I confirm after trying the unofficial installer, it does the same on my XP 32bits as i observed for the portable version, it searches/parse again all the installed plugins at every launch of it.

I can't say if the problem exist on the "official" gimp version as i don't use it.
All i can say is that this behaviour does not exist on the old portable version of 2.7.6 that i just retried to be sure.

Partha,
First, thanks for all your work on these builds.

I just installed your 64bit 2.8.1 version of Gimp over the old 2.8 64bit version and am now having some strange problems (note: I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling it fresh). For one, if I try to open an image folder the only files that populate the list are .xcf files; I have it set up to show all image types, but not even jpg's come up. If I change the setting to show All File Types it will list the jpg's but if I try to open one Gimp gives me a file type unknown error.

I'm also getting an Application Error (wavelet-denoise.exe): The applicaton was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application. When I click OK I then get another error: wavelet-decompose.exe with the same statement above. Same again for resynth.exe, mathmap.exe, and gmic_gimp.exe.

Any ideas as to why I cannot open any files other than .xcf's and why I get the above application errors?

Wow, I just noticed that none of my scripts or plugins are appearing in the drop down menu, nor do I have any script-fu or python-fu drop-down menu's any more.

Bonjour,

It appears that you have a problem with DLL or a mixture of executables (32 & 64 bit).
- Completely uninstall the version on your computer.
- Download the version you want on the site of Partha.
- Install this new version.

(This is not a good idea to mix versions)

Samj,
Bonjour, I uninstalled both my Gimp 2.6 and 2.8.1 and then reinstalled Partha's 2.8.1, but I have the same problem of being unable to open any file type other than .xcf. The File Browser from within Gimp also still has the problem of not listing any image file types other than .xcf. In addition, the Filter drop-down menu list still fails to recognize any of my filters. And finally, I still don't have my script-fu and python-fu drop-down menus.

Not sure what is going on.

Samj,
Just to let you know, I uninstalled the regular 64bit version and installed your portable. The portable works, but the regular one doesn't. Do you have any idea as to why one would work and not the other? In the meantime, I'm happy since I'm once again able to use Gimp! Thanks to your portable version.

Bonjour,

@charlie34

The problem probably comes from the directory C:\Users\[xxxx]\.gimp-2.8
In this directory there must be plug-ins that are not compatible with 64-bit version of Partha.

The portable version runs differently :
- This version accepts 32 bit plugins and 64 bit plugins.
- The "preferences" directory is different (...\Gimp-2.8.1-64bit-Partha\pref_1 vs C:\Users\[xxxx]\.gimp-2.8).

Samj,
That might be true, but doesn't seem to make sense since the user directory was previously being used by Partha's 64bit version of 2.8. All I did was "upgrade" to version 2.8.1. If something in there is interfering with Partha's build why wouldn't it have interfered with his 2.8?

Bonjour,

I can not answer you precisely because I do not use installers from Partha (I unpack archives with 7zip).
Then I change to create portable versions. I test only the portable versions.

Upon his return, Partha could answer more accurately.

Hi Charlie,

I almost always recommend uninstalling (using the uninstall function within the control panel) the previous version and then installing the new version.

Despite the low number 2.8.1 is different from 2.8 in a lot of ways including upgraded glib/cairo/pango. So, please completely delete the directory where you upgraded 2.8.1 since the uninstaller may not work. Then reinstall 2.8.1 from scratch preferably at c:\Program Files\Gimp-2.8. Then tell me what happens.

Samj has already answered you about mixing and matching DLLs.

We'll sort it all out, I hope.

Partha,
I tried that yesterday; I uninstalled both Gimp 2.6 and 2.8, and then installed 2.8.1, but it didn't work. In the meantime, I've installed your portable version and everything is working just fine. Is there any advantage to using the fully installed version as opposed to a portable version? If not, I'll just keep things the way they are.

No, you are fine with using the portable version. Note that Samj is the one maintaining that version and so will be able to answer any questions you have, better than I can.

In any case, I am still curious whether you actually followed the steps I outlined.

1. Delete the installation folder (not uninstall).
2. Reinstall Gimp 2.8.1 in C:\Program Files\Gimp-2.8
3. Start Gimp to see if it all is working.
4. Reinstall useful plugins.

Finally, do you have any of the DLLs from any other Gimp installation in your Windows system directory? This will definitely make things not work.

Partha,
Can you please clarify what you mean by deleting the installation folder? Which folder are you referring to? Also, how do I check to see if I have any remants of DLL's from prior Gimp installations?

After you get back to me on the above, I'll try doing it and see if that clears up the problem.

Thanks again!

Hi Charlie,

The installation folder would be where you previously installed Gimp. In most cases, it is probably C:\Program Files\Gimp-2.8.

You can check to see if you have DLLs from other installations (not mine) by checking the Windows System directory. If you have files like libgimp-2.0.dll or some such (basically similar to the DLLs in the bin directory of my installation) then they will take priority and clash with my installation.

My installation will never touch your windows system directory.

Hope this helps.

Partha

Partha,
Thanks again. The Gimp 2.8 installation folder under my Windows Program Files section is no longer there; I'm sure it must have been deleted when I uninstalled the program (same goes for my older 2.6 version).
As for the DLL's, I looked in the Windows/System32 folder and didn't see any with the libgimp.dll (or similar) name. Of course, there are hundreds of DLL's, and I didn't look at them all. Do all Gimp DLL's begin with "lib" or "libgimp"? If so, there is nothing there.

You would also have DLLs such as libjpegxx.dll, libpngxx.dll etc. that would interfere with opening jpegs, pngs etc.

Anyway, if you are happy with the portable version you are all set.