Ralph Grabowski

When you are having problems getting Actrix 2000 to run, Autodesk has included a neat reinstaller that works hard to fix the problems. Read on to find out how to use the undocumented re-installer to get Actrix working properly.

Today, I tried starting Actrix 2000. I wanted to write an article for this Webzine, and thought I’d poke around Actrix for a story idea. I double-clicked the Actrix icon on my computer’s desktop. But a warning dialog box appeared, making a complaint of something to do with OLE.

I wasn’t terribly surprised by Actrix’s failure to start. A couple of week earlier, I had had some Windows 98 problems that had really made a mess of my system, and now a number of applications wouldn’t launch or displayed unusual dialog boxes.

The usual solution is to reinstall the software, although this is not always the solution. For example, as I had learned, reinstalling Windows 95 or 98 overtop a corrupted Windows system does not work. For some reason, the Setup programs does not overwrite existing -- but corrupted -- filed.

Still, with the high-speed CD-ROM players in today’s computers, software reinstallation takes just a couple of minutes. I reinstalled Actrix. Upon trying to launch it for the first time, the opening dialog box appeared, but the program failed to run. I rebooted the computer, but experienced the same lack of enthusiasm from Actrix.

The next-usual solution is to remove the software, then reinstall it. That’s when I discovered Actrix’s nifty reinstall solution -- something I have never seen in any other software package. Nor is this documented in the Actrix help system.

As I expected, the uninstall routine displays a dialog box with a number of options. In most other applications, the options are usually along the lines of, "Do you want to manually or automatically uninstall the software?"

As I cast my eye over the four options presented, I was intrigued by the fourth button: Select reinstall mode. When I clicked, a new dialog box appeared with many options. As I read the list of options, I grew excited. Here was a program that actually checked for corrupt files (called an "invalid checksum" by the dialog box), and would replace them. "Does Microsoft know about this?" I wondered to myself.

Perhaps the only problem with dialog box is that some options supersede others, and really should be radio buttons, not check boxes. Still, I happily clicked away, turning on most options.

Then I clicked OK. A new dialog box appeared. It suggested that a couple of applications should be exited. In addition, I noticed that the reinstalled had paused the Task Scheduler. This impressed me even further, to the point I decided to turn this into an article.

I closed down the two "offending" programs, clicked OK a couple of times. The reinstaller then busied itself with calculating checksums, then replacing the corrupted files. This took a few minutes. Then it was time to reboot.

Upon restarting the computer, Actrix worked correctly. I was relieved to have the software running again. Then I switched to Word, and wrote this article. I hope you will benefit from Autodesk’s clever reinstallation routine.

Ralph Grabowski