You better hope that your copy of Capture One doesn't go to Trial Mode due to a problem with WMI and/or DCOM at a critical moment as Phase One will offer the helpful advice.... "Reinstall windows"

Now I know Phase One are not responsible for general/underlying faults on my machine... but Capture One is the only program that I noticed had stopped working and I doubt anyone would think favorably of a company that issues that sort of advice.

I have some technical skills with windows etc, so I was able to fix things, but my assistant, who opened the support case spent half an hour freeking out thinking that she had trashed the computer.

Microsoft provide a tool "WMIDiag" that got things sorted, but I think there are maybe two lessons here...

1) Phase One need to adjust the balance between anti-piracy and resiliance on their software
2) Phase One support need to expand their knowledge base to include more information on secondary issues that might cause a catastrophic failure of their software.

Ok point 2 sounds expensive to Phase One, but for a Raw Processor it isnt cheap, it's essential for use with their VERY uncheap digital backs and is business critical.

If reinstalling is ever the only way, you can do a system repair which is basically a reinstall without losing your files.

As a tech journalist I have reviewed literally hundreds of software packages. I learnt that whenever anti-piracy is a "feature" of a program it also becomes one of the leading failure points, especially at installation time.

Edmund

I've also been complaining on Phaseone forum about the same issue. I don't think they can fix it.

If you can be kind enough to share with us on how you solved it, I'm sure many will benefit. I know I will be extremely grateful. Thanks.

If the Capture One problem is because of a fault with WMI then google WMIDiag

I'm afraid its a very "technical" tool aond I wont list the steps I went through as it's likely to be machine specific, but there is lots of info out there.

Once unpacked to a directory there is a zero option...

cscript.exe WMIDiag.vbs CheckConsistency

Which fixes what it can and throws the rest away, but of course that could make other hardware/programs unreliable. If it introduces hardware problems, then re-installing drivers should help and hopefully re-installing a few programs is less hassle than re-intalling the OS.

----I am aware of setting recovery points and backing up etc... however reminding anyone of this once the problem has happend does not contribute to finding a solution---

Microsoft and Phase One Form Strategic Alliance.....

http://www.phaseone.com/upload/phase_one_a...release_(2).pdf

So the future for phase users may be on a MS body and lenses ??

Do you think they now have enough money to actually for instance buy that contax machining

or does it just mean that Phase will have access to enough MS information to solve the probems outlined above ?

is this a big deal or a small deal?

S

Great, the XBOX360 with P45+ Killer combo.

Now if they would only take in my Wii maybe I would think about it

Not sure what it means. MS has always been not that difficult when you want to develop programmes for their OS.

Developer kits like MSDN, documentation, KB, tech support, everything is available. They are even willing to make public statements of partnerships.

Time will tell how far this cooperation goes and into what it results. Sure, MS is not a bad party to be with. MS has been buying promising technology since ages (how else can you spend 20Billion (US spelling) USD of net profit?). Maybe they have their eyes on the high-end photography market now.

Microsoft have been trying (hard) for a year now to get some of the photoshop market with their "expressions" suite. I like microsoft programming products, but their graphics products just suck.

On the otherhand while their uk/eu/us pricing policy isnt even, its no where near as bad as adobe.