Crash between PoL and FFXI Startup

Hi there.  I decided to creep back into xi after a hiatus since late August (can you guess, why?).  Anyway, when i went to start up xi via Windower 4, some things went awry.  FYI I am running windows 8.

• Windower updated as it should.
• After logging in and pressing play, I get a generic "This program stopped working" window, I click OK, and Windower closes.
• I try to boot the game up without Windower.  The first time I did, I got a message in POL that FFXI terminated because Direct 3d could not initialize.
• I read through an old forum that said to set config res to 1024 X 1024 and boot up normally.  This worked for PoL without windower.
• When I went back to windower 4, however, there was no change. 
• I was not able to replicate the direct 3d message and every time I go to start ffxi through vanilla PoL, it starts right up now.
• I try all sorts of resolution settings (not including 1024X1024 because it won't let me in Windower GUI), but I keep getting the crash between PoL and FFXI.
• I try the same on the developer build, with the same results

Since my hiatus, I got a new graphics card, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660, and have kept drivers up to date.  Otherwise I am using the same system.

Any ideas?  Need anything form me to help?  Thanks in advance for your time and devotion to this project.

-Divinian

Edit - After playing around some more, I found that whenever I try to load FFXI using windower (and it subsequently crashes) and then check ffxi config again, it is reset to the lowest resolutions (background and overlay) and, maybe more importantly, there is no menu res selected (---).  Also, I can replicate the direct 3d error message (termination of normal PoL upon startup of ffxi) if I do so after trying windower and not changing anything in ffxi config.

It seems like Windower is trying to change the registry, but is not doing it correctly, which is causing a crash, but that's just my interpretation of things.

Edit 2 - Just adding other stuff I've done for good measure, such as installing a new nvidia update, fiddling with the compatability settings, going in to the registry and manually making sure that menu res is set to something between letting windower launch PoL and the launch of ffxi.  I even made sure the secure boot option was turned off and probably some other things, lol.  My gut feeling now is that some setting in my computer is not allowing windower to hook properly, but again, that's only my interpretation of things.

Anyway, I am done for the night.  Sorry for the long post, but I know information can be important in these matters.  Thanks again.

Nevermind...I was finally able to locate some information regarding this (Github issues tracker) and it seems it is a windows 8 issue that won't be resolved soon.  That kinda sucks, but I might be able to get my laptop going that has windows 7.  Thanks anyway!

Yea i feel your pain,

I don't quite understand this, but it seems no one does.  Some of the first reports of this occurring were almost a year ago, when I was happily playing ffxi, through windower 4, on my windows 8 computer.  I played happily until August and probably could have played some more.  But, somewhere along the way, maybe due to an update or something, I no longer can use windower.

Yeah, that's how it went for many people. Some people just logged into vanilla once, then tried Windower again and it stopped working, despite having used it prior to that. I hoped that your post had some new info it (with the registry settings), but I'm really not sure about it now. It's exclusive to Windows 8 though, and the only way anyone I know has ever fixed it was to downgrade to an older driver, but that doesn't seem to work for everyone. I wish we could give you more info on it...

Yeah I read about the downgrade and just finish trying it, to no avail.  I wiped the old drivers off the computer in the appropriate way and then installed an old driver (the closest I could get to one that someone said worked for them).  Still nothing.  I am going to try a clean install of PoL, FFXI, and windower.  Then, I might try either a fresh install of the operating system or an upgrade to 8.1.  I know people still have problems with 8.1, but this "bug" seems so random that maybe one of these things will work for me, lol.

Again, I have an old laptop with windows 7 and windower works fine, but I love my desktop!  If I find anything out I will let you all know...otherwise I will be checking in frequently to see if a dev has been able to replicate the issue.  Thanks for your time and sympathies!

I have found this exact problem with my girlfriends computer. We were forced to run the normal ffxi for a cutscene and after doing so windower will not run no matter what I do. If anyone finds a solution to this please reply and post here. The computer was running windower fine for the last year until today when we had to run normal ffxi then go back to windower.