is that your copy/burn process is creating the issue. As a TEST : Try downloading a PTE SHOW (or two ) from the BEECHBROOK SITE... these SHOWS are made by other PTE users/creators. Do your normal COPY/BURN routine as you did with your own creations. Test with these other SHOWS to verify if your ISSUE still persists. Beechbrook Site http://beechbrook.com/pte/ NOTE: TEMP Folders created by PTE for SHOW/PLAY are usually rewriten per each instance/execution. Therefore if a PTE_tmp folder is not auto deleted due to some closing/error/etc ... a new instance should not normally use the old existance anyway. However during your BUILD stages and using PREVIEW MODE of your Show ... Im not sure if ( I would have to verify) ... PTE does or does not rewrite the TEMP files used on each instance.

mikej998 Usually when you get the message of " Cannot Find ... etc" : Most likely you have some sort incorrect spelling or path location of the file named in the AUTORUN.INF Your INF is loading but does not know where or what to load ... Check all files for exact or correct spelling.

Welcome Ed You need supply a bit more details about SLIDE SHOW makeup so we have a better understanding . Since you seem to have the "Parameter is Incorrect" error on the same Slide # and using no MUSIC in this particular case ... your issue is most likely related to the IMAGE used or TIMING/TRANSISTION/DURATION or your use of OBJECTS (if used). Many things can bring about a "Parameter is Incorrect" error ... so more details of your IMAGES used ( size,depth,type,etc) and how you have configured your slide TIMING/TRANSISTION/DURATION. The better the details supplied ... makes it better to troubleshoot/isolate the issues and errors.

Sandee Thanks for the info. It seems your SHOW setting are very basic from your specs indicated. Images - 62-80 kb Mp3 1400kb Basic transition and duration settings. Sometimes when using overweight Images and extremely demanding Transitions ... I have seen cases where the SHOW freezes or locks and or sometimes contribute or cause the MP3 to stutter or skip. This issue can happen also on a HD Driven Show ... but mostly will become evident when trying to run a SHOW from the CDrom Drive. Speed of data transfer becomes the culprit. The CDR medium x -speed and the CDRom x-read speed create the beginning your data flow bottleneck. I would suggest you verify the problem SPECIFIC SLIDES and re-make the Images from their master/original Image ( dont reuse the current content images) ... you may have some sort of image problem or data corruption making the SHOW not flow consistantly/smoothly at CDRom read speeds. Most minor HD issues can become big CDRom problems when using CD Disc run Shows. Its just the nature of the beast. One last question .... are those problem SPECIFIC SLIDES containing lots of multiple objects ? ... if so ... I would reconfigure them.

mtops To assure your own curosity and needs ... Install the Latest PTE Version 4 into its own separate FOLDER. I currently still use 2 different versions from different folder locations. Once your happy ... just remove the older version. You shouldnt find any "MUCK -UPS" in any case Maybe one day ... "Pictures to Exe" will become "Multimedia to Exe" to satisfy everyone needs

The Hen that lays the Golden Egg ... you certainly pop em out and over easy !

Sandee Just a few questions about your MP3 and Slide Timing. -What Size (mb) is your MP3 ? -Has this MP3 been extracted, converted or edited in any way by you ? -Does your MP3 "Skip" randomly thru - out the SHOW ... or only at specific Slide #s and transitions ? (I assume the MP3 plays correctly ( just thru your media player only) on all PCs in your tests.) ----------------------------------------- Now, A few more about your PTE transitions and timing. -What "Type" of transistions have you selected ? -What is your Slide Timing (Display durations and your Transistion durations) ? ----------------------------------------- OK, One last Question ... -Have you selected internal or external player ? Thats it ... I just need a better overall picture to sort with

Welcome Sandee, Its almost impossible to help you with your troubleshooting and issues using the limiting details you supplied in your post. As Guido suggests ... please inform us of the relevant PC/Show details and particular settings used ... what/where "is" and what/where "is not" working properly. Im sure we all here can help you in some way ... to smooth over your bumpy start with PTE.

Ray ... Mine is starting on its way ... maybe from too much head scatching and thinking ?

