Previous versions and new versions on Windows 10

[DaveJapan4x4]

I purchased my USB type SpaceExplorer some years back. I am not a gung ho CAD user but I do occasionally dabble. But what I did use this device for constantly and with much delight was to control all of my daily programs on my computer. Primarily a sales database. I had all the various motions linked to keyboard actions through the 3DConnexion interface. In as few words as possible it was "great". I could fly around that database and do a stunning ammout of work. In addition to this I had also linked various other functions to other programs and when I switched programs the good old spaceexplorer kept right up with me changing the associations seamlessly.

This past week I upgraded my OS to windows 10 pro from windows 7 ultimate. The base language of the install of this machine, my two servers and all work stations in the office is Japanese. So in general I bought the ultimate packages so that I could install language packs on all of them and dither about in the guts of the machines with easy.

I hit a few snags with your programs but managed to do some changes in the registry that altered the language of the interface to English. As I recall it was add a language specification as 1033.

This is not the issue.

The issue is that when I did the upgrade to windows 10 I lost all control of my sales database, I called the help line and they kindly told me to do something that I did not want to do, a clean install of windows 10. After trying all else for 2 days and repeated phone calls I gave up and scrubbed the two drives on my machine and installed Win10 64 bit in Japanese. Got the database working, wrestled in the rest of my software. Got the settings were I wanted them. Switched over the language to English, then ironed out a few troubles. And now I am working on the very small details.

Now everything is working, almost.

My lovely spaceexplorer is working, I can use the setup and test programs. I can use it in photoshop.

But I can not see a way to set it up for programs that I used to have it set up for.

Previously I could set it to respond to an open application by using the pulldown and setting the desired controls for a specific program.

Now with Windows 10 I do not see a list of applicable programs when I use the pulldown. All I see is:

Any Application
Any Application-computer name

I am wondering if it is as simple as the device not being about to see what programs are in use or some other small detail.

I do have all the files and settings from prior to windows 10 saved on a server and can dredge them up as needed.

I do want to get these abilities back, I did very much use this device daily and I am still constantly reaching for it.

Any help or ideas are more than welcome.

Dave Stedman

[UtaSH]

Hello Dave,

I don't know what kind of settings you made, but it sounds as if you had a beta version that we published years ago. We have released this driver, but we had to remove some of the features compared to the beta version.

If you say the driver only lists "Any Application" I am pretty sure you have our legacy driver - 3DxSoftware. The SpaceExplorer is still supported with our release driver: 3DxWare 10. Version 10.2.9 is the latest one. You can get it here.

[DaveJapan4x4]

I will give that a shot, but I think I have done so already.

If I can attach a screen shot I will.

It seems to me that the GUI I am looking at has far less control settings than the previous one I was using.

It also seems to me, after deleting and reinstalling about four times last night, including a boot between each just for good measure and scrubbing the registry at least twice that I am still encountering the same GUI despite which version of the driver package I am installing, is this possible? And this may just be my pareidolia kicking in but I am starting to think that no matter which driver I install I am ending up with the same GUI. Did I say that twice?

I have the CD that came with the unit, 3.7.18 and have multiple downloads from your legacy page as well as your current release page.

The interface I had on my 7 machine seemed to have many more options, like I could set the SpaceExplorer as a mouse, as a joy stick or have it send keystrokes for any given inputs. I could set it up for any active program and save the configuration and it automatically brought it back on the next instance of that program.

The computer set up is pretty standard for these parts, intel 7 series 6 dual cores with 32gb of ram and a pair of intel 228gb SSDs and two NVIDAI GUIs running to 4 ultra wides. Data storage in the server so just programs and app data on the drives. Optical fibre internet to my router so decent speeds, but not stunning as I am a little out of the main town.

Let me see if I can grab and post a shot of what I have.

If you think I am seeing the same interface no matter which driver I am installing let me know how to pull that off, and do not hesitate to tell me to rip into it, auto backups twice a day so more than willing to do some heavy lifting on the software, I can always go back to where I knew it was working.

[DaveJapan4x4]

OK, here are some screen grabs.

http://www.japan4x4.com/3dconn/2015-10-20_181733.jpg

http://www.japan4x4.com/3dconn/2015-10-20_181811.jpg

http://www.japan4x4.com/3dconn/2015-10-20_181908.jpg

Will keep them up for a few days at least.

[DaveJapan4x4]

I will pull that old version and try your suggested version again, I say again because I probably tried it already.

[UtaSH]

Hello DaveJapan4x4,

yes, the pictures show that you have our legacy driver - 3DxSoftware 3.17.8. Please remove it and install the latest release driver - 3DxWare 10.2.9.

[DaveJapan4x4]

Well that went badly.

Stopped the driver, uninstalled full application, no issue.

On install at end I get an error.

An unhandled exception blah blah blah

Event viewer shows:

Driver install failed, result=0x80004005 for devnode '{6BCEE436-132B-4AD2-BFCC-A3947CE3804F}\3DXKMJ\1&2D595CA7&0&01'

xml view

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager" Guid="{FCBB06BB-6A2A-46E3-ABAA-246CB4E508B2}" />
<EventID>121</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x4000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-10-20T16:02:54.407366300Z" />
<EventRecordID>1168</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="928" ThreadID="10732" />
<Channel>Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin</Channel>
<Computer>Dave-Win-10.JAPAN4X4.local</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="Prop_DevnodeId">{6BCEE436-132B-4AD2-BFCC-A3947CE3804F}\3DXKMJ\1&2D595CA7&0&01</Data>
<Data Name="HRESULT">2147500037</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Uninstalled and retried twice, same issue.

Got any ideas to work around this?

[DaveJapan4x4]

OK, this morning I uninstalled the broken installation and rebooted.

This time I disabled or shut down virtually all running services and programs.

Ran the installer as admin and got the same event.

Install goes fine right to the end then the warning popup as previously mentioned and despite the fact that a wide range of programs and what not are available on the start menu under 3dx none of them will run.

[DaveJapan4x4]

OK, progress, and good news.

I found that if I stopped the driver, uninstalled the program, scrapped the registry, renamed the appdata folder and removed the device I was able to install the current version and get it working.

Plugged device in and it works.

But I lost the ability that I had to control individual programs as I had before.

So I looked about in the kitchen junk drawer on my server and found the beta driver that I DL'd some years ago. Reverse the install and tried that. Got it working. Moved the profiles that I had stored on the server across and they all work now too.

So thanks for the help, I guess just knowing that someone would look at my issue was a big help. But managed to get it going through brute stubbornness.