Couple of problems...

[Ron]

Presently running ver. 8.7.1.1 and find that when a previously saved reading is recalled and displayed, all cards including reversed cards display the 'upright' comments. But, if I pull a card from the deck and reverse it, the reverse comments appear correctly. And now - all of the cards in the recalled reading display their comments correctly, upright and reversed!!

Perhaps this has been corrected in the latest version, but every time I attempt to install the upgrade a message appears, "The specified service already exists", and the installation aborts. I have tried everything to clear the computer of any files that may be causing this, including complete removal of the program and removing Registry files associated with the program without success. There must be a file somewhere that I'm unable to find. Some help will be appreciated.
Ron

[WebWeaver]

Hi Ron, what version of Windows are you running? Also did you use windows uninstall or did you delete files?

[Ron]

I'm running Windows XP with the service packs... No problems with any software. The Windows program delete function was used first without success, after which I deleted files manually and even deleted associated Registry entries - again without success. But, if I'm reading the update instructions correctly, program deletion isn't even required if you're using version 8 - the update proceeds automatically.

[WebWeaver]

I always just run the uninstall 1st, old habit I guess. I know that this has happened before. If my memory is serving me correctly it's the deck service that is causing the trouble. Richard may be able to help you more with this however if you want to try this it might work. Make sure you have deleted the entire Orphalese folder. Reboot. Make sure deckservice.exe isn't running in the background (ctrl-Alt-Delete), and try to install.

[Ron]

O.K. - Disableded Deckservice.exe, removed the entire Orphalese directory and tried the update with sme results. It should be noted that I downloaded the version without any card decks, but that shouldn't be the problem. Also, if I'm reading update instructions correctly, deleting the program should not be necessary if you're using ver. 8. Installation should be automatically handling this. It would be interesting to try obtaining just the 'Tarot.exe' file from an update, copying it into my directory and see if that works. Many thanks for your help. How do I contact Richard to carry this forward?
Ron

[WebWeaver]

Ok, now try using this utility. I would download the full program just to be sure when you reinstall you have everything you need. If after running the windows clean up utility, you are still receiving an error message, make sure to copy the exact error message back here. Richard does read the forum

[WebWeaver]

Also you can check this thread:
http://www.orphalese.willowsheart.co.uk ... eckservice

[Ron]

Here's what I did to work around the problem...
My laptop also had ver. 8.7.1.1 installed so I uninstalled it using a program called Revo Uninstaller which has excellent facilities for removing ALL traces of a program. Then I installed the update and it worked without difficulty. Now, all I did was copy all of the files from the updated directory into my desktop and it worked like a charm. But now I note that the bug that prompted me to update the program still exists in ver. 8.7.2.4. It appears that there are some registers that are not being initialized when the program is started.
Start Orphalese and hit f4 or f9 - nothing happens, but if you simply click the deck and then click those keys again they work properly. If you have a saved reading that contains reversed cards, start Orphalese, select a reading with reversed cards and note that the reversed cards display the comments for an upright card. Change the card to upright and back to reverse again and the problem persists. But now, pull a card from the deck, reverse it and the comments appear properly. And magically, the reversed cards in the displayed reading also display the comments correctly. Thanks again for all your assistance. I'm learning a lot about Orphalese and really like it. It's a nice piece of work.
Ron

[WebWeaver]

Start Orphalese and hit f4 or f9 - nothing happens, but if you simply click the deck and then click those keys again they work properly. If you have a saved reading that contains reversed cards, start Orphalese, select a reading with reversed cards and note that the reversed cards display the comments for an upright card. Change the card to upright and back to reverse again and the problem persists. But now, pull a card from the deck, reverse it and the comments appear properly. And magically, the reversed cards in the displayed reading also display the comments correctly. Thanks again for all your assistance. I'm learning a lot about Orphalese and really like it. It's a nice piece of work.

Hi Ron, glad you were able to get the program running :)
When the program is started, until you click on something it's not actually the "focused" program. You shouldn't have to click on the deck, clicking anywhere, or giving the program focus with an ALT-Tab should do it. As for the other issue I'm not having that problem. Are these "old" readings from previous versions of the program?

I did think when you explained how you got the program re-running, I remembered you had said you removed some keys from the registry. I'm not sure what that might do to how the program works, but it might make it a bit flaky.

[Programmer]

Hi Guys,

First of all, I haven't been able to recreate this bug with the reversed reading notes either. I created a reading with two upright cards and one reversed card, using the Traditional Tarot because it has both sets of notes. I saved the reading (without editing the notes), closed and reopened the program, laid it out and the reversed card displayed its notes reversed, as expected. I guess that means it must be something about the reading itself - Ron, do you want to send me the reading file (using the address administration "at" orphalese "dot" net) and I will see if there are any clues there?

As far as what happened when you dealt another card, that was the expected behaviour of the program. As soon as you start dealing more cards the program assumes that you want to go out of "reading mode" and reverts to normal functioning. The label that appears in the top left corner with the date of the reading disappears, and also the personalised reading notes with the green background are replaced by the ordinary program notes with the yellow background, which will display whatever notes are appropriate to the current orientation of the card.

As far as the installation issues are concerned, the best practice is always to uninstall the existing version of the program first. Sometimes it does uninstall automatically, but I think that depends on a number of issues including what version of Windows you are running, and what the previous version of the program was. If you only deleted the registry entries in the Current User part of the registry for Orphalese Tarot that should make no difference to anything. The program will just recreate the entries it needs. I am not surprised it didn't help with the de-installation issue though. Windows Installer keeps its own registry entries about installed programs but they are all in obscure, human-unreadable locations. From time to time people do have problems uninstalling, and I always point them toward the Windows Installation Cleanup utility which Shari mentioned. It sounds like the utility Ron mentioned would defintely be worth trying for anyone who has tried the official Windows one without success.

Cheers,
Richard