Okay, here’s where we now are on this issue…
I first uninstalled EasyVPN using REVO UNINSTALLER’s most aggressive method, and told it to delete anything it found – registry entries, files, folders, the works – regarding EasyVPN.
Then I rebooted.
Then I manually searched the entire hard drive (using the “Everything” search tool… believe me, it finds everything… and fast) for anything with the “EasyVPN” text string in it, and deleted it… any files, folders… anything which even REVO may have left behind… gone.
Then I searched through the registry for anything which may contain the “EasyVPN” text string which even REVO may have left… and deleted them alll.
I also manually checked any locations earlier mentioned in this thread, and deleted anything found there.
Then I rebooted, again.
Then I search yet another time for files or folders or registry entries containing the “EasyVPN” string. Nothing found.
Then I downloaded from the Comodo web site the absolutely latest, greatest version of EasyVPN… the right version for my kind of Windows.
Then I installed it normally.
Then I launched EasyVPN and keyed-in my credentials, asking it to remember them all, and to auto-log me in each time EasyVPN is launched.
I then went into options (which takes FOREVER to open, by the way), and, under “My Details,” I told EasyVPN my full name and email address, and uploaded my display picture. I also made some other minor changes to other areas just so I could see, next time I logged-in, if it remembered any of them… things like, for example, simply, adjusting the Desktop Control performance slider closer to speed than quality… harmless stuff like that.
I then clicked on “OK” to save it all, of course; and at that point EasyVPN appeared to look okay; my display picture was there; and I was able to login to the little network I had earlier created. So, so far, so good.
By the way, during the whole time that EasyVPN was open, pursuant to all
of the above, the little button down on my taskbar displayed the word "Login."
Don't you think that it should only display that word when EasyVPN is, in fact,
on its "Login" screen; but after that, shouldn't it just display "EasyVPN" on the
taskbar button? But that's a rant for another day. Back to what I did, and
where we are...
Anyway, at this point, EasyVPN was open on my desktop, looking okay, and its little green-and-white icon was down in my system tray.
So then I clicke on the little “x” in the upper-rightmost corner of the EasyVPN window (to minimize it to its little icon in the system tray, which it seemed to do). However, after that, no matter what I did – no matter how I clicked on the icon in the system tray – nothing would happen. I left-single-clicked on it: Nothing. I left-double-clicked on it: Nothing. I right-single-clicked on it: Nothing. I simply could not re-open EasyVPN’s main window from the icon in the system tray. So, then, what in the heck is it THERE for?
If I left-double-clicked on the desktop icon, then, yes, EasyVPN's main window
would open, and I could see that I was still logged-in and everything looked fine.
But, for the life of me, I could not get anything to happen if I did anything to
the system tray (notification area) icon. This is not good. If I can't open
EasyVPN from the system tray icon, then I'd rather the danged thing wasn't taking-
up valuable system tray real estate. If it's there, GIVE IT A PURPOSE! But, alas,
I rant again. Sorry. So, then, back to where we are now...
<i>FAIRNESS EDIT: After a couple of reboots, as talked about below,
this problem appeared to go away. Suddenly, the system tray icon
started working. However, before I finished writing this posting, I
figured out how to make it happen again... so it's definitely a problem.</i>
So, then I left-double-clicked on the desktop icon and EasyVPN opened, and still appeared to be logged-in and everything looked okay. So then I invoked the “File” pulldown menu, and selected Exit. And EasyVPN exited, and the system tray icon disappeared, as I expected. Fine.
So, then I left-double-clicked on the desktop icon again… this time not to merely reawaken the already loaded EasyVPN (as in the previous paragraph, but, rather, to launch it (since by clicking on “Exit” I had completely closed it).
I had specified, on the earlier login, that I and my password should be remember, but that EasyVPN should not auto-log me in. I was happy, this time, to see that EasyVPN did, in fact, this time, finally, remember and was displaying my login name and a string of asterisks for the password. Maybe, I thought to myself, it’s finally behaving itself.
So I clicked on the blue “Sign in” button… and after a delay, and then a few milliseconds of return to the login screen, during which I witnessed by credentials wiped out of the fields, the same old error message popped-up, to wit: “The login information you have entered is invalid. Please enter the correct data and try again.”
So, there it was, again… just like before.
Fine, I thought to myself, I’ll re-enter my credentials and try again. Which I did… login name, password… and checking the “remember me” and “remember my password” boxes, but leaving unchecked the “sign me in automatically” box. And after displaying “Signing in” again, this time, it signed me in.
