Product Support



SoftDevLabs Bug Reports and Feature Requests

If you find a bug please take the time to report it to me by sending an email to support@softdevlabs.com or call me directly at (425) 883-6717.

Please be sure to include the following in all support requests:

  • Your name and/or email address

  • The transaction id in the purchase confirmation email sent to you by PayPal
    (support is provided to paying customers only!)

  • A brief description of the problem

  • What version of the product you are using

  • What version of Hercules you are using

  • What version of Windows you are using

  • All relevant log files and/or control files associated with the problem

As far as suggestions are concerned, if there is something you wish any of my products did for you that it is currently not doing for you today (a new feature for example), please do not hesitate to let me know and I will consider including it in the next release if possible.


VMware ESX Considerations

If the Windows system where you plan to run CTCI-WIN is a VMware virtual machine running under VMware Workstation, then CTCI-WIN and Hercules networking should work just fine.

If the Windows system where you plan to run CTCI-WIN is a VMware virtual machine running under VMware ESX however, then you will need to first configure your portgroup or virtual switch policy to allow promiscuous mode before CTCI-WIN will work properly.

Refer to the following VMware KB articles for more information:


The Windows 'PATH' Environment Variable Bug

After installing older versions of SoftDevLabs products (released prior to April 2018) you may, under certain unusual conditions, discover that your Windows PATH variable has been damaged or reset.

After extensive research over a extended period of time the cause of this problem was finally determined to be due to an undocumented/unadvertised shortcoming in the default Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) installer package (http://nsis.sourceforge.net) used to build all of Software Development Laboratories product installers.

As soon as the bug was discovered all Software Development Laboratories product installers were immediately switched over to using the non-default (unadvertised) "Large String" version of NSIS so that the problem will never occur again.

Software Development Laboratories would like to sincerely apologize for being unaware of this undocumented/unadvertised shortcoming in NSIS's default product and for whatever grief it has caused the two customers that are known to have been impacted by it.


Windows 11 Screen Painting Bug

Microsoft appears to have introduced a bug into their latest Windows 11 operating system that sometimes causes the top portion of an application's main screen and dialogs to be incorrectly painted in certain situations (such as what occurs with older versions of SoftDevLabs products).

This is not a bug in any SoftDevLabs product. It is a bona fide backward compatibility bug in Microsoft's new Project Neon "Fluent Design System" User Interface (UI) they first introduced with Windows 11.

A workaround for this bug has been added to all SoftDevLabs products so that all later versions of my products should no longer be impacted by this bug.

Software Development Laboratories regrets its inability to predict that Microsoft would ever break the cardinal sin of backward compatibility.


General News Information

General news information pertaining to the SoftDevLabs web site itself.
SoftDevLabs News page