I believe alot of your " Delay" issues is most likely as you have described. Too many files in same the place It is genereally good practice not to have large amounts ( especially large amounts of large sized files) in the same path location. Windows Explorer is reading all available data of each file before it displays it. Especially in "Full Detail View" and when the Icon Data is only in 32x32 format ... this format has to be converted to 16x16. Many programs do submit/include multiple icon data to avoid some of the conversion problems ... I suspect many PTE shows dont supply both formats. As a TEST : Create groups of new folders and place the EXE shows inside them ... thus eliminating massive amounts. Try your EXPLORER in different FILE VIEWS ... to see if the "Delay" behavior lessens. I myself, personally avoid putting to many of any files in the ROOT of any DRIVE. Also ... using any VIRUS PROGRAM ... will tend to delay the total process time ... especally exe files.

Which Windows OS do you have installed on your PC ? Something simple to try ( if you havent already tried ) : First try just changing the current COLOR DEPTH of your Desktop Settings to 256 color or 16 color . Reboot. Once Rebooted ... verify if the corrupted icon is/is not still displayed. (You may want to even ScanDisc your Drive Files) Change back your COLOR DEPTH to your own desired setting. Reboot. Also, If you use or have TWEAK UI ... run the ICON REPAIR tool . There are also some free Icon Repair Tools available. Try these simple methods ... before doing anything drastic. Sometimes they work. I will keep scratching my head too Also ... just do a quick check of the ROOT of your DRIVE and verify that you dont have any lingering AUTORUN.INF with Icon labeling laying about.

Mark If you cant find a copy of your registration file ... you can go to your Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and select/find within its tree structure HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PTE and export the registry key ... and then your good to go. Make sure you save this to a safe place for future use. Otherwise you will have to email support for your lost key.

Boxig Just a quick note and may help : In some cases on projects that Ive had problems with folder names having spaces ... using quotation marks "\..." in the path label has been useful. Therefore \MY DOCUMENTS would be labeled "\MY DOCUMENTS". May or may not work for you in your situation ... but worth a shot.

Hello Harry ... its been awhile Following Ken's great advise ( as always ) ... you better pick up serveral floppies ... better yet CDR or CDRW discs. Since your making quite a busineess now and performing many needs to clients ... better create backups of lots of your critical files.

Boxig , Thanks for reminding about the notepad limitations. Ive been using Winsyntax ( text editor) for quite sometime for most of my text based needs ... Ive totally forgot about the Notepad size limit. I also will have to check out your "ALL PTE" ... I need to get a bit reorganized in my project file management ...even though I been a bit lax in creating many .pte files lately. Hope all is well

sshort, You will find plenty of help on your whatever choice of sound editor you select to use from many here in the forum. Try also doing a TOPIC search on sound editors in this forum ... you will find plenty of posts to gather your needs and details in their uses. As for opening the .pte .... if you have a text based editor ( or even using Notepad ) ... open the Editor and click from its drop down menu options " OPEN" file. In using Windows Notepad.exe ... click "OPEN" ... but make your file filter for "ALL FILES" and not just ".TXT" files.

Hello, Billfranklin You'll find your best approach at the moment is by following Ken's previously posted comment ... and rebuild your show in stages and test each compiled version you create. Each time progressively add a new single (1) music file ... this way you will limit your troubleshooting issues. Since you are using WAV and MP3 ... best to take note ... what happens and where with each music file. Best to test each of the pieces ... when all the pieces combined dont work quite correct.

Welcome , sshort I believe your problem is that you are trying to save your .pte (project file) for use and to open in PS or PSP in some manner. This cannot be done ... the .pte file is a text based file and not an image based file that can be opened and edited within your various graphics programs. PTE does not save the images within the .pte file itself ... it only uses the destination path to your image files used where ever they may be. You can edit the .pte text contents with a text based editor or notepad. The .pte file has no images. Also the compiled (pte) exe file will not open within any graphic editor so as to edit its image content...

