Windower Won't Start At All

This might just be an easy problem, but it's beyond me, and searching both forums hasn't come up with anything, so I figured I'd ask here.

Just got a new laptop and attempting to get back into ffxi on it. Fresh installs of the game and windower and I'm unable to even start windower. It's not the white box issue, nor crashing at POL as seems to be the most common issues, mine will simply not load at all (crashes on the opening screen trying to update). Here's a copy/paste of the crash log from program files, something about not being able to read a file as a zip?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4/6/2017 6:21:00 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ionic.Zip.ZipException: Could not read C:\Program Files (x86)\Windower4\updates\temp\3a92c50e-79d9-472d-8456-7b1eccad93d3 as a zip file ---> Ionic.Zip.ZipException: Cannot read that as a ZipFile ---> Ionic.Zip.BadReadException: Could not read block - no data! (position 0x00000000)
at Ionic.Zip.SharedUtilities._ReadFourBytes(Stream s, String message)
at Ionic.Zip.ZipFile.ReadIntoInstance(ZipFile zf)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Ionic.Zip.ZipFile.ReadIntoInstance(ZipFile zf)
at Ionic.Zip.ZipFile._InitInstance(String zipFileName, TextWriter statusMessageWriter)
at Ionic.Zip.ZipFile..ctor(String fileName)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Ionic.Zip.ZipFile..ctor(String fileName)
at #=qLpkVB1CGzRPMrP$f9QWGqpJaIjQGe8BVG0zG9nlfpC0dr9l6BO0MlNAECVllWMUS.#=qbVcvel8s_GfYNuaNLT6Y8A==(#=qx24zpJDwDB2K$ccvulMnUAtqZtLL2_POy9O_ieP3rM0= #=qesQ7VZod4bj9I4wbI5_pfQ==, String #=qxVLWGx1RefFvW4Wowk$fXw==, String #=qPu0eYZ1UrZrw4Zy6fzmIzw==, String #=q0t38DsbfsX$B9JU8sFf7cQ==)
at #=qLpkVB1CGzRPMrP$f9QWGqpJaIjQGe8BVG0zG9nlfpC0dr9l6BO0MlNAECVllWMUS.#=q9hPyUWnAfbgTxvae8HX$7Q==()
at #=qwrZ0sKWfVuSrbsrEe$sq2ikYRakTupw24tqRYOrFtO4=.#=qnQCMKMqRLmsGND5_yA3M5Q==()
at #=qAlk$Mw_tywKjs9rd7cyoVByKGVe3vaaXeS_LGtl1hBE=.#=qfyJ2oWactrEI0jMMW5DrEA==(#=qmhNvAyztrFon0QQMItVoEw== #=q$_uA1omHXJgXxHzgfPGREA==)
at #=qmhNvAyztrFon0QQMItVoEw==.#=qav9FVComJWu2k_c7i_yB0A==()
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

I wish I had some input but I am having the exact same issue now. Game worked just fine yesterday until I crashed. When I tried to reopen windower, I kept getting file corrupted messages. So, I reinstalled windower and now am getting what you are getting. On the launch, it always crashes at Lua Core Extraction. Any input would be great, thanks

Have you enabled direct play?
Also open vanilla ffxi and run a check file.

I ended up getting it to work by copy/pasting the windower4 folder from another computer (old machine, but was enough to load windower for the updated files). Ffxi will run now, but frequently crashes for no apparent reason, and fps is terrible (averages around 12fps). Vanilla ffxi runs perfectly though, so I'm starting to think it's a windows 10 compatibility issue with windower4, which seems to have a ton of issues.

I'm sure some PC literate person could fix it easily, but I'm just going to cry uncle and put windows 7 on my gaming laptop.

A lot of people have issues with Win 10/Windower 4. I just use Ashita because I couldn't get Windower to run, and it has almost everything windower has anyway.

I did some server cleanup yesterday that might have caused this problem (may have moved an essential .zip). I moved most of the stuff back now, so perhaps your windows 10 computer would work.

I'll try it as soon as I get home, thank you! :-)

So I cleaned up some programs on my computer and now I'm able to log onto POL. I did an ffxi file check to be safe and said no issues were found. Now my problem is when ffxi goes to initiate, it crashes. I have directplay enabled and am trying to play with other setting but no avail yet

Works perfectly now, after an uninstall/reinstall and hasn't crashed yet (only about an hour in game). Only issue now is the terrible fps numbers, averaging 14-16 fps whenever anything is happening (loading new zone/PCs, casting a spell, WS, engaging/fighting).

At least I'm playing! Thanks again

Sounds like you got that annoying bug, do a system restore point to before you had issues. Well that is if it's crashing when launching the game.

heard people are having problems with Windower, and Windows 10 CREATOR edition, did u get the update?

My apologies if this post isn't 100% related to topic but I figure it best to ask here than create an entirely new thread...

I'm looking to replace my current PC with a newer, sexier one but everything is stock-loaded with Windows 10 now. A little over a year ago, my friend Presidente on Valefore made the switch and NOTHING worked. I'm pretty sure that all Windows 10 issues have likely been long since solved but I still wanted to be safe and ask first.

Tldr;

*Is Windower 4 compatible with Windows 10?

*Are there any problems to be aware of with Windows 10 that are normally non-issues with Windows 7/8?

*Will I be better off hitting Amazon for a Windows 7 disc?


Thank you for your time

ashita all the way

Iryoku did approximately a minor version update worth of work yesterday (Windower 4.2 -> 4.3) and backported v5's hook to v4. It is not live yet and I have found two problems with it, but I would be unsurprised to see it go live for everyone later today. If you think you can live with the limitations, the link is below. There is actually a sizeable chance it will fix the sporadic Windows 8~10 problems people have had.

1) For some reason, //list, //pluginlist, and //lua list all cause a crash. This is so reliable that it should be easy to debug.
2) Windower 4.3 breaks alt tab completely. You get no preview and alt tabbing does nothing. This is going to be a harder one to fix, probably.

If you can play with those problems, here is a zip with Windower v4.3 -live in it:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bx2kkkiq7rn7a6x/Windower.zip?dl=0

You need to replace your current Windower and Hook with the zipped versions.

Please let us know if you find anything else!

So Windows 10 is not recommended?

It should be fine after 24 hours and in general I'd encourage people to use the most up-to-date OS that they can. However, SE does have a disclaimer on their system requirements page saying that some Windows 10 updates might break FFXI.
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/envi/win/win01.html?pageID=win

Ok then, I'll update my ancient PC and make sure it's fully updated before install. Thanks, Byrth. As long as my stuff works, I'm happy

I would defer updates to prevent Windows 10 from downloading and installing Creators Update automatically until Windower has been updated.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-want-to-avoid-any-nasty-creators-update-surprises-heres-how-to-delay-upgrading/

Just as an update (since I haven't seen one), I was unable to get POL to open through Windower, I downloaded 4.3 from the link provided and now it loads fine.

I tried update and get a runtime error with Pol.exe

Ever get the feeling we're the digital era version of bitter clingers?

microsoft visual C++ runtime library

Runtime error!
Program: D:\playonline\squarenix\playonlineviewer\pol.exe

this application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.

Oh God you weren't kidding about alt-tab, this is far worse than I thought it would be! Alt-tab only seems to work inside FFXI

Are you going to continue supporting Windows 7 for it's lifecycle?

If you want to install windows 7 get a board with a 6th gen intel CPU and avoid a NVMe ssd (unless you're really good) then otherwise you'll be fine. 7th gen icore is unsupported for win7 by intel/M$.

We are a little closer to a live release.


http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/50727/windower-v43-and-the-creators-update/#3251050