That's, in effect, exactly what it was doing before... except that this time it
was after closing the program and reopening it instead of after rebooting. But
it's the same behavior. EasyVPN, for ME at least, seems unable to sign-in -- be
it by manually clicking on the sign-in button, or by auto-login on launch -- using
whatever credentials are "remembered" and which automatically appear when
EasyVPN first launches. The credentials must always be manually re-keyed after
a failed login in order to finally get logged-in. This means that the whole "re-
member me" and "remember my password" thing is pointless... useless. Any-
way, back to where we are now...
So then, once finally logged back in, and with EasyVPN’s main window seemingly looking okay, and properly displaying my picture, and having correctly logged-in to the little network I created, too, I clicked, again, on the “Tools” pulldown menu, and then clicked on “Options” (which, again, took forever to open), and then I looked at “My Details.”
This time, it remembered by full name, email, etc. HOORAY! And I poked around looking at the other settings to see if they stuck, too, and they did. So, I thought to myself, at least it’s remembering me in THIS area, even if remembering me back on the login screen seems to have no point.
So then I closed the “Options” dialog, and returned to EasyVPN’s main window. Then I clicked on the little “x” in the upper-rightmost corner again to close it to the system tray icon (which it seemed to do okay); and then I clicked (again, in every way possible) on the system tray icon and, again, NOTHING.
So, I left-double-clicked on the desktop icon and, like before, EasyVPN’s main window re-opened, and showed that I was still logged-in, and everything looked fine.
So, then I clicked on the “File” pulldown menu and exited EasyVPN.
Then I rebooted.
Then, because I had not not specified that I wanted EasyVPN to auto-login on startup, but had specified that it should remember me and my password, it opened on the screen after reboot waiting for me to click on the blue sign-in button. So, then I clicked on the blue sign-in button, and once again, I got the “The login information you have entered is invalid. Please enter the correct data and try again.” error message.
This time, however, after clearing that message, I used the drop-down selector on the “Username” field, and selected my login name (and it corectly filled-in the credentials, and even remembered the checkboxes that should be checked) and just went ahead and signed me in without my having to click on the blue sign-in button again.
Though that was nice, I should not have to manually select myself from the
available usernames when my username and passworld are already defaulted into
the fields. I should just be able to click on the blue sign-in button and
it should just log me in from there. But, alas, no matter what I do, whether
I close EasyVPN and then re-launch it, or whether I reboot and EasyVPN auto-
launches on said reboot, it will not login using any credentials which are
defaulted into any of the login fields. I must either endure a failed sign-
in, and then manually type-in my creditials, or select my username from the
drop-down selector, in order to make EasyVPN actually sign me in. Anyway,
back to where we are now...
So then, once signed-in again after this reboot, I looked around to see if EasyVPN remembered me and any of my settings – to see if they survived the reboot – and they all did. So, EasyVPN is finally remembering me… at least as long as it’s closed when I reboot. But it will NOT properly sign-in from remembered credentials on the login page; and always needs to have them manually typed-in, or chosen from the “Username” field’s drop-down selector.
So, then, I rebooted again… only this time, NOT after having first closed EasyVPN altogether. I just left it running… its main Window open, in fact… and then I rebooted.
After reboot, EasyVPN was open and my credentials were defaulted into the login fields, as before. I clicked on the blue “Sign-in” button and, as before, I got the “The login information you have entered is invalid. Please enter the correct data and try again.” error message. So, again, I clicked on the little down-arrow in the “Username” field and chose my username from the drop-down selector choices…
…and, voila!, it instantly logged me in. Again.
So I'd say it's confirmed at this point: For ME at least, no login creden-
tials which are defaulted into any of the login fields (on account of having
specified in a prior login that username and password should be remembered)
will actually work. Each time EasyVPN launches, no matter what's actually
in the username and password fields when EasyVPN launches, the contents of
said fields need to be either manually re-typed-in, or "refreshed," so to
speak, by choosing a username from the drop-down selector in the "Username"
field. If either of THOSE things is done, then EasyVPN will log me in.
And when I logged-in, I, once again, clicked on “Tools” then “Options” (which, once again, took FOREVER to open), then “My Details” and, lo and behold, it remembered my email address, first name, and last name. (It has never had trouble remembering/knowing my alias.)
And when I looked around at other settings under “Options,” it remembered them, too.
So, then, just for grins, I left-single-clicked on the little “x” in the upper-rightmost corner of the EasyVPN main window to close it down to the system tray icon…
…and then, this time, for the FIRST time, suddenly, when I left-double-clicked on the EasyVPN system tray icon, it bygod opened the EasyVPN main window. But it gets better… when I closed it down to the system tray icon again (with the aforementioned little “x”), and then when I right-single-clicked on the EasyVPN system tray icon, I actually got a little pop-up or context menu… like there’s SUPPOSED to be! Finally, after however many reboots are shown herein above, the EasyVPN system tray icon finally started working!
Who woulda’ thunk it! [grin]
Oy… this program is wearing me out.
