I am seeking more information about a client crash issue which appears to affect an increasing number of people (myself included).  I have tried submitting tickets, but so far there has been no response (about two weeks, not terribly long but I found a ticket of someone that appears to have a similar issue unresolved for five months, so my hope for timely assistance is understandably limited).  I speculate there may be an issue running the client on 64-bit Win 7 (probably more to it than that, I assume some/most people on such an OS are able to run Curse?).

Common solutions offered for this type of issue (that I assume were effective for some people inthe past, but have been tried with no success on the tickets I read) are:
- Update Windows (windowsupdate.microsoft.com)
- Clean install of Curse (delete the 2.0 folder from the app store, on Win 7/vista this is located at %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Apps)
- Clean install of .net framework 3.5 SP1 (remove corrupted installation with https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=27e6a35d1a492af7&id=27E6A35D1A492AF7%21390, then install from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=22)
- Clean the online app cache (rundll32 %windir%\system32\dfshim.dll CleanOnlineAppCache)
- Install .net framework 4.0

There are some tickets where people have taken more drastic steps (uninstalling their virus software, reinstalling windows fresh, etc) but these don't seem to have been effective.  The first ticket I found that seems to demonstrate the issue is dated 11/21/2011, but the issue really starts showing up in late February.  Here is a list of tickets that may match the issue, which I continue to monitor for any suggestions which might also help me.

Has anyone had a similar issue that was finally resolved that might hint at something more that could be done?  Does the Curse client normally run properly for anyone on newer computers?

I have 3 tickets currently, the first two were closed by automation saying it had detected me logging in (it wasn't from this computer, but it's possible one of my nephews has a Curse install that's using my account info on their laptops) so I opened a third in category "Other" to avoid the auto-close of the ticket:

http://clientsupport.curse.com/ticket.aspx?id=25447

I had been using AVG Free, but since that has had issues with Curse before (and was a potential cause of this issue), I uninstalled that and installed avast! since it was specifically recommended.  That didn't seem to help.

I've also tried deleting the 2.0 folder from the app store folder and doing a fresh install after, installed .net 3.5 SP1 (this installation did encounter errors the first time, but after using the cleaning tool and going to the microsoft site directly and doing the all-in-one install package instead of the upgrade it installed without complaint), and at some point I had tried .net 4.0 (3.5 was still installed at the time).  In all cases the error remains the same as I described in the tickets.

 

I have the same problem. I have tried uninstalling the client but it refuses to stay uninstalled. Every time I reboot my PC, Windows 7 asks me if I want to install Curse Client. I don't want to try a reinstallation until I am sure that I have stripped out all of the corrupted version.

Possibly irrelevant but it might add to the debate: this web site does not work for me on the main PC in Firefox, even though I have enabled cookies and Javascript for curse.com. It works fine if I type this in IE (which I use for all "unsafe" work). With that and the apparent issue that they have with AV software, do you think that the client may be trying to do something that it ought not to and then crashing when the AV and firewalls refuse to cooperate?

I didn't specifically mention my firewall settings in the post earlier (more requested info).  I assume avast! disables the Windows firewall and runs its own, but I haven't learned it well enough yet to confirm that.

To add on to what peck797 commented, I haven't specifically attempted to reboot without having already reinstalled Curse, but it's possible I may well see it try to reinstall if I reboot after deleting the 2.0 folder.  Would anyone know a more complete way to perform an uninstall on Curse to completely remove it in case lingering parts of the install are the cause?

A bit of paranoia is a healthy thing when operating on the internet, but I'm currently satisfied to believe they've gone with their design choices (in both the app and their webpage) for the simple purpose of ensuring proper display of ads.  I don't begrudge a company that provides a free service taking steps to secure their revenue stream, and simple economics ensures that they will have to balance that with customer satisfaction if they want people to view those adds.  My concern was simply that a (possibly large and growing) number of people have been unable to use the Curse app and will continue to be unable to do so until the company is aware of the issue and able to address it.  It was deleted from above, but I had listed some 30 or more tickets (most of them unreplied to) of people that seemed to have the same problem.  There are probably multiples of that number of people that cannot use the app but do not submit tickets.  Just wanted anyone with this issue that finds this post to know they're not alone.

I code software for a living, so I understand the difficulty in addressing some issues.  If this is something they can't reproduce internally, finding a fix is a bit like trying to rebuild a car's engine working from the tailpipe.  I'm willing to provide more information if they can identify anything that will help.  Maybe there's something unique to a few dozen users that their software simply won't work for us (ever), it happens.  If that's the case we'll just have to manually seek out our addon updates (I've probably already spent more time on this issue than I will ever save in the convience of the tool :))

I'll try to remember to check back with this post and my ticket now and then to see if anything comes of it, and I'll return if it suddenly starts working for me so I can share any helpful information.