New version of Napster is available! Beta8

[Zorba]

What the hell, might as well give it a go.

 

[Zorba]

It seems like it has gained a lot of weight since B5.

 

[Lore]

Man, Napster B8 is so buggy.

I can't get it to keep its files in C:\Program files\Napster. It keeps insisting on saving its data files and downloads to c:\ root. I can get it to work the first time I install it, but once I quit and restart it, it's back to C:\ root.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled 8 times already, each time cleaning up the registry completely. Another example why new software is not always better!

If anyone can offer tips on how to fix this let me know.

 

[Lore]

Yay, Beta 7 fixes that problem. I'll stick with B7.

 

[andrey]

here is a part from Napster Help FAQ:

===
Q: My files are saving to the root directory on my computer (C:/). I change my Download Folder settings, but the files still go to the C Drive. How do I fix that?

A: Try uninstalling Napster from your computer, then reinstalling Beta 8. When you do a clean install, you get to pick your Shared Folders and your Download Folder during set-up. Picking your Download Folder through a clean install will let you save the files you receive from the Napster Community in the directory of your choice.

===

Here is full Beta 8 FAQ. Hope that helps,

 

[Lore]

Andrey:

Yeah, I read that.

Hmm, B7 does the same thing. I thought it fixed but it's still saving stuff to C: root. 🙁

 

[andrey]

even after a clean install ?
I had the similar problem with Beta 8 when Napster was saving all my songs to E: drive (I have Napster installed on E: drive). Completely uninstalling and reinstalling Napster fixed the problem for me.

 

[Lore]

Oh... I figured out why.

It's the fricking shortcut that it creates in the MAIN start menu (when you hit START). The shortcut doesn't have a "Start In" directory; the one in the Napster program group says "C:\program files\napster".

I should email Napster and tell them that their shortcut is buggy. 🙂

 

[Lore]

Yeah, even after the clean installation. I realized just 5 minutes ago it'd save to C:\ if I started Napster from the icon in the MAIN Start Menu, but it'd save to the right place if I ran it from the Napster program group.

I also noticed that the Hot List would be empty if I used that MAIN Start Menu icon, but filled with my Hot List users if I used the icon from the Napster program group.

 

[andrey]

Intersting! I get empty Hot List as well if I go to Start>>Napster. Clicking on my regular good old icon on the desktop works fine with all my "buddies" on the Hot List.

 

[Lore]

Andrey:

Now, change the properties of START->Napster to start in "C:\PROGRAM FILES\NAPSTER" and it'll load your notify.dat (your hot list).

I'm still testing this out, I think it's still a little weird even if I do change that. So far, it's loading the Hot List but it's not saving the mp3s in the right place. Maybe because this very last uninstall wasn't 100% clean.

I'm testing, will report in 5.

 

[Lore]

Good, I fixed it permanently I think.

I had to remove all registry entries and delete the Napster directory and reinstall. Then I had to choose REAL directories for both shared and downloading, and then fix that shortcut. Now it'll always load correctly and save correctly.

Yay.

 

[andrey]

I just wish I knew about "notify.dat" before. I "kind of" lost all my Hot List entries with all these installs/reinstalls. The good thing is that I now have everything working the way I want it with all the new features as well, he he 🙂

 

[LXi]

Lore:

I had that same problem(the C:\ problem), and it was solved after uninstall and reinstall.

 

[Lore]

LXi:

Start Napster using the START->Napster button and you won't have any of your previous settings (Hot List, etc)

 

[LXi]

My Hot Lists never gets retained, everytime I install Napster it'll get lost.

Nevermind, it looks like my hot list is still there(there is only 1 user on it), using both shortcut and start menu give me the same results.

 

[andrey]

Believe it or not, I never had to uninstall entire Napster before Beta 8. Don't know if it's good or not 😛

By the way, I just discovered one more good thing about Beta 8. Before if you had someone on your Hot List, it would depend which server you connect to, option to see that person online or not. With Beta 8 you see all the people on your Hot List all the time, no matter which server you're connected, so as LXi said, <<update is never a bad thing>> 🙂

 

[Lore]

Your Hot List is _always_ retained as notify.dat.

It's just not &quot;called&quot; if you don't start Napster from the proper directory, that's why I had to change the &quot;Start In&quot; property to &quot;C:\Program Files\Napster.&quot; That way it'll load all the data from that directory.

 

[Elledan]

I've had Napster yesterday installed for about an hour, then uninstalled it.

Sorry, but without auto-resume, multi-threaded downloading, this Sharing program isn't even worth to look at. I'm sticking to iMesh and CuteMX.

The only reason to use Napster is its huge userbase, but you must be really desperate to use this primitive program.

I had also a slight problem with Napster: When I minimized the window and restored it, I couldn't use the interface. It continued to download the songs I had selected, but I couldn't do anything else, it just beeped when I clicked somewhere in the window. I had to use Task Manager to shut the program down.

Statistics for this hour:

Songs selected: 13
Failed (transfer error): 12
Success: 1

 

[LXi]

<<Your Hot List is _always_ retained as notify.dat.>>

When I uninstall it asked me if I want to remove everything, I said no, so I guess that file was kept there.

 

[Lore]

Actually, even if you say YES to that question about removing all the stuff, it still retains the data files in C:\program files\napster. Try it sometime, you'll see shared.dat, notify.dat, etc.

I think InstallShield and other uninstall programs can only delete files/entries it created during installation.

 

[LXi]

So whats your point? Is there a bug?

 

[Lore]

There's a bug in the shortcut it creates, but I was just making the point that the Hot List doesn't actually ever disappear, it simply isn't read by Napster if you start it using the wrong shortcut.

 

[LXi]

But how come both my shortcuts yielded the same results?

 

[Lore]

There are actually three shortcuts.

Which two were you using?

The one that is created by default in the main Start Menu does not have a &quot;Start In&quot; defined in its properties. That will cause Napster not to load the notify.dat, shared.dat, etc, from the C:\program files\napster directory.