SharpCap installation failed - Black Screen

[StarFlea]

Hi Robin,

I just tried to install the new beta (4.2.15118.0) on Windows 11.
The first thing that happened was a black screen, forcing me to restart the PC.

Afterward, the installation routine started over and reported success, but SharpCap wouldn't launch. I ran the installation again and selected the "Repair" option, but it failed to work. The "Uninstall" option reported success. However, since the entire program folder appeared to remain unchanged, I renamed the directory as a test. I started the standard installation again, and it also reported success. Yet, no files were generated, and no desktop shortcut was created.

If I go to the program directory and launch SharpCap.exe directly, it reports a problem with hostfxr.dll.

Now I can neither launch nor install SharpCap.

cheers!
StarFlea

Code: Select all

Description: A .NET application failed.
Application: SharpCap.exe
Path: C:\Program Files\SharpCap 4.2 (64 bit) Beta\SharpCap.exe
Message: Failed to load [C:\Program Files\SharpCap 4.2 (64 bit) Beta\hostfxr.dll], HRESULT: 0x800700C1
  - Ensure the library matches the current process architecture: x64
The library hostfxr.dll was found, but loading it from C:\Program Files\SharpCap 4.2 (64 bit) Beta\hostfxr.dll failed

[admin]

Hi,

that's interesting - my suspicion here is that this is something fairly specific to your PC/setup - perhaps related to antivirus or security software. I have checked my usage reporting tools and can see that multiple other people are already using 4.2.15118 (and it installs and works fine for me), so I can be fairly confident that it is not a global problem.

Do you have the hostfxr.dll file in the install folder? It should exist, be about 115 to 116kb and have a digital signature by 'ASTROSHARP LIMITED' with a timestamp of 07 September 2026. There should also be a 'hostfxr_original.dll' which should have a '.NET' digital signature (it's a Microsoft supplied file).

cheers,

Robin

[StarFlea]

It worked this time!

Apparently, some legacy files or registry entries were preventing a fresh installation, uninstallation, or repair. The installation process had run, but it hadn't actually done anything.

It was a bit of a hassle, but I manually deleted all registry keys containing the string "SharpCap 4.2 (64 bit) Beta." I also cleared out all the temp folders on the PC, deleted the "SharpCap 4.2 (64 bit) Beta" program folder, and temporarily disabled my antivirus software.

The files hostfxr.dll and hostfxr_original.dll were both present and had the correct timestamps.

I’ve never had issues with the antivirus software like this before.

It was also notable that rolling back to the previous beta version wasn't possible either. Something must have gotten messed up somewhere...

cheers,
StarFlea

[admin]

Hi,

glad to hear you got it sorted - it sounds like it managed to get into a 'half installed' situation, where the system thought it was fully installed but the files were missing. Sometimes it can be hard to break out of that state, although one thing worth trying is to re-run the original installer. Uninstall/repair from the Windows 'Apps' page can sometimes fail in this sort of situation, but re-running the installer from scratch often picks up that the product is flagged as installed and then prompts to uninstall and has all the right data to hand from the original install package.

cheers,

Robin