Weird CS4 hanging issue in windows Vista when opening files with PS already loaded

PA
Posted By
Paul_Atherton
Dec 5, 2008
Views
340
Replies
4
Status
Closed
I just installed the demo. I have a dual monitor setup running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 with 8GB ram …

It appears I have both the 32bit and 64bit versions of PS CS4 installed. If I open either of these apps, then choose say a jpg on my desktop, right-click in windows, choose, ‘open with’ and select ‘Adobe Photoshop CS4’, then PS hangs – period. After a while, clicking the title bar of the app (which is a kind of menu bar in this version) causes it to return to the old look windows title bar where it shows my image name and the zoom etc, but with the usual (Not Responding) at the end of the title bar text!

It does this no matter which version (32 or 64bit) is presently loaded. It also does it if I have CS4 loaded and I select ‘Edit with Photoshop’ in Lightroom 2.1 (my main app which is configured to output files in 16bit PSD format).

Another weird quirk I found in CS4 – if I select ‘Help’, ‘System Info’ it displays the info on my second monitor, not my first! I figure this by the screen res shown as my second monitor (monitor 3 in Vista) is only running 1280×1024. Not sure if this has an effect on which monitor profile is used by PS – I would hope not as my 1st monitor is my calibrated one!

Thanks, Paul
Related Tags
file hang issue load open windows weird

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F
Freeagent
Dec 5, 2008
What happens if you open a file from Bridge or Explorer without having Photoshop already open?

There have been reports here of a registry problem/conflict that prevents files from opening into CS4 – although that was described as happening by opening files from Bridge, not with PS already open. But maybe nobody had tried that.

In any case, running a registry cleaner such as CCleaner or Registry Mechanic cured it. Just make sure to backup the registry when prompted, or set a restore point.
PA
Paul_Atherton
Dec 5, 2008
Freeagent – I just did some more testing and figured the issue I think! I had selected ‘Enable OpenGL Drawing’ in Performance preferences and even though I have the very latest nVidia driver (downloaded today) this still causes this issue!

One issue I have noticed though since figuring how to fix this – I have 2 monitors and on the left one I have the panels un-docked and laid out neatly on the desktop. I then have the main PS window with it’s height shrunk as slim as possible and filling the top width of my 2nd monitor. In CS3 when I open an image, it generally remembers where the last one opened and uses the same place – this includes if I had the image in its own window on my main monitor. In CS4, it seems to want to open them in tabbed dialogs within the PS main window and for some reason they are on minimal magnification, so I need to drag the tab over to my main monitor every time and zoom in to get a decent size displayed.

Is there anywhere to configure where you want it to open images?

Thanks, Paul
PA
Paul_Atherton
Dec 5, 2008
If figured there is a preferences option on the Interface tab called: ‘Open Documents as Tabs’, which when unchecked does away with the tabs, but the initial position of the image window is in the top left within the main PS window, and because the height on mine is as small as possible, that’s why I am getting the image open up tiny! CS3 didn’t do this! (well maybe sometimes as that was a bit unpredictable also) – at least this is now predictable but predictably annoying the way it does this. Is there by any chance a better solution to having a completely undocked layout without tying newlu opened images to the main PS window?

Cheers,
Paul
F
Freeagent
Dec 5, 2008
The dual monitor problem where the image always opens inside the main application frame is a bug. They have it on the Mac side as well.

There’s simply no way to get it to open on the other monitor.

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