Crystal Reports 2020 crashes on launch

[matt-walker]

I recently upgraded to Crystal 2020 and installed in a Windows 11 environment. On install, I did receive errors regarding some unregistered files, but I was able to manually register them. Now, when I try to launch Crystal Reports, the application opens briefly, acts like it's pondering something for a moment and then crashes without any errors. I haven't found anything in the logging folder, either. The weird thing is that I can open Crystal without issue by double-clicking on an existing report. So, I can use the application, but it's just annoying that it won't launch from the application shortcut.

TIA.

[DonWilliams]

I would check your AV software logs then.

Windows DDE control knows to use crw64.exe to open RPT file extensions when you double click on them so that part is OK, the issue is likely when crw64.exe is double clicked your AV software is blocking access to it or it's resources, Registry keys, COM DLL's etc.

[DonWilliams]

Hi Matt,

One thing you must do when installing is right click on setup.exe and select Run As administrator, even if you are a local PC Admin you must do this, something about permissions, because IT guys can modify the Admin Group, even though you are part of the group it can have limitations. It also gives elevated permission when registering COM dll's and creating registry keys. Which is likely why you had issues initially and had to manually register the dll's.

It is odd you can open the reports by double clicking but not open CRD directly.

I've avoided Windows 11 because it has too much security and other nasty permissions and embedded tracking stuff...

Don

[matt-walker]

Still no luck, but thanks for the suggestion. Speaking of Windows 11, I also tried disabling the firewall before launching, but it's still crashing.

[matt-walker]

Thank you for the suggestions. I've repaired the installation and installed the SP3 Patch 3 update, as well. Both the repair and patch installation completed without errors.

I tried to edit the registry to disable the start page, and I also tried to change the HTML start page via KBA 2857343. It does seem that I have an issue with the start page, because if I open Crystal by double-clicking on an existing report and go to Help -> Show Start Page, it causes a crash.

So far, I'm still getting a crash on launch after the above changes.

[DellSC]

Another thing to look at is whether the Start Page is causing a problem - it doesn't appear when you directly open a report. So, after opening a report, go to the "Help" menu and select "Show Start Page". If Crystal closes when you do this, there is a registry hack you can use to turn off the Start Page.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SAP BusinessObjects\Suite XI 4.0\Crystal Reports\StartPage

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SAP BusinessObjects\Suite XI 4.0\Crystal Reports\StartPage

and set "Show Online Resources" to "No". If the key doesn't exist, create it.

-Dell

[JohnClark]

I would suggest running a repair on your installation rather than manually trying to register files, there could be something else that the installation does or it could have failed at some other step and that is just the message that was returned. I have it installed on Windows 11 and I haven't had any issues.