Frequently Asked Questions

Installshield Errors: Quick Fixes

stevemur — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:09:58 GMT

Q: "I'm getting an error during installation of the program. It says "catastrophic failure" or "Installshield Error -5009".

A: This is most likely due to outdated InstallShield libraries on your PC.

Go to the Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\ directory on your system.

Delete the "engine" folder there (you may want to back this up somewhere on your PC before you delete it).

Try running the install again.

Help on logging in

stevemur — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:05:39 GMT

Q: "I cannot seem to log into the recipe archive from within the BigOven software."

A: There are a few things to check out.

Double check that you are entering your email and password as BigOven expects. (Many people try to enter their BigOven.com username and password; that's not correct.)
Second, you might try logging out first to clear all the BigOven-related cookies on your computer. To do so, you can log out here. Then, using your browser's Tools/Options command, delete the Cookies and Temporary Internet Files. (For BigOven for Windows, make sure you're using Internet Explorer.)

If you can log in there, but not from within the BigOven for Windows application, then go into IE's Security Tab (you'll find this under Tools/Internet Options), and make sure you add www.bigoven.com to the allowed list, and make sure that BigOven can write cookies as well, also on that dialog.

Software appears not to load

stevemur — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:53:40 GMT

Q: I've installed the product successfully, but when I double-click on it, nothing seems to happen.

A: Here are some things to check.

If you checked "Load my Welcome Page from the Internet" during installation (which is the default option), BigOven will try to launch a web page right when it starts up.

Your PC might be disallowing BigOven to communicate with the Internet. When this happens, you'll see what appears to be a silent failure (i.e., a non-starting of the program).

Try this to verify that it's the problem. From the Start menu, type "REGEDIT.EXE" and press enter. Now, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SDMVentures\BigOven, and scroll down to the bottom of that folder, and look for the value "WOnline". If the value in the right hand column is a 1, then double-click on "WOnline", and change the value to 0. Click OK and close out of regedit. Now, launch BigOven again. You've just told it to launch without trying to connect to the Internet upon loading. Did your program launch successfully? If yes, then it's a firewall issue on your PC, either in the Windows Control panel under Windows Firewall, or your aftermarket firewall program that you may have (e.g., ZoneAlarm or the like). You need to make sure that BigOven is on the list of allowed programs to connect to the Internet. This varies from firewall program to firewall program, but it's almost always in that firewall program's control panel or settings area.

Vista -- Will BigOven run under Vista?

stevemur — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:35:15 GMT

Q: I am thinking about upgrading my PC to Vista. Will BigOven still run?

A: Yes! No changes are needed. Simply install Vista.

Q: I am thinking about buying a new PC with Vista. Does BigOven run on Vista?

A: Yes! BigOven runs on all versions of Vista. To move data files from your old PC to the new PC, please see this thread.

"Is there a limit to recipe box size?"

stevemur — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:54:47 GMT

Q: "Is there a limit to recipe box size?"

A: In the full verison, recipe boxes are only limited by the size of your hard drive -- they are unlimited other than that.

In the free trial period, only 4,000 recipes may be imported to your recipe box.

"I am getting a message that BigOven cannot connect to the Internet"

stevemur — Sun, 06 May 2007 19:44:37 GMT

Q: I have launched BigOven and it is telling me that it cannot connect to the Internet. But other applications, like Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Firefox, etc. appear to connect just fine. What's wrong?

A: Check your firewall settings, and ensure that your firewall specifically grants the BigOven application the right to communicate to the Internet. In Windows Firewall, bring up Control Panel / Windows Firewall, and add BigOven to the list of allowed applications. In McAfee and Norton, this can be accomplished through their "Security Center" application that is installed on your PC. For other firewalls, consult your software's documentation for how to add specific applications to the allowed applications list.

"I cannot seem to get my password from the archive"

stevemur — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:44:46 GMT

Accessing the BigOven recipe archive is free, but it requires an email address and a password. You can get your password automatically re-sent to your email address from the "forgot my password" link on the sign-in page, here:

http://www.bigoven.com/resend-password.aspx

NOTE: If an archive password is found for that email address, your password email will be sent automatically, from the account chefmail@bigoven.com, within up to minutes or so. If you haven't received any email, please double-check your Junk Email folder/filters and settings on your receiving end -- many email programs erroneously filter this out as spam. (If no such registration is found, then you did not signup to access the archive using that email address.)

