GIMP Version: 2.8.10
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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Earlier this week, I tried to start Gimp for the first time in a few months. I clicked on the icon, the cursor hour glass came up, and then ... nothing. A few repetitions of that, combined with rebooting the machine, yielded the same results.

So I uninstalled Gimp, backed up the .gimp-2.8 directory in my user directory, and deleted any leftovers. After that, I ran a registry cleaner and restarted the computer.

I downloaded and installed the 64-bit build from Partha's Place and ... same thing. In the Windows Task Manager, after clicking the icon, gimp-bin.exe comes up briefly, then goes away.

From the command line, after cd'ing into c:\, running "c:\program files\gimp-2.8\gimp-2.8.exe" --verbose --console-messages causes the cursor hour glass to come up, disappear, and then I'm back at c:\.

Going through Python 3.4, the same thing happens, and os returns 0, which is good.

There seems to be a Windows Error Report that is generated with each attempt to launch Gimp, but there's nothing that I recognize as being helpful in them.

I've been learning Python programming, and I've installed many things. Searching for "gimp" in C:\ via Windows Explorer shows several files with "gimp" in the file names (e.g., GimpGradientFile.pyc in Anaconda, GimpGradientFile.pyo in Calibre2, etc.). Is there a potential conflict somewhere, or are there other things that I can do to fix Gimp?

I'm ready to supply any additional info if needed. Thank you for your time!

Not sure what the issue might be, but maybe you can download a "Portable" version of Gimp and run it from a flash-drive to see if that will work.

FYI, Gimp 2.8.10 has it's own Python 2.7.6.
Gimp should run fine with another version of Python installed on the system.
Have you uninstalled or installed anything recently?
Check you program files but the path to run Gimp --verbose should be some like this \gimp-2.0\ not \gimp-2.8\.

or check Gimp User Tips.
Which version of Window and 32 or 64?

Thank you Wallace. I don't have a flash drive handy, but I'm currently installing the Portable version on a 32-GB MicroSD card.

Let's see what happens!

\gimp-2.8\ is what the build that I downloaded installed on my machine. And changing the directory name to \gimp-2.0\ seems to have no effect (after redirecting Windows to the gimp-2.8.exe file).

I don't have parthas build so I'm not sure of his install path, someone who has it will chime in. As long as your sure you have the path right that's a start. But do post your version of windows and if it's 32 or 64.

Installing the portable version on a Micro SD card, and running gimprun.exe does the same thing as the machine install.

Is there a PATH entry for Gimp specifically, or is it finding a Python entry that is causing it not to launch?

Here's what I have for PATH:


Edit: Windows 7, 64-bit.

Edit, the Sequel:
And my user variable for PYTHONPATH:

This is the bad idea Many Gimp woes are due to something getting wrong in the Gimp profile. Instead of reinstalling (which usually does little, unless you have damaged files there), or cleaning the registry (which does nothing, since Gimp doesn't use it), the best course of action is to erase/rename the Gimp profile to force Gimp to recreate a fresh one. After that you can copy back the important stuff, little by little.

Installing a "portable" version seems sometimes to be a solution, but this is just because it uses a profile in a different place and won't reuse your current Gimp profile, so you are also starting with a new profile in this case. The good result, but for the wrong reason...

Hmmm ... Actually, I did rename the .gimp-2.8 directory ( .1gimp-2.8 ). I was worried about my initial post being too long. But that brings up something else that I had forgotten:

This Gimp version doesn't seem to create .gimp-2.8 in my Users directory. I'm going to uninstall/reinstall again just to make sure I haven't lost my mind.

And regarding registry cleaning, "Scan for Issues" in CCleaner shows supposed-Problems (e.g., two Application Paths Issues and a Missing MUI Reference) after uninstalling, so I thought it was a good idea at the time.

Cleaning the registry is a good idea (this is Windows, after all....) but it won't do anything for Gimp, just like brushing your teeth won't do anything for your athlete's foot.

A portable version won't create the directory where you are looking for it. It is set up to keep everything together on a USB key, code and user profile. To find where you profile is, start Gimp, Filters>Python-fu->Console and enter "print gimp.directory".

But I do spend a lot of time with my foot in my mouth.



But I can't seem to get Gimp to start to get to Python-fu.

The base model Gimp from gimp.org seems to work just fine. I did like Partha's 64-bit version a lot better though.

On a somewhat related note, if you decide that you want to learn Emacs, and you create a HOME C:\bin variable and directory, the next time Gimp is started, a new .gimp-2.8 directory will be created there.

Not a big deal, just found it interesting.

Try adding a PATH variable to your PATH list like this.
This is with GIMP installed of course (64 bit) so you will have to install it first.
;C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\bin

Then restart your machine and restart Gimp.

Partha's 64-bit build creates a C:\Program Files\Gimp-2.8 directory. But adding C:\Program Files\Gimp-2.8\bin; or C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\bin; to PATH, after reinstalling Partha's version and restarting, still yields the same results: a silent nothing.

Are there any other 64-bit builds for Windows comparable to Partha's out there? I haven't found any yet.