terrypin Posted December 19, 2017 Report Share Posted December 19, 2017 This problem started recently, with a macro that I've used without trouble for years in XP and the last 18 months in Win 10. It copies whatever image is on the clipboard to Paint Shop Pro 8. Here's the macro reduced to its essentials: Activate or Launch: Window "Jasc Paint Shop Pro", Program "Paint Shop Pro.exe", Parameters "" Clipboard Paste It does open PSP 8 and paste (slower than before) but then it refuses to stop. Running man continues. I have to close PSP 8 to stop it. In contrast, this macro opens, pastes to MS Paint, and the macro closes. Activate or Launch: Window "- Paint", Program "mspaint.exe", Parameters "" Clipboard Paste (No change with delays or using Ctrl+V instead of paste. Use Clipboard Hook is disabled. No change if enabled.) That points to PSP 8 as the culprit, or Win 10, or a combination. Yet if I manually paste into PSP 8, it works perfectly. I'll post in the Corel forum, but expect its experts will point to my macro program. Any thoughts please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amonaghan Posted December 20, 2017 Report Share Posted December 20, 2017 Terry, there have been 11 newer versions of PSP since ver 8. Maybe it is just a compatibility issue with Win10. Have you tried running it in compatibility mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted December 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2017 Thanks, appreciate the reply. But, yes, I did try compatibility mode (XP) last year, after similar discussions here. And just tried it again (for every option listed since XP too!) But that persistency issue remains. Also tried by first opening PSP 8 with a simple batch file as suggested in an older thread, but no change. Beginning to think that the last Win10 update is the cause. Apart from being otherwise happy with this ancient version, I have almost a hundred macros wriiten for use with it. Maybe a score in frequent use. So have been reluctant to update to current version. May reconsider if I can't fix this though! EDIT: The issue is the Activate or launch command. Unrelated to pasting. Running the folowing one-line macro Activate or Launch: Window "Jasc Paint Shop Pro", Program "Paint Shop Pro.exe", Parameters "" consistently: - prevents the macro from stopping - prevents MX Pro from closing - severely affects keystroke speed - and possibly other symptoms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted December 27, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2017 Anyone with any version of PaintShop Pro able to test this oustanding problem please? My macro: Activate or Launch: Window "Jasc Paint Shop Pro", Program "Paint Shop Pro.exe", Parameters "" My code for PSP 8: <ACTIVATE OR LAUNCH Title="Jasc Paint Shop Pro" Exact_Match="FALSE" Wildcards="FALSE" Path="C:\\program Files (x86)\\Jasc Software Inc\\Paint Shop Pro 8\\Paint Shop Pro.exe" Mode="\x00" Default_Path="TRUE" Wait="1" Wait_For_Program="12"/> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 No one able to test that? It would be useful to hear from users of any version of PaintShop Pro, ideally under Win 10. In growing desperation I paid for an 'upgrade' to PaintShop Pro 2018 - and greatly regret it. Like many other of its users running Windows 10, it has startup times sometimes running into minutes! So I'm stuck with being unable to use most of my PSP 8 macros because the Activate or Launch command freezes both PSP 8 and MX Pro until I close PSP 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amonaghan Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 Terry, I found a copy of PSP 9 lying around and the following works for me. Running man goes shortly after PSP starts up. <ACTIVATE OR LAUNCH Title="Jasc Paint Shop Pro" Exact_Match="FALSE" Wildcards="FALSE" Path="C:\\Users\\Alan\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Jasc Software\\Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9.lnk" Mode="\x00" Default_Path="TRUE" Wait="1" Wait_For_Program="12"/> Not sure if it matters, but I used a Shortkey (PSP). Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rberq Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 If the Launch command is freezing ME, you could try launching PaintShop Pro indirectly. Write a simple batch file "start_paintshop.bat" which consists of two lines: start c:\path\paintshoppro.exe exit Then in your macro, launch the batch file: ProgramLaunch c:\path\start_paintshop.bat You might need a brief pause after the launch for it to complete, or a short loop to mark time until PSP is running. Might work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 Thanks both. Although unfortunately I still have the problem, your posts triggered further fruitful experiment. Bottom line is that the 'freeze' of PSP 8 and ME is not indefinite. By accident (taking a brief phone call while still at my screen) I discovered that MX Pro does eventually close - after periods that varied during half a dozen subsequent tests from 55 to 150 seconds. Somewhat reminiscent of the PSP 2018 startup delays being discussed in the Corel PSP forum. @amonaghan: Are you running under Win 10? If so, what version? I just tried an equivalent mactro to yours (I'd never used a .LNK file in a Program Launch command before) but the delay remained. I tried activating by both a shortkey and in debug mode (F9). @rberg: I had tried the batch file approach, both using the Run box and Program Launch, but no joy. I've also tried a macro that clicks the PSP 8 shortcut pinned to my taskbar. During that long delay, MX Pro was unusable and unstoppable, yet CPU usage was not high. However, if I switched to my text editor or some other text target, keystrokes were very slow to apply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amonaghan Posted February 6, 2018 Report Share Posted February 6, 2018 Terry, I'm on Windows 10 Home Version 1709 build 16299.214 if it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2018 Thanks, same as my OS and version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cory Posted February 15, 2018 Report Share Posted February 15, 2018 Terry if you're doing conversions or something simple I recommend IrfanView. It has tons of command line options and can be run invisibly from MEP for many tasks. And even if you open it fully with MEP, it is a delight with MEP because most of the common commands are keyboard driven. E.G. "r" for rotate right and "l" for rotate left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2018 8 hours ago, Cory said: Terry if you're doing conversions or something simple I recommend IrfanView. It has tons of command line options and can be run invisibly from MEP for many tasks. And even if you open it fully with MEP, it is a delight with MEP because most of the common commands are keyboard driven. E.G. "r" for rotate right and "l" for rotate left. I'm a long term user of IrfanView and agree with you fully, Cory. Still need PSP for serious editing though. So it's frustrating that PSP 8 and MEP conflict in occasional obscure ways. As mentioned up-thread, I resorted to buying PSP 2018 because of that. A month on and I finally have it opening at tolerable speed, following recent Win 10 updates. But most of my macros would need editing so I'm still using PSP 8 for now and working around the issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cory Posted February 16, 2018 Report Share Posted February 16, 2018 I see that PSP has a scripting feature. Have you tried that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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