Copying BigOven to a New Machine / Reinstalls

stevemur — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 23:53:09 GMT

We received the following question:

"I purchased your program several months ago. I just love it. However, we have a major virus on our computer and now need to format the entire hardrive and start over on our computer. After reloading your program back on our computer will I have lost my own recipes that i imputed on your program?"

Answer:

Sorry to hear about your PC woes!

The only user-data files that BigOven uses are the ones in the "My BigOven Recipes" folder. The application itself installs to c:\Program Files\Lakefront Software\BigOven.

So, in a nutshell, you can re-download BigOven (optionally enter your serial number to enable the full version), run setup to install it, then simply use Windows File Explorer to copy over your full "My BigOven Recipes" folder and all its underlying files & sub-folders back into its expected location. The expected location is your "Shared Documents" folder for Windows XP users. That's it.

More specifically, take these steps to preserve your BigOven recipe files during the migration to a fresh machine (or to a new machine):

1) Launch BigOven and note your serial number in Help/About. We can re-email you your serial number via our support page, too.

2) Make a copy of the recipe and shopping list data. Locate your "My BigOven Recipes" folder, and check the "last modified" dates to make sure you've got the most recent ones. You can search for the files named "*.crb" to locate them easily. Usually, they are either under your "My Documents" folder or your "Shared Documents" folder. If you've updated multiple times, you may have a couple copies -- you can check the "last modified" date in Windows Explorer to make sure you have the most recent set.

3) Copy that entire file folder (and its subfolders) to a CD-ROM. You might want to virus check those files before doing so. (We don't ship any viruses of course but your files might have become infected somehow.)

3) Uninstall whatever other programs you want and wipe your drive.

5) Re-download BigOven from www.bigoven.com/download.aspx and install it and exit out of BigOven.

Now it's time to copy back your old recipe and shopping list data files so your fresh BigOven installation can work with it.

By default, on Windows XP, from version 1.8.9 on, BigOven creates the "My BigOven Recipes" folder under "Shared Documents" (no longer "My Documents").

The "Shared Documents" folder literally in the following filepath: c:\documents and settings\all users\documents

So, you want to copy your "My BigOven Recipes" folder, and all its files and subfolders exactly as they were, under the "Shared Documents" folder (c:\documents and settings\all users\documents).

6) Re-enter your serial number to register your program.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to save all of your BigOven data.

6) Re-enter your serial number to register your program.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to save all of your BigOven data.

6) Re-enter your serial number to register your program.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to save all of your BigOven data.

Do you have a list of improvements from version to version?

stevemur — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 03:44:55 GMT

Q: Do you have a list of improvements in the maintenance releases?

A: Yes, our changelog provides a list of improvements.

I upgraded and cannot see my old recipes

stevemur — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 21:50:09 GMT

Q: "I upgraded from an old version of BigOven, and now cannot see my old recipe data."

A: Not to worry -- BigOven does NOT delete recipe boxes unless you specifically tell it to during the uninstall/reinstall process. Chances are, in upgrading, BigOven is simply looking in a different file location.

Specifically, the NEW location (after BigOven 1.8.6) is the Windows-XP-Guidelines location "Shared Documents" (which is literally "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents") rather than "My Documents" for your My BigOven Recipes folder. Having this folder in "Shared Documents" also lets other users of the same XP machine share the recipe box and shopping list data, which is very useful in a household. So that's our new, default location and will be for the indefinite future.

Here's how to move all your "old" (good) data to the new location that BigOven expects:

1) Close out of BigOven

2) Use Windows Explorer to locate your "My Documents" folder. Notice the file dates on some of the recipe boxes in the "My BigOven Recipes\RBox" folder. Is this your correct data?

3) If so, copy the "My BigOven Recipes" folder FROM your My Documents folder ON TOP OF the new, expected location for BigOven 1.8.6 and later: Shared Documents\My BigOven Recipes.

See this post for more information on "Where BigOven looks for files".

http://bigoven.com/cs/forums/thread/4038.aspx

Where are all my recipes?

stevemur — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:40:38 GMT

Q: I bought BigOven thinking it had thousands of recipes on the PC. I see that you have over 160,000 recipes online, but where are the ones on my PC?

