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Troubleshooting
How do I stop the recording or playback of a macro?
Both recording and playback can be stopped by tapping the Pause/Break key (usually found next to the Scroll Lock and Print Screen keys) OR by holding down CTRL and tapping Escape (Esc). The latter may also bring up the Start menu - just hit the Esc key again to dismiss it.
If one method doesn't work for any reason, use the other!
PTFB Pro won't press anything! (Zone Alarm and other protection software)
Zone Alarm and certain other protection software may see PTFB Pro's activities as suspicious and block them. In some case the software might not tell you that it is taking this blocking action!
The solution is to configure your protection software to make an exception for PTFB Pro (e.g. add PTFBPro.exe to the software's "trusted" list). In Zone Alarm for example, this is done in the Program Control section.
I want to import targets from an old (version 1.x) PTFB installation. How do I do it?
There's a special command in the Options menu to do just this. Click on this link for details
I want to move PTFB Pro to my new computer, but I don't know how to do it
PTFB Pro stores preferences in the registry, but all the targets you've defined are held in one file called PTFBPro3.dat, and their screenshots are held alongside in .jpg files. The exact path to these files depends on what operating system you're running, and what account you installed PTFB Pro under.
To save problems, the following procedure is recommended:
- Quit PTFB Pro on your old computer
- Install PTFB Pro on your new computer and run it. This causes PTFB Pro to create the folder that will hold the data file
- Quit PTFB Pro on the new computer, so that it won't interfere with the transfer
- On both computers, go to the Start menu and and select "Run..". Type the following into the run box, without the quotes: "%appdata%". This should open up a window that displays the contents of your general Application Data folder. Drill down inside the Technology Lighthouse folder, then inside the PTFBPro folder.
- Copy the contents from the PTFB Pro folder on the old computer to the corresponding folder on the new computer, overwriting as necessary.
- All that now remains is to re-make any important configuration changes on your new computer, e.g. re-enter your SMTP server details, enable/disable icon hiding etc.
If you're completely confident about registry editing, you could do this by exporting the following registry key (and subkeys and values) to a .reg file, then re-importing it on the new computer. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS unless you're experienced at manipulating the registry.
HKCU/Software/TLHouse/PTFBPro
Note#1: If your computer doesn't understand the "%appdata%" directive (older operating systems may not), then the best approach is to pull up Search from the Start menu and search for PTFBPro3.dat. Remember to enable options such as "Search subfolders" and "Search hidden files and folders" if they are present.
Note#2: On some computers Windows may hide files from you. This is meant to be for your protection, but in this case it's... an irritation. If at any point you see an empty folder but there's a link titled "Show entire contents" or similar, click it!
I told PTFB Pro not to show a confirmation screen again - how do I get it back?
Just open up the PTFB Pro Configuration property sheet, and switch to the "Don't Show This Again" page. Click here for more details.
How do I find out how many days are left on the trial?
This information is displayed in PTFB Pro's About screen. There's a command to view the About screen in the Options menu.
PTFB Pro pressed the target once, but hasn't done it since?
This is most likely because the target window changes subtly each time it appears. The changes may involve the window title, certain hidden attributes, or the window's contents. You can fix this by tweaking settings on the Identifying the Target page of the properties for your target. Options to consider changing include: switching to "Require This Text" for the main window section, turning off Type checking for the main window, and choosing "Simple" or "By Prompt" for the window contents section.
My macro triggers OK, but doesn't always do the right thing
Macros involving mouse actions depend on everything within a window holding the same position. Equally, commands such as Paste depend on the current contents of the clipboard. Or it may just be that the macro is playing back faster than the target program can handle.
Please read the section Tips for Macros for more information.
I've defined a hotkey for an item, but nothing happens when I use it!
There are several possibilities here:
- The target window is either not present, or is not being recognized by PTFB. If the target window is on-screen, then open the item's properties and switch to the "Identifying the Target" page. The Help for that page has a number of useful tips, but for many cases just switch from "Strict" to "Simple" contents checking does the trick!
- The item is disabled - enable it to re-instate the hotkey.
- PTFB Pro is minimized to the system tray and in the disabled state (maybe you've chosen "Disable PTFB" from the tray icon's menu?)
- The hotkey you've defined has been hijacked by another program. Bring up the item's properties, go back to the Triggers page and clear the hotkey checkbox. Now tick the checkbox again and re-define the hotkey.
I've used "By Prompt" checking - the text IS in the dialog, but PTFB Pro doesn't see it?
PTFB Pro can't necessarily "see" the same text you can. If the target window is simply drawing text on the screen, or uses non-standard Windows controls, then PTFB Pro won't be able to read it. You'll need to pick text that PTFB Pro can see (check the Info page of your target's properties for a list) or choose a different checking method.
I've password-protected PTFB Pro, but I've forgotten the password
The password is stored in the registry. If you remove the appropriate registry entry, you'll clear the password and regain access to PTFB Pro. The usual caveat applies - do not touch the registry unless you have prior experience of registry editing. If you want to play it safe, email support@ptfbpro.com instead.
For those who are comfortable with registry editing, proceed to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/TLHouse/PTFBPro/Options
...and delete the value named "Password".
PTFB Pro is too slow / takes too much cpu time
If PTFB Pro is taking too long to react to a target:
- First check the target's Properties and make sure the delay is set to zero. For more details, please see the help for the Triggers page.
