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"First Run Initialization" Every Time I Start AutoCAD 2012 Mechanical

54 REPLIES 54
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Message 1 of 55
pete592
28460 Views, 54 Replies

"First Run Initialization" Every Time I Start AutoCAD 2012 Mechanical

Each morning when I start AutoCAD 2012 Mechanical, The startup banner comes up and does the "First Run Initialization" and its subsequent, lengthy loading and install process of every nut and bolt of the software.

 

I am running Vista, while the other two users in my office are still on XP (don't ask me why) and they are not experiencing this.  Theirs are much faster and more typical of a routine startup.

 

If there is any system information that may be helpful, please don't hesitate to ask.  I have no clue where to begin.

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

 

 

54 REPLIES 54
Message 21 of 55
adillberg
in reply to: pete592

We are having a problem that seems very similar to this as well.

 

As an administrator typically we can run ACAD here at our office, however it is completely ridiculous to require users that have no business being admins, to be admins to run the program.

 

If we use a profile for ACAD the problem seems much worse.

 

Also, to run ACAD, a user can not simply be a local admin (which is BAD enough to require), they must be AT LEAST a Domain Admin. This a completely unacceptable. we need normal, NON-ADMINS, to be able to use ACAD. Having normal users as Admins is a HUGE security risk, and not only can but will cause network problems from users doing things they should not be doing.

 

Please help ACAD (or anyone else), this is a REALLY BIG problem.

Message 22 of 55
rms390
in reply to: adillberg

lol they have known about this for a year now.... They don't fix the issue and im pretty sure 2013 has the same problem.  I downloaded the student version on my home pc to try it out and boom, first run initialization every fresh start of autoCAD

 

Message 23 of 55
david.scheu
in reply to: adillberg

Adillberg, I think it's pretty clear at this point that having administrator rights does not necessarily make this problem go away (doesn't for me; hasn't for several other posters). Are you saying that it does for you?

 

User rights could be part of the problem, but for various reasons I don't think they are. (And if they are, it ought to be enough to run once as admin, and subsequently as a standard user.)

 

It would be helpful to know if anyone out there is running AutoCAD without administrator priveleges and not experiencing this problem. It would also be helpful to hear from anyone who has actually had the problem and then made it go away by elevating user rights. If so, does it come back if you switch back to standard user rights?

 

Message 24 of 55
jhudtwalcker
in reply to: pete592

can't make what you recomend.... the option is grayed out... ¿any idea? (with other software, I actually can)

Message 25 of 55
173105
in reply to: jhudtwalcker

This is the issue ever since version 2012. In 2013, I'm also having the same problem. I hit the activation limit, because every time AutoCAD starts it requests a key. I've already 5 e-mails with keys I requested from A SINGLE, FRESH INSTALLATION OF AUTOCAD 2013 (I'm a student - I'd like to at least have one license valid on a laptop and another on my home box, in order to work comfortably wherever I am. That's already impossible). That's five activations of autocad 2013 over a timespan of 4 days - every day I came to work, plus today.

I had to stop using AutoCAD overall due to this fault, because version 2012 was rendered completely useless after installing it, uninstalling and installing again (apparently, installing and uninstalling software destroys the license manager). I've even made a completely fresh windows 7 x64 installation (the one I'm using right now) in order to install ACAD2012. Installed, problem persists. Good thing that inventor is still working, hope they won't switch to the same licensing scheme.

If anyone requests further information / screenshots, please let me know, I'll upload it on demand.

 

Message 26 of 55
cmiller
in reply to: adillberg

Has anyone found a fix for this issue? I am an admin over my computer, my IT Tech assures me, we do not have roaming profiles, and I have the Run As Administrator checked. Nothing has fixed the issue.

 

We have 3 identicle, user dedicated computers in our dept and they all do it.

 

Can someone point me in the right direction if there is a fix. I can't seem to find anything.

 

Windows 7 64-bit

We have APDS Ultimate 2012

Message 27 of 55
dperret
in reply to: cmiller

Delete the original shortcut on the desktop.

Copy and paste the shortcut added in the start menu, autodesk....on your desktop or create a new one pointing to acad.exe

And voila....

Message 28 of 55
david.scheu
in reply to: dperret

That didn't work for me. Tried copying (they were identical but tried anyway) and tried creating a new link. Same result each time.

