DC++ and Windows 8: a troublesome path

DC++ has a history of problems with various pre-releases of Windows 8 and even with the final RTM version, too. The connection problems existed in DC++ with the preview versions of Win8 had been fortunately fixed by Microsoft in the final edition of Windows 8. However, the RTM release brought another headaches.

Despite the media hype about the Modern (formerly know as Metro) UI and the obsolescence of the Windows desktop interface, Microsoft still seems to be quietly changing (fixing? improving?) the good old Win32 API. The best example is a small late minute change made between the Release Preview and the RTM editions of Win8 – and its trashing effect to DC++. Yeah, I am talking about the startup crash that hits almost all 0.7xx versions of DC++.

The good news is that DC++ 0.800 fixes the crash problem so all early adopters of Windows 8 are now able to run DC++ without problems.  The fact that some older versions of DC++ don’t run on Win8 will even help spreading the newest DC++ faster.

So it seems to be everything’s OK… or not.  Yesterday Microsoft released an uptade for Windows 8 that might bring another suprise. “Windows 8 General Availability Cumulative Update (KB2756872)” is (currently) an optional  performance and reliability improvement pack and the strange thing is that this kind of updates are appeared in form of Service Packs in the past history of Windows. While the update is an obivious sign that even though it is already released Win8 is still not ready, due to its nature this update might cause new problems with any applications already thought to be compatible with Win8 RTM.

There are no known issues for running DC++ in Win8 with KB2756872 installed at the moment, however, it may change. Should you have any problems with DC++ after installing the update, you’re encouraged to report them in the bug tracker.

Running DC++ 0.790 on the Windows 8 preview

Hey,

When you try to run DC++ 0.790 on the Windows 8 preview, you will probably notice that network connections don’t work (they fail with the message: “An invalid argument was supplied.“).

We tried a few fixes but to no avail. It is not clear whether the blame is to be placed upon DC++ or Windows 8.

Fear not, for the fix is easy: just set the “Socket read buffer” option (in Settings > Experts only) to 0. Then enjoy!

We will be watching out for this problem when the next Windows 8 beta versions come out. Hopefully the issue is on their end. :P

Notice anything else that is out of place? Don’t hesitate to let us know!

Update (August 2012): This seems to no longer be required in the release version of Windows 8; looks like they fixed the bug! There is however a crash on startup that will be fixed in the next DC++.