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Do PowerBuilder DDE functions work on Windows 10?

Former Member
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Any time I try to execute a DDE function (e.g. OpenChannel or SetRemote) on a Windows 10 PC, PowerBuilder 12.6, build 4058, hangs and needs to be ended via Task Manager. Even the simple command below, which I've tested and have confirmed works fine on machines with earlier versions of Windows, doesn't work on Windows 10.

OpenChannel("WINWORD", "System")

Is there something wrong with my configuration, or is this a bug in PowerBuilder?

Accepted Solutions (0)

Answers (4)

Answers (4)

Former Member
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Hi Robert;

1) Have you tried running the PB IDE as "ADMIN"?

2) In W10, open the Task Manager .... then:

a) RHMB the PB IDE or your PB application .EXE - then select "Go to Details".

b) In the next screen, use the RHMB & then select "Analyze Wait Chain"

c) have a look at the "wait Chain dialog for clue to any resources your DDE application is waiting for.

Hopefully, this might tell us what your DDE application is waiting for (aka "hung")!

HTH - Regards ... Chris

Former Member
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That did it! Our company uses a disk encryption application called SecureDoc, and one of it's processes showed up in the wait chain. As soon as I killed the process, all my DDE calls started working again. I'll take this issue up with the folks at SecureDoc to see if they have a workaround. Thanks for all the help!

Former Member
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You are most welcome ... I am glad that you finally found the blocking issue for your DDE applciation!

Former Member
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I mentioned in my other post that I was able to get DDE calls to work on my PC by shutting down a process (SecureDoc) that was blocking PowerBuilder. Since then, I haven't had any issues, until I tried testing a few DDE calls on another Windows 10 PC. As soon as I did, I ran into the same issue again. Unfortunately, SecureDoc isn't running on this machine, and there doesn't seem to be any other processes that PB is waiting on:

Killing either of the splwow64 processes doesn't help at all (which is to be expected, given that those are system processes). This PC is also running Office 2013 32-bit on a 64-bit version of Windows 10, with PB 12.6 build 4058. Any other troubleshooting tips you might have would be greatly appreciated.

Former Member
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Since the PB IDE itself is 32bit, there is no surprise that its consuming SPLWOW64.exe.

SPLWOW64 though is used to support print spooling. So I do not think that it would affect any DDE activity. It must be something else blocking your PB application. However at this time, I am not sure exactly what it might be.

Former Member
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What kind of DDE error(s) are you getting?

Former Member
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PowerBuilder doesn't return any errors. As soon as any attempt is made to execute a DDE function, PowerBuilder hangs. Is there a way to check for DDE errors outside of PowerBuilder?

Former Member
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Hi Robert;

Have you tried to compile your PB application into a 64bit .EXE in order to try this against a 64bit version of MS-Office?

HTH

Regards ... Chris

Former Member
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Thanks for the reply. I have Office 2013 32-bit installed on a 64-bit version of Windows 10, but the OpenChannel call in my question is actually just an example that I ran from the PowerBuilder debugger in order to test the issue. For that example, I didn't run any compiled code. The original points of failure were DDE calls to another PB application. Both the client and server applications (in DDE terms) are 32-bit executables running on the same machine.

Former Member
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Make sure you are using the 32-bit version of Office.