A: BigOven stores recipes in collections called "Recipe Boxes". Each recipe box is stored on your PC as a file of type .CRB. See this post for where they physically reside on your computer: http://bigoven.com/cs/forums/thread/4038.aspx

By default, BigOven will install with the "Standard" recipe box being the default one that's open. It has about 100 recipes. To find all the other thousands of recipes, simply explore other recipe box files -- either look to the left hand navigation bar and click "R. Boxes", or use the File/Open dialog to open a new recipe box.

How to Clear Message Board / BigOven Cookies

stevemur — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 03:08:58 GMT

Occasionally you may want to clear the "cookies" (temporary Internet files) that the recipe archive and the message board use to remember your username and date of last login. (There is no personally identifiable information in the cookies we store -- we have a pretty simple privacy policy.)

First, try loading this page in a web browser: http://www.bigoven.com/private/logout.aspx

This may be necessary to successfully log in or out of the recipe archive (one time) due to our message board switchover on May 5th, 2006 -- you may need to clear prior cookies.

If you'd like to clear the cookies for BigOven and the message board without clearing the other cookies related to other websites:

1) Print this post, because it's best if you have no browser opened at the time.

2) From the Start/Run... menu of Windows, type:

%UserProfile%\Cookies

3) This should bring up the folder where all cookies are stored. The cookies that BigOven uses vary a bit by which browser you are using, but in general, they are called "bbs" and "<username>@www.bigoven.com". Simply delete those cookies.

Serial Number Too Long For Entry Screen

stevemur — Wed, 31 May 2006 04:58:54 GMT

Q: "I've got my BigOven / InspiredCooking serial number, and it looks like a valid one, but the registration screen isn't letting me enter enough characters to make it fit."

A: We have fixed this in current builds, but we suspect the font size is simply too big for the data entry field. To get past this screen, try the following steps -- one of them should work for you:

i) Try entering the serial number in lower case. This usually lets it all fit.

ii) Exit out of BigOven's registration dialog, and try reducing the default Windows font size to "Normal" from "Large" or "Extra Large". To change the Windows font setting, simply open up the Windows control panel (Start/Run/Control Panel), choose the Display settings, then "Appearance", then switch the font to "Normal".

iii) Bring the "DPI" (dots per inch") setting for your monitor display back down to 96. To adjust the DPI setting, go to the Windows Control panel, choose "Display", then "Settings", then "Advanced". Bring the DPI setting back down to "Normal (96 DPI)".

Component Transfer Error - "Not Enough Space on Disk"

stevemur — Tue, 30 May 2006 19:04:27 GMT

We have heard of three reports from users who received the above error when trying to install BigOven or InspiredCooking Deluxe from a CD-ROM. The issue has to do with a bug in InstallShield, where it confuses the hard drive with the CD-ROM on some machines. There's an easy workaround.

First, double-check that there is adequate space on the hard drive.

If there is enough space, simply use Windows File Explorer to copy the the entire contents of the CD-ROM to a temporary location on your PC (e.g., a directory called c:\temp). Then, run the installation program from there. After the program installs, simply delete the temporary folder.

If there is not enough space to install BigOven, then of course you need to free up some space to install it. :-)

Beta tab in CD-ROM version 1.8.954

stevemur — Fri, 19 May 2006 23:01:34 GMT

If you've purchased InspiredCooking (the CD-ROM version), and you see a tab marked "Text Entry (Beta)", you can ignore it, or simply upgrade to the latest version (choose Check for Updates from the Help menu). This beta tab is not needed, and was an error in a small number of our CD-ROM builds. Simply upgrade to the latest version, or simply ignore this tab, and you should be set.

Where BigOven Looks for Files

stevemur — Mon, 08 May 2006 03:23:11 GMT

Default File Structure (What BigOven Expects)

All user-created data for BigOven is stored under a folder called "My BigOven Recipes" on your PC.

(Program data, supporting binaries and help files are installed, by default, into "Program Files\Lakefront Software\BigOven" or "Program Files\InspiredCooking", depending upon which version you've purchased -- downloaded or retail.)

OK, you say, so where is that "My BigOven Recipes" folder?

For newer versions of BigOven, your "My BigOven Recipes" folder is stored in your PC's "Shared Documents" folder.

The "Shared Documents" folder sounds a little magical, but really, it's simply a shorthand that is displayed for Windows XP users that means this specific path on most PC's:

c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents

On Windows Vista, the location of your computer's "Shared Documents" folder is:

C:\Users\Public\Documents
For older versions of BigOven, specifically those prior to 1.8.929, BigOven used to install the "My BigOven Recipes" folder in the "My Documents" folder for the user who first installed the program, by default.

