UMS not opening on Windows 10

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Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: UMS not opening on Windows 10

Post by Nadahar »

It sounds like you have installed UMS as a Windows service. Doing that means that UMS runs in the background as soon as the computer starts, and it won't work to also start it "manually" while the service is running. The stop the service, you must use the "Service manager". You can open it by running "%windir%\system32\services.msc".
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: UMS not opening on Windows 10

Post by Nadahar »

I don't think the uninstaller removes the service, it's somewhat complicated to explain why, but it has to do with the fact that UMS is a Java program that can't really be run as a service which leads to the use of a (native) wrapper that complicates things.

If the service is running while UMS is being uninstalled, the files that are currently in used will be locked and the uninstaller won't be able to remove them. That said, I don't have an explanation for all the things you describe, I'm not sure what to conclude form this. There are multiple potential issues, first of all, the later versions of UMS has many issues that I'm not even familiar with (I haven't run UMS since 6.8.0). So, it's possible that there's some issue I simply isn't aware of. Second, UMS probably doesn't remove the configuration folder when you uninstall, and if something in this folder prevents it from starting, you will experience this over and over again. You can find the configuration folder here:

Code: Select all

%allusersprofile%\UMS
Try to rename or delete the folder and see if it makes a difference.

Also, I wasn't aware that UMS came with an "uninstall.exe"... have you checked this file with virustotal.com to see what it really is? As far as I know, the UMS setup executable can be used both as installer and uninstaller, so there should be no separate uninstaller.

UMS should be called "Universal Media Server" or "Digital Media Server" in the services view. The latter is because they didn't change the name when they copied code from the Digital Media Server project. I think it has been corrected now, but if you try older versions it might show up with this name. If you can't find any of these in your services and there's no javaw.exe running (make sure to click (show processes for all users)), it sounds like it doesn't run as a service.

In the configuration folder described above, you should also be able to find a "debug.log" file. If you attach that here, it might show something that could shed some more light on this.
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mik_s
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Re: UMS not opening on Windows 10

Post by mik_s »

Might be a stupid question but are you sure it is not running minimised? check the arrow on your task bar to see if the UMS icon is there then you can open the user interface there.

UMS runs on the javaw.exe process, if you see that running in task manager try killing all instances and running UMS again.

If I remember correctly UMS will automatically install Java if you don't already have it, but I think the later versions use a standalone version that doesn't need a full Java install.
Nadahar wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 8:01 am Also, I wasn't aware that UMS came with an "uninstall.exe"... have you checked this file with virustotal.com to see what it really is? As far as I know, the UMS setup executable can be used both as installer and uninstaller, so there should be no separate uninstaller.
Yes there is an uninstaller now. there has been issues when people have tried to remove UMS to do a fresh install and it would cause problems but I believe those issues have been sorted out now.
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Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: UMS not opening on Windows 10

Post by Nadahar »

The log doesn't show anything out of the ordinary. Because you didn't intend to make it, it's not in "trace" mode unfortunately, so a lot of information that would otherwise be there is missing. In any case, it's clear that something in the configuration folder caused the problem.

You didn't have to search for "debug.log", you could just have opened any Windows Explorer window and pasted "%allusersprofile%\UMS" - or pasted it in the "run" dialog (Win + R). Either way, you found it, which is the most important ;)
Nadahar
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Re: UMS not opening on Windows 10

Post by Nadahar »

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