Anyway, this made me wonder if maybe whatever made THAT start working might also make default credentials suddenly work to login. So I right-double-clicked on the EasyVPN system tray icon and chose “Exit” from the little menu that popped-up, thereby completely closing EasyVPN altogether.
Then I left-double-clicked the desktop icon to re-launch it. As before, it opened with my login credentials defaulted into the fields, waiting for me to click on the blue “sign-in” button… and… [drum roll]…
…when I did, I once again got the “The login information you have entered is invalid. Please enter the correct data and try again” error message.
And when I closed said error message, and selected my username from the choices in the “Username” field’s drop-down selector (which, actually, I know is called a “combo box,” but I’ve always called it a drop-down selector 'cause that’s what it does, and my clients don’t know what a combo box is), it logged me in, just fine… only this time, not automatically… I needed to click, again, on the blue “sign me in” button.
And, as with all other of my checking for any signs of EasyVPN having forgotten me in the “Options” area, it remembered everything.
So, then, <b>the bottom line is</b>...
EasyVPN seems, now, with this latest version, to be remembering everything
about me under Tools > Options. It was not doing that before. So this latest
version has fixed that. However, simply installing the latest version over the old
version, or or even uninstalling the old version before installing the latest version,
didn't work for me. I had to manually hunt down like a dog every single file, folder
or registry entry which contained the text string "EasyVPN" (or, in the case of
registry entries, also "E a s y V P N" (with spaces between letters)), and then de-
lete all of those; then reboot; and only <i>THEN</i> download and install the very
latest version of EasyVPN. Upon doing all <i>that,</i> it appears, EasyVPN is fin-
ally rmembering me in the Tools > Options area. However...
...the Tools > Options dialog is taking <i><b>forever</i></b> to open; and,
the jury is still out on whether the system tray icon works reliably (actually before
I finished this posting, as you'll read below, I figured out how to break it again, so
it's definitely not right... needs to be fixed); and,
any login credentials which are defaulted into any of the login fields (on account
of having specified that username and password should be remembered) will not
work when either auto-logging in on EasyVPN startup, or even manually loggin-in
by clicking on the blue "sign-me in" button. In both of those cases, the
[b]The login information you have entered is invalid.
Please enter the correct data and try again[/b]
error message is popped-up. After clearing said error message, however, and
either re-typing-in all login credentials, or selecting the username from the drop-
down selector (combo box) in the "Username" field, login starts working again;
which means that there's no such thing as telling EasyVPN to auto-load on each
Windows startup, and then auto-login, and then quitely close to the system
tray... and any good VPN/Chat/messenger client MUST do these things, so
this one is DEFINITELY huge... really big; and,
someone should make it so that "EasyVPN" is all that ever appears on the little
button down in the task bar, no matter what part of EasyVPN is in focus.
Those are my findings, so far. What’s tragic is that, if you think about it, all of this, so far, only has to do with making the program login right and remember settings. I haven’t even tested, yet, any of the things – the real work – which EasyVPN is supposed to do!
[sigh]
Well, anyway, that’s where we are, so far.
And, guess what… just before finishing typing this, I figured out how to make the system tray icon start failing again: Simply click on it while EasyVPN’s main window is open. Once you do that, even after closing EasyVPN down to the system tray icon, no form of clicking thereon will make EasyVPN open again (or make the little right-click menu appear).
Even if I re-open the EasyVPN main window by left-double-clicking on the desktop icon, and then close it immediately using the little “x” in the upper-leftmost corner of said window, no form of clicking on the system tray icon will do anything.
Even if I re-open the EasyVPN main window by left-double-clicking on the desktop icon, and then click on the “File” pulldown menu, and then “Exit;” and then left-double-click on the EasyVPN desktop icon to completely re-launch a fresh instance of it; then left-single-click on the little “x” in the upper-rightmost corner to close it down to the system tray icon…
…the system tray icon still won’t work. No kind of clicking on it will make anything at all happen. So, then, whatever breaks the system tray icon, survives even completely closing EasyVPN, and then re-launching a completely new copy.
This, I suspect, has something to do with how Vista handles system tray icons… a Vista bug, more than an actual EasyVPN bug. There is a well-known problem with Vista not loading all system tray icons after reboot; and the fairly well-known (now, finally) solution ends-up being deleting the the following two registry items…
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify\IconStreams
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify\PastIconsStream
…immediately followed by either killing the “Explorer” process, and then restarting it, or just rebooting altogether, whenever it starts happening. It’s just a theory, mind you… but I wonder if that Vista bug could be causing, somehow, the EasyVPN system tray icon to start misbehaving under certain circumstances.
So, then… do I have to open separate bug reports for all of these additional things, or will whomever on the EasyVPN team that reads all this just take really, really good notes?
HarpGuy