Note: the "My Documents" folder on your PC is no longer the recommended location, since this location doesn't easily allow multiple Windows users to share shopping list or recipe data across the same PC. This is also technically not compliant with Microsoft's recommendations on where shared data should be stored.

For performance reasons, i.e., so BigOven doesn't have to scan your entire hard-drive each time it wants to build a list of recipe boxes on your PC, the BigOven software is quite particular about the layout of the folders in this directory, so don't go shuffling or renaming things in there. The program will not like it. Specifically, a typical layout of your "My BigOven Recipes" folder should look something like this:

In the example illustrated above, there are four recipe boxes, called "crockpot", "myfavorites", "standard", and "steverecipes". And each of those folders contains a folder called "Pictures", which -- you got it -- is for pictures.

You can back up the entire My BigOven Recipes directory by using the "Backup" command on the File menu. Then, you can copy this to a CD-ROM (or a network), and copy it over to another PC on which you've installed BigOven. (Be sure to exit out of BigOven before copying over these files, and don't try to load the recipe boxes straight from the CD-ROM, because BigOven needs write permissions on this directory when it opens, and a CD-ROM is Read-Only.)

BigOven needs to know where it can find your "My BigOven Recipes" folder if it's been moved. It will prompt you when you load the program to point to it. Simply navigate to your "My BigOven Recipes" folder and press "Open" to proceed.

If you are still having difficulties in file location issues, perhaps the registry settings that BigOven uses need to be manually updated. See this quick reference to get back on track. Thanks!

(MDAC) Microsoft Data Access Components

stevemur — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:53:28 GMT

The term "Microsoft Data Access Components" is an unnecessarily complicated and techie-sounding name that simply means: "a bunch of free files from Microsoft that are needed to let your PC talk to databases".

Well, BigOven is a recipe database, and the way it's written, it requires the Microsoft Data Access Components ("MDAC"), which is a free set of database engine libraries that need to be installed on your computer. Most computers shipped after 1997 have these pre-installed; they also come with Windows XP, etc. So, to keep download files small, BigOven doesn't install these by default.

But over time, sometimes these files become corrupted, and it's good to update them every now and then. If you need them, they are free, you can download MDAC from Microsoft's site here.

Simply download the file called "MDAC_TYP.EXE" to your PC -- any location will do -- and then simply double-click on it to install the libraries. They are from Microsoft, they are part of newer OS's, and are perfectly safe.

What do you do if your PC still thinks MDAC isn't installed, or if your MDAC installation is corrupted somehow? (Symptoms of MDAC DLLs getting corrupted include the infamous "Parameter Incorrect" error message when data is being accessed.) The cause of this is that sometimes, poorly-behaving applications will muck with the way these files are registered when doing installs or uninstalls. If you believe MDAC is already properly installed (or the MDAC_TYP.EXE program tells you it cannot install the files), you might try running the MDAC Repair Utility, available here.

Common Reasons for Recipe Posting Errors

stevemur — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:02:40 GMT

Are you getting a repeated error message when trying to post a recipe to the archive?

Please double-check that your recipe does not use the ampersand & character (e.g., "Steak & Fries").

At present, it's a reserved character and it will prevent the recipe from being posted; you'll get an error message when you try to post it. (We'll be changing this in the future -- we do realize the & character is useful in written text). For now, though please use "and" instead of the & character. Thanks!

RE: Error -5009 on Installation (Installshield)

stevemur — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 06:58:25 GMT

Fix:

If you are attempting to upgrade or install BigOven for Windows, you may receive an error code containing the terms -5003, -5009, -6002, or -6009 during the installation process. This is usually due to an older version of the installation software (InstallShield) on your machine than the one that is needed by the installer. To successfully complete the installation process, please follow the steps below:

1) Open the folder on your PC located at C:\Program Files\Common Files.
2) Locate a folder called Installshield.
3) Right click on the folder and click the option "Rename".
4) Rename the folder to something like "Installshield_OLD".
5) Close the folder and try to re-run the installer.

Note: If you're receiving a "Component Transfer Error" from InstallShield, please see this post.

Error -5009 on Installation (Installshield)

stevemur — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 18:20:04 GMT

Q: "When I try to install the product, your installer (InstallShield) gives me an error message -5009"

A: Though we haven't been able to reproduce this particular error message here in our labs, we have heard from some users about this happening on their machine, and there's a simple resolution.

