pythonw.exe has stopped working error on Vista 64bit

[Grant Paton-Simpson]

Originally reported in an email by Drew Lindow:

I just installed sofa and when I run the program as soon as I mouse
over it I get a "pythonw.exe has stopped working" error and the
program crashes. Any idea on how to fix this? I'm runing Windows Vista
home premium 64bit.

[Grant Paton-Simpson (launchpad-p-s)]

Hi Drew,

Good news of sorts. SOFA Statistics seemed to run fine on 64bit Linux.

But back to the original issue - what is going wrong on your system? I don't have a copy of Vista I can test on but it seems the following could be relevant (from http://www.python-forum.org/pythonforum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11331#p54621):

>
> Re: wxPython program crash
> <http://www.python-forum.org/pythonforum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11331#p54621>
>
> Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:47 am
>
> To fix this, do the following:
>
> * Make a copy of python.exe
> * Use that copy(!) to run 'update_manifest.py' that wxPython
> installed in you python folder
>
> The problem is that by default a wrong DLL version is loaded, this causes crashes in the wxWidget C++ code. In Python 2.5 and earlier the presence of the python.exe.manifest (installed by wxPython) was enough to fix this, but Python 2.6 is compiled with internal manifests, so external manifest don't work. The script will update the internal manifest so the right DLL is loaded.
>
> You need to use a copy of python.exe to execute the script, because otherwise the program is in use and cannot be updated. After updating the manifest the program should no longer crash on mouse-events (worked for me).
>
> Avalanche1979
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Re: wxPython program crash
> <http://www.python-forum.org/pythonforum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11331#p58581>
>
>Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:06 pm
>
> You have to make copy of pythonw as well, otherwise it keep crashing.

This problem is all apparently solved in a slightly later release of wxPython (https://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=683208):

> Solved the manifests problem with Python 2.6 on Windows. wxPython now
> programatically creates its own activation context and loads a
> manifest in that context that specifies the use of the themable common
> controls on Windows XP and beyond. This also means that the external
> manifest files are no longer needed for the other versions of Python.
How we proceed depends on whether you are more of a computer user or more of a computer enthusiast! The problem will eventually go away (see above) but it depends on what you want to do right now.

All the best, Grant

[Grant Paton-Simpson (launchpad-p-s)]

Grant, thanks for the help. I ran update_manifest.py and everything
works great now. I look forward to using sofa.
Also I reinstalled wxPython with the 64bit version in an attempt to
fix it before contacting you. This could be required for anyone else
with the same problem to replicate the solution.

If I can test anything for just let me know. Thanks again.
Drew

[Grant Paton-Simpson (launchpad-p-s)]

Hi Drew,

I can avoid the bug you experienced by using
wxPython2.8-win32-unicode-2.8.10.1-py26.exe in the installer package instead
of the ...2.8.9.2 version I was using. Downloading it now.

Thanks for putting me onto the issue.

All the best, Grant