Well, just one stupid question...

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Hi Tim,

I have replied to your support ticket, so some of this may look the same to you, but I wanted to post here as well so that others can know about this particular issue.

What we are finding is that having Finale and McAfee on the same computer can result in this error. For some reason, certain assembly files are being emptied out and then Finale cannot launch. Excluding these files from McAfee's Real-Time Scanning, and then reinstalling Finale can help prevent this issue:

1. Open McAfee’s console. The easiest way to do this is to right-click the McAfee shield symbol in your system tray (lower, right-hand corner of the computer) and choosing “Open McAfee...“.

2. Click the gear-shaped icon in the upper, right-hand corner to open settings; click the Real-Time Scanning option.

3. In the window that appears expand the Excluded Files section.

4. Choose Add; add the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Finale\WinSparkle.dll

5. Repeat step 4 to add each of the following directories as well:

C:\Program Files\Finale\icuuc53.dll

C:\Program Files\Finale\EQATEC.Analytics.Monitor.Win32_vc100.dll

C:\Program Files\Finale\CrashRpt1402.dll

C:\Program Files\Finale\UT64.dll

C:\Program Files\Finale\icudt53.dll

----

After following these steps, close the McAfee console and follow the steps below to reinstall Finale:

1. You will need to be logged in to this computer on a user account that has full administrative rights.

2. Exit Finale.

3. Press the WINDOWS key on your computer keyboard once to open the Start menu.

4. Type:

Programs and Features

5. Select the Programs and Features option that appears.

6. In your Programs and Features list, right-click on Finale, and then choose Uninstall.

7. Hold down the WINDOWS key and press the letter R to open the Run dialog box.

8. Type C:\Program Files and click OK.

9. Find and delete the “Finale” folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)

10. Press the WINDOWS key + R to reopen the Run dialog box.

11. Type %appdata% and click OK.

12. Open the “MakeMusic” folder, then delete the “Finale” folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)

13. Empty the Recycle Bin.

14. Restart the computer.

15. Re-install Finale by downloading it from your MakeMusic account.

If anyone reading this is running into this error with a version of Finale other than Finale v25, please use the instructions below (replacing Finale 2014.5 with your version of Finale) for 32-bit versions of our notation software:

1. Open McAfee’s console. The easiest way to do this is to right-click the McAfee shield symbol in your system tray (lower, right-hand corner of the computer) and choosing “Open McAfee...“.

2. Click the gear-shaped icon in the upper, right-hand corner to open settings; click the Real-Time Scanning option.

3. In the window that appears expand the Excluded Files section.

4. Choose Add; add the following directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Finale 2014.5\WinSparkle.dll

5. Repeat step 4 to add each of the following directories as well:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Finale 2014.5\icuuc53.dll

C:\Program Files(x86)\Finale 2014.5\EQATEC.Analytics.Monitor.Win32_vc100.dll

C:\Program Files(x86)\Finale 2014.5\CrashRpt1402.dll

C:\Program Files(x86)\Finale 2014.5\UT32.dll

C:\Program Files(x86)\Finale 2014.5\icudt53.dll

----

After following these steps, close the McAfee console and follow the steps below to reinstall Finale:

1. You will need to be logged in to this computer on a user account that has full administrative rights.

2. Exit Finale.

3. Press the WINDOWS key on your computer keyboard once to open the Start menu.

4. Type:

Programs and Features

5. Select the Programs and Features option that appears.

6. In your Programs and Features list, right-click on Finale 2014.5, and then choose Uninstall.

7. Hold down the WINDOWS key and press the letter R to open the Run dialog box.

8. Type C:\Program Files (x86) and click OK. (On 32-bit systems, type C:\Program Files).

9. Find and delete the “Finale 2014.5" folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)

10. Press the WINDOWS key + R to reopen the Run dialog box.

11. Type %appdata% and click OK.

12. Open the “MakeMusic” folder, then delete the “Finale 2014.5" folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)

13. Empty the Recycle Bin.

14. Restart the computer.

15. Re-install Finale by downloading it from your MakeMusic account.

I hope this information helps!

Wow!

Are those instructions listed in the help files/FAQs?

Thanks for the instructions.  Are steps being taken to make sure Finale plays nice with McAfee?  Those instructions seem like more than just a workaround. There must be a crucial misstep in Finale coding that necessitates this convoluted process. Can one imagine Acrobat or Word putting out a release saying 'We have found that our product does not install properly when McAfee ins installed?' Frustrating. 

Good questions!

This error started popping up about a month ago, and it took us a bit to gather details and pinpoint that this was related to having McAfee and Finale on the same machine since the connection is still unclear, and very little details are available about why this happens.

We have contacted McAfee, and as this issue has been unfolding we have been getting more and more details. It took awhile to ascertain the exact nature of the issue - the discovery that specific files were being emptied out and the workaround is a discovery of just the week past, so the problem is still relatively fresh.

When we are able to ascertain more about the actual cause of the issue, we will be able to document the problem appropriately. In the meantime, we are giving out these steps as needed since the problem is still being investigated.

All that to say that we do intend to reach out again and see if there is anything that can be done - this issue is also affecting our other product lines, and appears to be affecting DLLs that extend to common application frameworks/components.

We are definitely looking into this further as we would like our customers to not have to exclude these files one-by-one!

Thanks for your quick response. And thanks for my proactive about it.

For me personally, the whole McAfee thing was nuts. I am working on a machine that is a year old and shipped with McAfee. Computer kept on freezing. Went through countless tech calls to remedy. Not sure it was Finale related. But when I finally switched Mcafee for Norton -  no freezes since

Microsoft often has different versions of the same .dll with different functionality. I've had a lot of experience with this issue over the years and don't believe that it was new when I first encountered it in 1996! 

The most common fix is to find the version with the functionality that all apps require and use that one. 

Thank you for your in depth fix for this. I'm a music teacher who uses Finale daily for years. All of a sudden, yesterday Finale stopped working and I had no idea why and I had to teach a full day of private lessons without it. It really helped me see just how much I love Finale and how much use I get out of it. I'm so glad there was a fix found as I certainly had no idea how to fix it! I followed the steps above and it's working perfectly. Thank you for all your hard work (and for finding such an obscure interaction between programs!)

Before you do Step 12 (delete the “Finale” folder) be sure to move or copy FINALE.INI and FINMIDI.INI to a completely different folder, such as your downloads folder.  All of your personalizations are in there.  If deleted, they will be lost and you will be forced to redo all of them, which for me will take at least a week to recover.  After you reinstall Finale, copy these back over the ones that are in there by default.  It will be wise to keep these in a separate folder for safekeeping anyway.