Alternatively, if the above doesn't work, you can install the program using Windows "Safe Mode". (Note: you only need to install in Safe Mode; you can run the program in normal mode once the program is successfully installed.) You can learn how to start your computer in Safe Mode here.

"Cannot find System.MDW file"

stevemur — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:20:20 GMT

Q: BigOven was working fine, but now I'm getting a message on startup that says it cannot find the "system.mdw" file.

A: This can be caused by two problems:

1) The file system.mdw was truncated or corrupted somehow, which can happen if your hard drive has a sector write anomoly, or if the computer was unplugged or the power reset in the middle of a write operation. We provide a fresh copy of it below.

But the more likely cause is:

2) The full file path to your system.mdw has been changed, so BigOven can no longer find it. (We do not recommend moving this file or the "My BigOven Recipes" folder from its default location.) We provide a link to a document in step (ii) below that will help you re-tell BigOven where this file is.

First, be sure to read this post about Where BigOven Looks for Files. BigOven is quite particular about where folders are on your PC, for performance reasons. (That is, so BigOven doesn't have to scan your whole computer to list recipe box files, etc.)

To resolve it, here are three things to try:

i) Exit out of BigOven, and try unzipping this copy of system.mdw and copying it OVER the existing System.mdw file that exists in your "My BigOven Recipes\Data" folder. (Don't worry, overwriting this one file will not alter any data that you may have already entered.)

ii) Be sure to check the registry keys described in this document -- in particular, check that the key SystemDatabasePath points to your system.mdw file.

iii) Perhaps your Microsoft Data Access Components installation is corrupt. See this post to resolve it.

BigOven Windows Mobile: "Cannot find BigOvenMobile.exe or one of its components"

stevemur — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 05:46:25 GMT

Q: "I just installed BigOvenMobile on my Pocket PC and am getting the following error message when I tap on the icon on my PDA:

"Cannot find ‘BigOvenMobile’ (or one of its components.) Make sure the path and filename are correct and all libraries are available"

A: This most likely indicates that BigOven is not finding the right .NET Compact Framework library files. Some users of CF 2.x, just released, have reported this message. The Windows Mobile Companion has been fully tested under CF 1; please install CF 1 at this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A5A02311-194B-4C00-B445-F92BEC03032F&displaylang=en

I need to change my email address

stevemur — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:51:28 GMT

Q: I am a registered user of the archive and/or software, and have moved to a new email address. How do I change my email address with you?

A: For the recipe software and archive, simply visit www.bigoven.com, and on the "My Settings" menu, choose "Change email/password".

For the message board, you can change this here: http://www.bigoven.com/bbs/logininfo.aspx

Advanced Find Dialog Partial Display Under 120dpi

stevemur — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 01:57:09 GMT

Q: When I try the "more options" button on the Find dialog to get to Advanced Find, the bottom part of the dialog appears cut off.

A: This happens under certain video cards when you change from the default setting of 96 dpi to 120 dpi. We recommend switching back to 96dpi while running BigOven. To do so, simply right click on the desktop, choose Properties / Settings / Advanced, under "DPI Setting", change it to "Normal size (96 dpi)" and press OK.

RE: How much do I have to pay for upgrades?

stevemur — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 21:30:04 GMT

Here's an update on this topic...

1.8.96 is the Final Free Version Update for 1.x

With the 1.8.96 release, which was shipped November 9th 2005, we are bringing to an end the free version update stream for the 1.x version of BigOven.

To prepare for newer and more powerful features to arrive over the coming years, we will be introducing an optional BigOven Premium subscription plan (tentative price: about $19/year) for customers to not only get newer and more powerful features on the website, but also participate in ongoing updates to the software. It's one simple pricing approach that is far better matched to the ongoing costs we have of building and operating the servers for our customers.

BigOven Premium will add considerable power to your web-based recipe management, and it will also allow you to get ongoing updates to the product, major and minor, during the duration of your membership. It will be an optional add-on. Please understand that we won't force you to join it; your version of BigOven (1.8.96) will continue to work for you as-is. What we are saying is that we will be introducing some new and highly useful features to those who opt into the higher-level BigOven annual subscription, and this will also be the way that you'll be able to get ongoing updates to the software, which will, over time, add many of the feature enhancements requested here on this forum.

More news to come on this annual subscription offering will be provided when we're ready to talk about it in greater detail, but we want to give you a heads-up today.

Thanks and happy cooking!