- Check the Notification page of the target's Properties to see if a screenshot is being taken, either for logging or for email. If so, PTFB Pro will delay any action in order to take the screenshot. The screenshot facility is really intended for use when you'll be away from your computer.
- Try a faster response speed in the General page of the PTFB Pro Configuration property sheet.
If PTFB Pro is taking too much CPU time, there are several things to try:
- Disable or delete any target entries you no longer need. The more targets PTFB Pro has to check, the more work it has to do.
- If "Defeat Icon Hiding" is enabled in the General page of the PTFB Pro Configuration property sheet, disable it and use the taskbar properties to tell XP not to hide PTFB Pro's tray icon instead.
- Turn off logging, screenshots, commands and email notifications for your targets if you don't really need them.
- Reduce the response speed in the General page of the PTFB Pro Configuration property sheet
PTFB Pro is seeing the target, but is failing to take appropriate action
You've verified that PTFB Pro is seeing the target by using a five second delay and watching for a red border around PTFB Pro's tray icon, but the actual macro/press isn't working...
- First check that your protection software isn't blocking PTFB Pro's activities
- Also check that there are no "always on top" windows floating above the the target. If there are, they will intercept PTFB Pro's simulated mouse and key presses.
- If the item in question is the "Single Press" type, try recreating it as a Macro (and vice-versa).
If the target in question is the Macro type, try reducing the playback speed, or disable elimination of redundant mouse movement. Also, try recreating the Macro but start it by clicking in the window to make sure it gets focus early on.
- Likewise, if you're getting PTFB Pro to simulate mouse activities, but the same task can be accomplished via the keyboard, try the keyboard approach, and vice-versa.
Automatic workstation unlocking isn't working
- Make sure the option is enabled (Options->Configure, General page)
- Make sure PTFB Pro has been given the correct logon password (General page, as above)
- On Windows XP, make sure that your computer is not using the Welcome page when it is locked. See the section on fast user switching here.
- Make sure the service is set to manual startup, uses the local system account and is allowed to interact with the desktop.
- Make sure you're running PTFB Pro under an administrator account, or an account with sufficient privileges to start/stop services.
- Every time my computer starts up, PTFB Pro's window is open and I have to press Start Watching
The most likely explanation is that PTFB Pro is being asked to launch more than once. If PTFB is running in the tray and it is launched again, it opens up the main window and you must press Start Watching to close it. This is by design.
To check for multiple startups, do the following:
- Type MSCONFIG into the Run... box off the Start Menu
- Switch to the Startup tab
- Scroll through the list looking for entries relating to PTFB Pro. You should see exactly one entry for "PTFBStart" in the Run key of the registry. If you see any other entries, like a shortcut in the Startup folder off the Start Menu, then you've found the culprit!
When I try to record a macro, PTFB Pro seems to hang
If your computer is running Windows XP or Windows 2000, this could be because of a conflict with mouse drivers (or drivers for another device, such as a touchpad or trackball).
The first thing to remember is that if this happens you can usually abort the recording by holding down CTRL and tapping the Escape (Esc) key.
To fix the problem, you have two options:
1) Change PTFB Pro's recording/playback method
A new recording/playback method was developed for Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista. This method can also be used on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but it does involve a small registry tweak. If you're not comfortable editing the registry, this is probably not for you. And even if your are a wiz with RegEdit, always remember that editing the registry must be done very carefully, as mistakes can damage your Windows installation. Sole responsibility lies with you!
Warnings aside, if you want to try this, here's how:
- Quit PTFB Pro. You must be absolutely sure that PTFB Pro isn't running or the registry tweak will have no effect.
- Run RegEdit (just type RegEdit into the Run box off the Start Menu)
- Locate the HKEY_CURRENT_USER top-level key, and begin navigating down through the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TLHouse\PTFBPro\Options
- With the Options key selected, you should see a variety of values, but you're looking for just one: "ForceVistaMode"
- Double-click on ForceVistaMode and change its value from 0 (the default) to 1
Close RegEdit and re-launch PTFB Pro
- If you try this but don't like it for any reason, you can easily switch back by following the above steps but setting ForceVistaMode back to 0. Also note that this is a per-account setting. It'll affect only you. If other people use the same computer under different accounts and also want to use the Vista method for macros, they'll have to log on and perform the same steps.
2) Locate the cause of the conflict and update/remove it
It's hard to provide a step by step method for troubleshooting this problem - only you know what hardware and software is installed on your computer, but the hopefully the following guide will give you some ideas.
- Try booting into Safe-mode (hold down F8 during a boot and select Safe Mode from the menu). This causes Windows to start up (for this session only) without a lot of the software and drivers that normally run. Try launching PTFB Pro in this state and see if the problem still occurs. If it doesn't, then you know the conflict is caused by something that is not currently running. If the conflict is still there, then it has to be caused by one of the very few items that are still present, or by a corrupt, incomplete or otherwise damaged Windows installation. Some "lite" or customized Windows installations are actually lacking vital core components.
- Once you've got a short-list of suspects, try to eliminate them in a stepwise, logical way by disabling or removing one of them at a time and re-testing.
- If you have another computer to hand, try PTFB Pro on it. If the problem doesn't occur, then you know the problem is related to something that is different between the two machines.
When you locate the culprit, the solution may be to delve into its configuration (if it has such an option) or to check the manufacturer's site to see if there's a newer version of the software/driver that may fix the problem.
During playback, some macros occasionally get "stuck"
Much like hangs during recording, this is usually caused by conflicting software/drivers.
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