UltraEdit Settings lost!

UltraEdit Settings lost!

1
NewbieNewbie
1

    Sep 22, 2010#1

    I am using UltraEdit 13.20 on Windows XP SP2.

    I started UltraEdit this morning, like I do every day, and all my settings were lost. It acted like I was opening UltraEdit for the first time. This happened to me a few months ago as well. Is there any explanation for it and is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening again?

    Thanks
    6,686585
    Grand MasterGrand Master
    6,686585

      Sep 22, 2010#2

      By default all UltraEdit settings are stored in an INI file named uedit32.ini. It is located by default in your applications data directory which is %appdata%\IDMComp\UltraEdit whereby %appdata% is replaced by the value of the environment variable APPDATA. When you copy and paste the entire directory path as I have written into the address bar of Windows Explorer and hit key RETURN you will see that directory containing all your settings for UltraEdit. As you can see in Windows Explorer the application data directory depends on your account. When you change your account, UltraEdit creates everything new for this new account (= new user on a computer used by multiple users).

      So perhaps you have changed your account or a program has deleted the directory or just the INI file. In UltraEdit there is Advanced - Backup/Restore User Customizations to control which configuration files to backup and later perhaps restore. There are also the commands Advanced - Export Settings and Advanced - Import Settings for a quick backup and restore of the most important files containing user settings without having the control which files are copied to the directory you specify and re-imported from there later.

      See also page INI File Selection and Advanced Settings in help of UltraEdit or alternativley UltraEdit INI file location and How to transfer / copy / move configuration settings to a new PC?
      Best regards from an UC/UE/UES for Windows user from Austria
      901
      MasterMaster
      901

        Sep 23, 2010#3

        If it's a shared PC with limited disk space, it could be that someone else "optimized" the system. As a developer that has also played the role of system administrator on many a box in the past, I've been guilty of logging in as the domain administrator and waxing a dozen user profiles (including my own) along with other cleanup activity on a cramped system before doing a defrag. It is a quick way to clean up large files individual users have copied to their desktops for temporary storage; clean up temporary internet file cache for all users at once, etc. Since a system will recreate a user profile when the user logs back in, it was not uncommon to clean up the user profiles on systems that end-users really had no business logging into on a regular basis (i.e. back-end test servers, etc.)

        As Mofi suggested, the best way to protect yourself against lost settings is to back them up somewhere... preferably somewhere other than in your user profile if there is a chance that some system administrator might choose to clean things up from time to time.
        5

          Oct 07, 2010#4

          First, I apologize for the long post but I tough it would be useful to others.

          I too, have experienced a nice blue-screen of death today on my laptop that uses Win 7. Really, it's been mostly a year that I now run on this OS and it's the very first time I got such an issue. Unfortunately, UE did not like the crash an like you, I lost all configuration settings.

          I also found the hard way that the only option from my perspective is to restore these corrupted setting by restoring the files. These are my own findings so there may well be other possibilities that I haven't found.

          I see 2 possibilities to this issue but I may well be wrong :

          - Either my Windows user account kinda got reset in the recovery by Win 7 and some magical registry keys or ID numbers changed in the process which UE detected as a new user and completely recreated a new set of configuration files. Please don't hit on me if this sounds funny. This is pure speculation and I'm no MS expert.

          - Or, the configuration files were really corrupted and UE did it's best to make it work.


          My perception of those 2 possible issues :

          - Why don't UE integrate an automated profile/settings/menus/etc... backup process? It could well be in the form of the upgrade backup process in the same directory where the configuration files are located by default. Similar to these : "wordfiles Saved [09.15.10]" folders and files that gets created when you upgrade. Simply creating a similar properly named and dated folder at regular intervals or event triggered like every time you close the application, keeping x backward copies of it and rotating them. Of course, all those settings could well be configurable trough the Advanced - Configuration menu. Really that would be a nice to have feature and no more lost settings...



          Anyways, here's how I restored mine :

          After Googleling around for about an hour, I kinda had an interesting idea of looking at my backups... Well, figure it out... I've never backed up any of my Windows systems !!!

          Well, that may not be totally true if you are using Windows 7 like I do.

          How happy was I when I "accidentally" landed on a MS page explaining how easy it is to restore a file from a restore point in Win 7 !!!

          Of course you require that restore points be activated on your system for that functionality to work.

          After that, it's just a matter of right clicking the existing original folder or file and selecting "Restore previous versions" in the context menu.

          I have chosen to completely overwrite my %APPDATA%/IDMComp/UltraEdit folder since it was only a couple of days old.
          Thanks to MS auto function that creates a restore point every time you update Windows ;-)

          From here, all settings were back and I'm happy again !


          All is well for me now but what about previous Windows versions??

          My curiosity kept me going and I found this free little utility that seems to make it also possible on all version of Vista. I haven't tested it my self so just follow the link and find it out ;-)

          http://www.shadowexplorer.com/

          Unfortunately, I haven't found any procedure or similar tool for Win XP.

          Robert.