Message 29 of 55
cmiller
in reply to: david.scheu

Didn't work for me either.Smiley Indifferent

Message 30 of 55
ZSHS2011
in reply to: adillberg

Hey All. Late to the party but I found one possible legit fix for this issue (at least in regards to 2013 AutoCAD Raster on Windows 7).

 

My company has every version of CAD under the sun, and when installing AutoCAD and initialing it, I chose AutoCAD Raster for Structural rather than vanilla AutoCAD Raster 2013.  I didn’t think much of it until it kept initializing.

 

So I went into the Registry and looked for anything anomalous between 2012 which was working and 2013 which was not. I found that a Registry key under:

 

Current User -> Software -> AutoDesk -> AutoCAD -> R19.0 -> AutoCAD Raster 2013

 

did not match

 

Current User -> Software -> AutoDesk -> AutoCAD -> R18.2 -> AutoCAD Raster 2012

 

The key should be" C:\Users\**insert user here***\AppData\Local\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013 - English\R19.0\enu\"

but instead pointed to a folder in the Appdata that didn’t exist.

 

Same also had to be done for the other key showing the Roaming Folder location.

 

I believe that without those keys pointing to legit folders, AutoCAD assumes its not installed and trys to initalize it again upon the next load.

 

Hopefully this can be extrapolated (or at least serving as a starting point) for others.

Message 31 of 55
david.scheu
in reply to: ZSHS2011


@ZSHS2011 wrote:

Hey All. Late to the party but I found one possible legit fix for this issue (at least in regards to 2013 AutoCAD Raster on Windows 7).

 

Welcome to the party. You're not late... we may be running low on beer and pretzels at this point, but if you're seeing this issue in 2013, I think this party is far from over.

 

I'm running plain AutoCAD, and still on 2012, but did find the two registry entries you mentioned, specifying local and roaming user folders. If I understand you correctly, your system was having the "First Run Initialization" problem, and you found these two entries to contain nonexistant folders. And when you changed them to point to existing folders, the problem went away. Excellent detective work!

 

This fix didn't work for me, though. Or rather, I can't try it because the entries in my registry already do point to folders that do exist. They appear to be the correct folders, in the format you suggest, though differing in version. And yet I get a First Run every flippin time.

 

Boy I was hoping 2013 would fix this! How many man-hours has this wasted over the past couple years? It can easily take three minutes for AutoCAD to start the first time, compared to under twenty seconds if I exit and restart.

 

 

Message 32 of 55
ZSHS2011
in reply to: david.scheu

Here is the thing.  Im not exactly a Network IT guy, but I have a decent understanding of Windows.

 

The reason I jumped to the Registry first is because the initializing error occurring on my Co-Workers machine was due to windows (and not necessarily AutoCAD) having a faulty Registry Key.  Windows thinks that AutoCAD (Raster in my case) has not been setup yet and forces the reinstall every time the Icon is clicked. 

 

Just to confirm, I am not talking about "Running First Time blah blah" that appears inside the AutoCAD splash screen when clicking the Icon.  My problem is a windows dialog box that appears when starting AutoCAD trying to Install AutoCAD Raster like it would during the first run.

 

 

While my particular fix doesn’t help you. I would almost certainly bet on the registry being the culprit.  To my knowledge nothing else would force AutoCAD to install after it already has been installed.   The purpose of the registry is to track those tiems.   Now perhaps your Network Admins do something to prevent updates from the Registry taking hold, or maybe your issue is a different set of keys, but something in the registry is the likely culprit. 

 

Ultimately, I would search the registry for every single reference to your AutoCAD product and check and make sure the folders point to folders that exist (and make sense).

 

Just my 2 cents.  Hopefully my ramblings can help someone!

 

Message 33 of 55
cmiller
in reply to: ZSHS2011

What key is the actual one that controls the startup of Acad? There are so many keys I can't figure out which one it is.

 

Message 34 of 55
ZSHS2011
in reply to: cmiller

The Registry doesn’t actually load the program.  Windows checks the registry when an executable is run, and from there the magic happens.

 

I use the word magic because my understanding of the process breaks down at this point.  I cannot give you the specifics of what happens, just that Windows looks to the registry.

