AlfonzoSieveking

Well as much as I dislike Windows 10, I'll put up with it in order to be able to use paint.net. And if that doesn't work, I guess it's time for a new computer. Thank you very much for your help today. I appreciate your time and expertise, even though it turned out there's no way to fix it.

That's very disappointing. And frustrating, given that it used to work fine on this computer. Would I be right in thinking that the Windows Store version of paint.net doesn't use .MSI files to install and that I therefore might not have these issues with the paid version?

https://pastebin.com/SYnnzkjD Does that work?

I've never used that, but sure, I'll have a go.

Okay, all done. The log is 940kb though, so I can't upload it. What part of it is pertinent?

Okay, I created the .MSI files, transferred them to my desktop with a USB, ran PaintDotNet_x64, and it began installing but then I got a message saying "There is an error with this windows installer package. A program ran as part of this setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor." Should I try making the .MSI files again?

I'm sorry, I didn't realise safe mode would stop the antiviruses having an effect. McAfee and AVG came with the computer, I'll uninstall them and install security essentials instead. Is there a thread somewhere explaining how to make an .MSI installer for paint.net? I have a second computer here but I can't find a guide in layman's terms on google.

@Pixey (just realised I can tag!) I have AVG free, McAfee Security Scan Plus, and Malwarebytes. AVG is off, Malwarebytes has expired anyway so doesn't do anything but scan manually (I think), and McAfee just lists "status: unknown" for all its functions, which I assumed meant it wasn't running? AVG is behaving a bit oddly though - it tells me its in passive mode because another anti-virus is running, but it tells me that the conflicting antivirus is AVG. So I've run a repair and now I'm going to restart in case that helps. EDIT: AVG seems to be running properly now, but I've switched it off and the paint.net installer is still doing its thing - which is to say, not much!

Hi Pixey, That seems to be the same tool I used this morning to make sure the old version was gone, but I've since reinstalled version 3.5.11 in the hope that I could use the old version to search for updates and install 4.2.1 that way. I've just used it again to remove 3.5.11, but it hasn't changed the situation when trying to install the latest version: it extracts, then there's the flash of a new window appearing and disappearing, and nothing happens. If I tell the program I'm having trouble installing, it shows me a list of programs I could be trying to install, but paint.net isn't amongst them, and selecting "not listed" just closes the troubleshooter.

I did as you suggested, but no change. That's good though I suppose, one less thing it could be.

Hi toe_head2001, The .NET framework is already installed, so following your link just gives me the option to repair or uninstall it. I have just run repair (again), but the problem persists.

Hi everybody. So I used Paint.net for a couple of years and it worked perfectly, then a few months ago it suddenly started crashing on start-up. At the time I needed the software for an urgent project, so I just uninstalled it and installed a previous version so I could get on with work. Now I'm trying to reinstall back to the latest version, with no success at all. I am not particularly technologically competent, but I have followed the suggestions on the existing threads to the best of my ability. I have Windows 7 Professional with the Windows Service Pack 1, fully updated I have downloaded the latest version of paint.net (4.0.21) from the official website I have uninstalled all previous versions of paint.net (I think; the Windows Installer CleanUp utility can't find it, anyway) I have uninstalled and reinstalled the .NET framework (multiple times, including trying downgrading to .NET 4.7.1 and using the .NET framework setup cleanup utility to completely uninstall before reinstalling) I have repaired the .NET framework I have installed Visual C++ Redistributable separately I have switched off all my antivirus programs. Prior to running the .NET framework setup cleanup utility, when I tried to run the installation I could get as far as the options for Express or Custom, and then it would crash with the message "Paint.net set-up Wizard is not responding" (or something to that effect, I can't check because >>>) now it extracts the files, and then the window closes and nothing further happens. Another window does pop up, but disappears immediately (it looks like there's no text on it anyway). There is no report in the Event Viewer, and the only guidance I can find on the installation just vanishing seems to relate to Windows 10. I'm sorry if there's an obvious fix, but I'm a bit of a newbie and have reached the point where I'm googling things and reading forums full of information which I just can't understand. I love paint.net and use it extensively in my work, so any help would be massively appreciated. Thanks.