Charlie Seymour, Jr. I agree with Guido, it is indeed a very strange font issue when using a "Windowed Mode" display. Usually all objects and fonts maintain their relative position (x,y) in a Windowed Mode setting. Its usually when using "Full Screen" viewed at different resolutions is when you get shift displacement of objects ... this is due to the x,y positions now becoming relative to the viewers (users) pc Monitor screen settings (800, 1024, etc.) And Boxig is correct ... if the viewers (users) PC does not have the font within their own system that you used you will get font variations ... the normal action of MS OS is to use the default setting font ( font type,size, etc) on the users PC. PTE does not embed fonts or distribute them due to protective copywrite issues. Note : You may want to check your various pcs that the same exact font and version type are installed in all your pcs.

Mark, CDRom driven Shows wont match the Hard Drive driven Shows ... its has alot to do with read speed and transfer data rates . Also depending on type of CDR Disc used ( X speed capabilities) and the CDRom (X speed to read capabilities) Any program ... especially multimedia types ... run much differently (slower) from CD than when played directly from your PC. So whether you have a P4 or P2 etc ... your initial bottle -neck becomes the CDRom and CDR Discs capabilities. So in a basic analogy example ( a 200mph PC can not make a 50mph CD play at 200mph) Your only alternative is to copy the Show to the HARD DRIVE for playing or you might try relaxing your PTE Shows transistion and frame timing to something less demanding. Even then, you can not be assured of everyone playing your Show from the CD has the same results ... as there are so many various combinations of PC, CDRom, CD Disc speeds ( and thats just the beginning of what effects the issue)

As much as I hate the idea and name of "Wish Lists" (except at Christmas time ) ... they are basically required for all practical improvement purposes in any program developement. So let it be named as something like "Program Development Suggestions" or in similar fashion ... in its own category as Ken suggests. That way the history can archived/reviewed for "all" to see ... what "all" is wishing for ... "all" at the same time.

Tomuk, It wont be possible to gather all your resources used to make your "Created " slideshow from the compiled exe version. If you have have not disabled the "PRINTSCREEN" function within PTEs settings ... you can can use that "key" function to print your pictures one by one as your review your compiled show during its playmode. If you have disabled that "PRINTSCREEN" key function ... you will have to resort to using a graphics program with screen capture functions. You may have to resize/crop the new images ... pending how your original show was setup. You can get the music files you used from within "Windows Temp" folder during runtime of the exe. These music files are temp extracted only during runtime ... and then removed after your shows playmode closes. It is not possible to get a copy of the orig ".pte" build file you used to make your compiled .exe ... that hopefully you still have ... otherwise you start with a new one. So with images and music in hand ... you will have to recreate the .pte file, settings used and other objects you may have used from scratch again. Hope you still have your .pte file

Storybook, JRR has given you the basic answer to your needs and those PTE functions work well and just as intended ... but these functions are not going to totally protect your "works" from everyone with a desire. The Date Expire totally disables the compiled exe from playing ... thus when that set date arrives your "works" cease to open and no longer function. You can not restrict copy from a CD ... PTE doenst have any such function ... you must supply some other means that may be available in the market for this possibility ... even then theres no total protection against copy. As for "Image protection" ... PTE can not claim total protection of your works ... as there is numerous work arounds for the sauvy keyboard user using other programs that live among us . PTE can only restrict copy of printing of your images within its own program framework ... while its in compiled or playmode state. So in the real world ... if what your looking for is total protection ... you cant distribute.

Guido, Thats a good one ... you got me there. However, I have had on some very few occasions, CDs that kinda destroy (quit working) themselves ... without any effort or programing on my part ! ... I didnt even need to bend it or use screwdrivers ... really a self destroying way !

zaharia You can produce this function somewhat quite easily in some of the INSTALLER PROGRAMS available. I have used "Paquet Builder" to expire and destroy demos I have supplied. The "Paquet Builder" actually runs the show or program ( invisibly-you dont see any difference) ... as all needed program content is extracted when executed. You must also create/include a delete file (within the INSTALLER) to destroy the INSTALLER also. However, this only works from HARD DRIVE installled/copies .... as CDRs are READ ONLY and you cannot destroy or delete any files contained on the disc. Ever try to delete a CDR or its file contents ?