 

I can say that more than likely (since Windows thinks the program has been installed, just not Initialized) that the keys should be under either the Current User (HKEY_CU) or Local Machine (HKEY_L_M) sections only.  The Class Root section deal with file associations (docx is Windows Word, etc.) and Users relates to windows user profile information.  Current Config I am not exactly sure of, but browsing my registry shows nothing of value there.

 

And of HKEY_CU and HKEY_L_M, it should only be under Software

 

But be very careful in the Registry if you are not familiar with it.  I’m not a Guru but I know what to touch and not touch.  You can easily kill a computer by changing the wrong thing in the Registry.   

 

The chances are low if you only play with AutoCAD keys, but accidents do happen.

 

 

Message 35 of 55
david.scheu
in reply to: ZSHS2011

I'm with you... this is probably a registry issue. But I want to point out another symptom, which is that AutoCAD "First Run Initializes" only on the first instance in any given Windows session. If I close out of AutoCAD (but not Windows), and then restart AutoCAD, AutoCAD apparently knows that it is initialized, skips the "first run initialization," and is ready to go much more quickly.

 

This means (in my opinion) that the first run initialization does succeed in initializing - or at least in setting the (unidentified and hypothetical) registry flag that indicates an initialized status. If this is true, I think we can eliminate permissions or security policy from consideration. If this registry key was protected by Windows, it couldn't be set at all, even temporarily. 

 

So the problem is really that the initialization status flag is not surviving the logoff/logon process. Don't think shutdown typically messes with the registry, so my guess is that something is changing back during Windows startup.

 

Don't know the answer, but I think the place to look is in the startup.

 

Message 36 of 55
ZSHS2011
in reply to: david.scheu

Your and my problems differ in that regard.  Mine would initialize every time I clicked the Icon, not just the first time of a user session.

 

It didn’t matter how many times mine initialized, it would just re-initialize after I closed the program and started it up again.   

 

But based on what you are saying, that does sound likely.  Unfortunately, I’m tapped out of Ideas.  I’ve only got highly unlikely scenario’s left to offer, most of which probably don’t hold much water in a technical sense. 

 

I would check to make sure your security settings / software aren’t rolling back registry changes.  Actually… try this.  Get SpyBot.  Mainly because of a program called Tea-Timer comes with it. Tea Timer will monitor registry changes and ask you for permission before allowing them to be made.  (Any other program which does the same would work as well)

 

When you initialize the program, Tea Timer should catch the registry change and provide you with information about what key it is making / changing.  Long shot, but it may move you forward in your quest!

Message 37 of 55
david.scheu
in reply to: ZSHS2011


@ZSHS2011 wrote:

I would check to make sure your security settings / software aren’t rolling back registry changes.  Actually… try this.  Get SpyBot.  Mainly because of a program called Tea-Timer comes with it. Tea Timer will monitor registry changes and ask you for permission before allowing them to be made.  (Any other program which does the same would work as well)

 

When you initialize the program, Tea Timer should catch the registry change and provide you with information about what key it is making / changing.  Long shot, but it may move you forward in your quest!


Not a bad idea. Though I just exported and auto-compared the entire HKCU\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R18.2\ branch of my registry, before and after the first AutoCAD start, and they are identical. So if AutoCAD uses the registry to track initialization, it's not doing it here.

 

Worth noting also that we run three seats here, and only two have the problem, while the third - governed by the same domain-wide security policies - does not. Meanwhile my W7-64 laptop, which is not attached to the domain, has the problem too.

 

It's crazy.

Message 38 of 55
ArendSosef
in reply to: pete592

I was implementing Autocad 2014 and was having the "First run initializing" issue after every reboot. I installed Autocad on Windows 7 Home premium, Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8 Pro and all machines have the same issue. Currently we have Autocad 2012 in production. So I looked ad a autocad 2012 production and the machines have the same behaviour so this is probaly a by design behaviour. Autodesk should call is First run initializing after reboot or something like that.

Message 39 of 55
david.scheu
in reply to: ArendSosef

If you'll read through this thread, you'll see that some people report installations which do not reinitialize after every reboot, which I think eliminates the theory that this is a feature and not a bug. 

 

Sorry to hear that 2014 isn't going to solve the problem.

Message 40 of 55
JrodSchultz
in reply to: david.scheu

Has anyone tried turning off "UAC"? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/turn-user-account-control-on-or-off

 

Seemed to work for a client that was having this same issue...



Jarod Schultz
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