Photoshop 7 suddenly acting glitchy/crashing

Question

I've had Photoshop 7 for years and since last year have been running it on Windows 7 in compatability mode with no problems until a few days ago. It was acting incredibly glitchy and slow and I reset preferences and that seemed to work, but I still have problems like getting "photoshop cannot complete request because of a programming error" and then the program freezes or cashes when using the paintbucket tool.
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program and it doesn't help even after clearing the registry entires.
Any ideas? I really don't want to have to purchase a new program because this one does everything I need.

Answer 1

jaspergretsch wrote:
The thing I really don't understand is how I can't uninstall the program completely no matter what I do or what programs I use to help. Every time I reinstall all my preferences are the same (the windows are all where  I had them etc.). So maybe i need to uninstall AND wipe preferences?
As you have found, uninstalling (in the time of Photoshop 7) did NOT include removal of preferences or files not created by the installer, such as those that store the locations of your last used dialogs.
It's no less than a failure of Adobe's installer writers to provide you the ability, in their installer package, to do a FULL uninstall.  They have overcome this largely with newer versions via the "Creative Suite Complete Removal Tool", though even that still has some blind spots.
To be fair, most applications don't bother to fully remove themselves, and I consider it a failure of the software development industry to focus on anything other than the prize ("sell it and forget the customer").  It IS possible to do; it's just laziness that it is not done.
There might be those who would say, "but I wouldn't want to necessarily lose my preferences on an uninstall / reinstall", for which I would answer:  So have the installer writers provide an option checkbox (as seen in modern versions) to allow the user to select to remove preferences - or not.
Jasper, check Windows Update for any recent driver updates you might have received.  You might be able to overcome driver problems (such as those that may be behind your Bucket Fill Tool crash) by downloading even newer drivers directly from the web site of the manufacturer of your video card (rather than through the Microsoft WHQL process).
-Noel