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Known Issues

Flash Renamer is a very mature and stable program to use. There are however a few limitations and things that are useful to know about:

• You must have permission to rename the specified files. Some user accounts may have restrictions on this. This is especially true in Windows Vista and above.

• The characters / * " \ ? : > < | are reserved by the filesystem and may not be used in filenames. Flash Renamer will not allow you to use these characters in filenames and they are automatically substituted with suitable characters. (Advanced users may what to change these replacement characters at the advanced tab in the settings window.)

• Windows 7 contains a bug that can cause system fonts to be disproportionally large, breaking applications like Flash Renamer and others. I have written a page about this problem and how to solve it here.

• If you are unable to start Flash Renamer for some reason, even after having re-installed the program, here is a tip that often fixes the problem: Go to the Flash Renamer program folder and remove/rename the file "FlashRen.exe.manifest".

• If Flash Renamer still does not work it should there is a problem solver page located in the settings that can help you in many situations!

• There is a bug in Windows Installer that can cause it to to start every time Flash Renamer starts on some computers. This page tells you more about the problem an list possible solutions. Blame Microsoft for this. Flash Renamer does not use Windows Installer in any way.

• The right click shell context menu in Windows Explorer does not work on 64bit Windows version. This is because 32bit and 64bit processes can not be mixed. A possible workaround is to use the 32bit version of Windows Explorer. You can find out more about this problem and solution on this page.

• There is no support unicode characters (e.g. Asian languages). Unfortunately I am unable to do anything about this, because Microsoft has decided not to update Visual Basic 6 (the programming language that I'm using) anymore. The only solution would be a complete rewrite in another language, and that's not an option at this moment...

• Due to limitations in the system I'm using, the program can only handle a limited number of thumnails. If you run out of memory the remaining thumbnails will get blank file icons. A way around this is select smaller thumnails in the settings.

• On computers with Windows 95/98/Me, the amount of system resources is limited. Flash Renamer needs this to store the file icons and thumbnails. If many program are open, and many thumbnails are loaded, these resources may run out and the system will become unstable. I do not recommend viewing large amounts of thumbnails if you have Windows 95/98/Me. This problem does not affect systems with Windows NT4/2000/XP and later.

• If you get the error message "error reading directory structure" it might be that you are trying to read a path that is too long (because in Windows you can actually sometimes create paths that are longer than allowed...). Another possible cause is that you do not have permission to read the content of the folder.

• Files over 4GB will not get correct file sizes, due to 32bit limits in the VB6.

• Windows lets the user choose the font size to be used in the system. Flash Renamer must obey this, but some settings may cause display problems. Flash Renamer has been tested to work with the most common settings, "small fonts" (Windows default) and "large fonts", but if you have other settings, texts, buttons etc. may look weird and possibly be unavailable. This is however only a visual thing, and does not affect Flash Renamer otherwise.

• One user of Vista reported that Flash Renamer would display a runtime error if run as an Administrator. Running as an administrator is required by Vista in order to modify the shell context menu options. The solution was to disable UAC, change the options, and then turn UAC on again. I have not been able to reproduce this error.

• There have been reports that Flash Renamer does not work well with Novell networks. Since I don't have access to such a network I have not been able to confirm nor deny this. But Flash Renamer does work with the normal Windows network.