PhotoShop Elements 5 Fails to Start because of Quicktime - Fixed

PhotoShop Elements 5 Fails to Start
Now this is very strange and I will be glad if anyone can explain. I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 and before that 4 for several years. Then suddenly on the 26th it would not load, although it did work last time I used it a couple of days before. The Organiser (Organizer) started to load and when it got to "Initializing threads" it just disappeared. Rest of the system was fine, Even PSE 5 Editor could be started by clicking on file in Program Files folder but would not go to Organizer from within Editor either.

I un-installed and re-installed TWICE, no change. Followed some very detailed tips from Adobe Support pages that involved changing PSA (Catalogue) files and Windows XP register, but no change.

Adobe web pages then suggested to stop all start up programs via RUN MSCONFIG although I found it easier to do this through Windows Defender Software Tools.

Fix found (or rather stumbled across)

Then I saw somewhere a reference that CODECS can cause this. Now I had installed some unrelated utility that had also installed latest QuickTime so I tried to un-install this, which threw up an error message during un-install. Anyway tried to start PSE again and it went a bit further with a different error message this time (sorry forgot to note down error).

So I made sure it was un-installed by renaming "QuickTime "Folder in "Program Files" and what do you know, PSE 5 loaded fine!!

However next day back to same old problem. I noticed that the QuickTime icon was on my desk top again, some how it had installed itself. So again I un-installed it but again PSE disappeared at "Initializing Threads" stage. I discovered there was a new QuickTime folder next to the one I had renamed, I had renamed it QuickTime-delete-26-11. So rename this new one and PSE 5 works fine again.

Used Defender to remove QuickTime from Startup as opposed to just disabling it, so time will tell if it manages to get in the way again.

One bonus however was that whilst I was disabling Startup Programs I managed to find solution to unrelated problem of collapsing icons on desk top, see next post for detail,

Test Post

This is a short test to see how posts work.

Digital replaces film

Recently I decided to concentrate on digital photography only. Reasons being

1. Digital work was turning out much better than film
2. By dropping film I could sell many cameras and lens and other kit to fund new kit
3. Effort from capture to print is a loss less than film cameras.

Kit consists of

1. Nikon D80 and D70
2. AFS DX 18-70 3.5 4.5
3. AFS DX 55-200 f4 5.6 G
4. AF 50 f1.8 D
5. Sigma EX 105 f2.8 Macro
6. Tamron 500mm f8 mirror
7. Nikon AI 50 f3.5 macro
8. SB 600 flash
9. Canon A620 compact digital
10. Panasonic NV-GS180 Camcorder

Main Software

1. Windows XP
2. Adobe CS2
3. Pinnacle V10
4. looking at Nikon Capture NX