[texworks] Texworks quit working (on windows)

[K. Frank]

Hello All!

Wow!  Nothing works.

I have tried a lot of the suggestions given above.  (The only thing
I haven't tried is reinstalling TeX Live again from scratch, because
doing so is Not Fast (TM).)

Summary:

My initial situation:

I had installed TeXworks and TeX Live, and it was working, but then it
quit working.

I uninstalled both TeXworks and TeX Live, and I reinstalled TeX Live
from scratch.  I still couldn't get TeXworks (now the version that
came bundled with TeX Live) to work.  This is where I left off.

I tried running TeXworks again, just to check -- failed.

I ran:

   tlmgr install --reinstall texworks

tlmgr asked that it be updated itself, so I ran:

   tlmgr update --self

and ran:

   tlmgr install --reinstall texworks

This all seemed to work.

I tried running TeXworks (the TeX Live version) -- failed.

I installed the separately packaged version of TeXworks.  This seemed to
work, except at the end when the installation wizard shows the "Finished"
but with a check box to "Launch TeXworks", I checked the check box, and
got the following pop-up message:

   Setup
      Unable to execute file:
      C:\Program Files (x86)\TeXworks\TeXworks.exe

      CreateProcess failed; code 740.
      The requested operation requires elevation.

and TeXworks didn't start.

I tired running TeXworks from the (newly created TeXworks start-menu
entry.  It brought up the UAC "make changes" dialog, and I clicked yes.
TeXworks didn't start.

I tried running the start-menu entry again, but used "Run as administrator".
Failed.

I uninstalled the separately packaged version of TeXworks.

Per Stefan Löffler, I did the following...

On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 7:27 AM, Stefan Löffler <st.loeffler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> sorry to chime in so late, but I have been quite busy recently.
> Anyway, the latest "official" TeXworks binaries for windows (i.e. those
> distributed via Google Code, not via any TeX distro) should not depend on
> any dlls - everything should be linked in (except for Python).
>
> So, my suggestion would be to download TeXworks
> (http://texworks.googlecode.com/files/TeXworks-w32-0.5-r932.zip),

Okay, I did that.

> extract it (e.g., on your desktop)

Did that.

> and run it

I tried running it (clicking on the TeXworks.exe file in "Windows Explorer"
and typing "start TeXworks.exe" in a command prompt.  This failed.

> in portable mode (see the TeXworks
> manual, section 5.7 for how to do that;
> http://texworks.googlecode.com/files/TeXworks-manual-r814.pdf).

I created the texworks-setup.ini file (in the same directory as
TeXworks.exe, per (as I understand it) the manual.  I then tried
again to run TeXworks.exe.  This again failed.

> This way,
> you can ensure that it is completely independent, doesn't depend on a TeX
> distro, and doesn't use any resources other versions might (have) use(d)
> (e.g., registry keys, configuration files, etc.). Also, by using the
> "official" version, you get around all the issues arising from wrappers in
> other directories etc.
>
> If that still doesn't work, see if in the libpath (see manual) you get
> several files and subdirectories, and in the inipath (again see manual) a
> configuration file.

I don't see any files or subdirectories in the libpath.  That is, I created
a TW_conf directory, and listed it for both the inipath and libpath in the
texworks-setup.ini file.  This directory has nothing in it (even after
attempting
to launch TeXworks.

> HTH,

Sorry, it didn't help, at least not yet.

> Stefan

Basically, I find myself in a situation where nothing works.  Under normal
circumstances, I would write off TeXworks as non-functional, at least on
windows.  But the crazy thing is,it used to work, more or less out of the
box.  I'm certainly not an expert, and I don't know what all the tricks and
features are, but as far as I could tell, TeXworks was fully functional.

But then it mysteriously quit working, and no manner of uninstall / reinstall
has been able to fix it.

Any further suggestions would be most welcome.


K. Frank