Major problem with Preferences after latest Windows Update for .NET

[lightcube]

After installing the latest collection of Windows Updates, I am no longer able to set any Keyboard Shortcuts in Max 2014. Below is an image showing my dilemma.

Essentially, I cannot assign any shortcut. Anything that has an existing shortcute will display a blank hotkey assignment (though shows in the list) or will list the assignement as "Static". In this case, the Remove button is active.

If you type in any new shortcut, it won't display the currently assigned shortcut function... nor will it activate the Assign button.

I have started with a clear Userdata folder with the same results.

Note that I am assuming it is a broken feature because of the .NET update but obviously do not know that is the cause. Is anyone else seeing this? I don't want to go uninstalling 30 different programs fruitlessly... so would like some input.

[Anonymous]

darn microsoft

[lightcube]

So are you seeing this same thing?

[Anonymous]

I just took a look at my Keyboard section of the Customize User interface and there seems to be NO problem with the shortcut assignment feature. I can enter known Hotkeys and they show up and I can enter an unused one (Alt V for example) and <Not Assigned> shows in the box and the Assign button becomes activated. Seems to be working as intended for me.

Windows updates were just installed on my machine. Here is my latest:

3ds Max 2014 SP1 x64

Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

I wonder if it would help if you were to do a System Restore and then reinstall the updates. PITA, but it shouldn't take too long.

There's a new dance craze sweeping the country called "The Microsoft" - take one step forward and 3 steps back. Actually, that's not so new, is it?

[lightcube]

Just to verify we are on the same page... the .NET updates are not automatic. You have to go to Windows Update and click the Recommended updates and tell Windows to install them; for some reason, they are recommended but not automated...

[lightcube]

So I'm about to embark on a software uninstall odyssey ... but before I do this... I would really love to have some more definitive input on this problem.  Although I have obsessive compulsions to update my software the moment it says it's ready for an update... I am grumpy about uninstalling/reverting things 🙂

So here is another image of the dilemma:

As you can see... I cannot edit anything in my UI.

The million dollar* question is whether this is related to the .NET updates released this week by Microsoft or some other gremlin in the machine. Has anyone actually manually run those .NET updates in Windows Update and if so, are you able to make any changes to your preferences after this update?

My .NET versions are:

.NET 4 : 4.0.30319

.NET 3.5 : 3.5.30729.5420

.NET 3 : 3.0.30729.5420

(To find yours, here is a helpful document on MS Support).

*Million dollar may refer to a far future time when inflation has pushed pennies so far apart that they cannot see each other anymore and are skeptical of the existence of other pennies--making it unlikely to actually reach a million dollars.

[spacefrog_]

I really doubt it got anything to do with those MS/.NET updates. The UI is still mostly plain windows code (not .NET) so is the config dialog. I installed all updates  myself here and everything still works as expected.

* Are you running Max in some limited user account ?

* maybe some of your file permissions got wonky?

another usefull check might be doing an SFC scan

in the dos prompt ( admin account ) tpye the following:

sfc /VERIFYONLY

this checks important protect system files (verfy only, no changes) , if it reports some errors you might repeat the scan with the repair option enabled.You'll get a nice log file reporting potential system file errors too ( C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log )

This repairs wrong file versions (according to the filedatabase on your system)  and repairs file and registry permissions too AFAIK

sfc /SCANNOW

another, even more simpler idea might be hitting the ALT key repeatedly while you are in the keyboard shortcut assignement entry textfield. I hade problems in the past sometimes, where somehow the alt key got sticky and only hammering on this very key several times while in the input field  "cured" this problem. Ca'nt remember having this with Max 2014 though

[lightcube]

Thanks... that's the confirmation I was looking for--saves me the need to bark up the wrong tree. I'll now do that scan and see if it helps.

I am running on an Admin account on this computer. I thought about permissions, but all the files in Userdata are full permission for my account; when I deleted them and recreated the userdata folder, the problem persisted.

hopefully sfc will shed some light.

[Laurent.Pallares]

Hi Shawn, I will contact you trough Salesforce interface, then as soon we found the solution I will post it in the Forum to help to resolve similar issues.

Yours faithfully,

[lightcube]

Thanks for the assistance Laurent!

So here's an update since I know this is just hot news 😛

I tried Spacefrog's scan but found nothing wrong.

I uninstalled the .NET updates and got no fix.

I deleted my userdata folders... nope.

I removed all* of my plugins. Nada.

I got some excellent support from Laurent Pallares of Autodesk over the internet and phone. But we could find no solution.

Ironically, the one plugin we did not uninstall because it wasn't in the plugins folder was Ephere's Zookeeper. And honestly, I doubted it could be the cause... partially because I hadn't updated it in a month or two.

But I also hadn't gone to Customize User Interface in a while... so that may be why I didn't notice it.

Anyway, I cannot say for certain if it is Zookeeper 2.1.8.0 specically or ZK+Windows/.NET changes or a gremlin. I reinstalled ZK and the problem persists... but...

Drum Roll...

If I click Zookeeper > Reset... the problem goes away for that session of Max.

I sent an email to Ephere. Hopefully they can confirm this and release a patch.

If you are running 3ds Max 2014 SP1 on Windows 7 SP1 and have Zookeeper 2.1.8.0 installed, could you report your ability to customize the user interface?

[Anonymous]

That's some good detective work.

[lightcube]

That or an inordinate obsession with 3ds Max... 😛

[Laurent.Pallares]

Hi again Shawn, thanks for sharing the origin of this issue, and I was surprise that even removing the plugins folder from the load this one continue to be loaded as it is synchronized with their installing folder.

I hope that you get some feedback from them. 😉

Best regards

[lightcube]

Ephere responded and is looking into the issue. The reason it was still loading after removing the plugins folder is that Zookeeper now installs to this directory:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2014\bin\assemblies