Error window pops up whenever shutting down or restarting PC

[Banana X Papaya]

So whenever I shutdown or restart my PC, an error window titled "webwallpaper32.exe - Application Error" pops up and prevents the shutdown (until I close that window)

The content of the error window:
"The exception Breakpoint
A breakpoint has been reached.
(0x80000003) occured in the application at location 0x12930e2b.
Click on OK to terminate the program"

I tried re-installing Wallpaper Engine and whitelisting Wallpaper Engine in my antivirus, still the same.

I'm running on Windows 7 SP1 (64bit) Ultimate.

[Banana X Papaya]

Does no one know about this issue?
This bug has only started happening maybe a few months ago, and my Wallpaper Engine has been working great in the past.
Perhaps the developers could have some insight into this?

[Tim]

Hey, sorry, I missed the thread before, otherwise I would have replied to you right away. These types of crashes are pretty much always caused by antivirus apps blocking the app from shutting down properly. I know you said you already configured your antivirus app to ignore the Wallpaper Engine process but did you make sure to apply this exclusion to the entire wallpaper_engine directory and all subdirectories? If you did and it still happens, you can run our analysis tool and share the log file with me while the app is running, I will take a look at it:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool.html

[Banana X Papaya]

Originally posted by Tim:

Hey, sorry, I missed the thread before, otherwise I would have replied to you right away. These types of crashes are pretty much always caused by antivirus apps blocking the app from shutting down properly. I know you said you already configured your antivirus app to ignore the Wallpaper Engine process but did you make sure to apply this exclusion to the entire wallpaper_engine directory and all subdirectories? If you did and it still happens, you can run our analysis tool and share the log file with me while the app is running, I will take a look at it:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool.html

Thanks for the response. I've even disabled my antivirus (Avast) temporarily but the problem still persists (by the way, Wallpaper Engine actually closes properly when I quit it manually, the problem only happens when shutdown/restart my PC).
I've sent you the debug log by email following the guide in your given link, please have a look (you can reply to my email to respond too, I'll also be notified faster that way).

[Tim]

I am just replying here to keep the conversation in one place, otherwise it gets too messy in my head:

The log file is incomplete in a way that usually happens when an antivirus app blocks Wallpaper Engine partially or interferes with its usage. Disabling antivirus through its disable functionality does not actually disable it fully, so it's probably still active. The way you describe the issue is 100% the same as previous cases with Avast and some other antivirus apps. Manual shutdown works fine, app crashes when the system shuts down.

In the end, it was almost always the antivirus app and in very few cases some other apps or driver issues. In your log file I don't see anything else injected into Wallpaper Engine so the most reasonable assumption is that Avast is causing this.

I just want to double-check because you have not clearly said what you did, did you make sure to fully exclude the wallpaper_engine directory in Avast? If you did and it still crashes, uninstall Wallpaper Engine through Steam, then manually delete the remains wallpaper_engine folder. Then restart your PC and reinstall the app via Steam and see if it still crashes. There might be some invisible file locks or similar in the folder now and they sometimes only get cleared when you actually entirely delete the folder by hand.

[Banana X Papaya]

Originally posted by Tim:

I am just replying here to keep the conversation in one place, otherwise it gets too messy in my head:

The log file is incomplete in a way that usually happens when an antivirus app blocks Wallpaper Engine partially or interferes with its usage. Disabling antivirus through its disable functionality does not actually disable it fully, so it's probably still active. The way you describe the issue is 100% the same as previous cases with Avast and some other antivirus apps. Manual shutdown works fine, app crashes when the system shuts down.

In the end, it was almost always the antivirus app and in very few cases some other apps or driver issues. In your log file I don't see anything else injected into Wallpaper Engine so the most reasonable assumption is that Avast is causing this.

I just want to double-check because you have not clearly said what you did, did you make sure to fully exclude the wallpaper_engine directory in Avast? If you did and it still crashes, uninstall Wallpaper Engine through Steam, then manually delete the remains wallpaper_engine folder. Then restart your PC and reinstall the app via Steam and see if it still crashes. There might be some invisible file locks or similar in the folder now and they sometimes only get cleared when you actually entirely delete the folder by hand.

Sorry for the late reply, I finally got some time to try what you instructed.

So I did fully exclude the wallpaper_engine directory (...\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine) in Avast, it didn't work.

Then I tried "uninstall Wallpaper Engine through Steam, then manually delete the remains wallpaper_engine folder. Then restart your PC and reinstall the app via Steam", it still crashes now. (also, it looks like I lost the Wallpaper Engine settings and each wallpaper's preset after re-installing, I did backup the remaining files after uninstalling (such as the config.json file), is the "config.json" alone enough to restore everything I had?)

I also noticed the problem only happens when you are using a "Web" wallpaper (i.e. "Scene" wallpapers don't have this issue), anything else I can try to fix this?

[Banana X Papaya]

Originally posted by Banana X Papaya:

Originally posted by Tim:

I am just replying here to keep the conversation in one place, otherwise it gets too messy in my head:

The log file is incomplete in a way that usually happens when an antivirus app blocks Wallpaper Engine partially or interferes with its usage. Disabling antivirus through its disable functionality does not actually disable it fully, so it's probably still active. The way you describe the issue is 100% the same as previous cases with Avast and some other antivirus apps. Manual shutdown works fine, app crashes when the system shuts down.

In the end, it was almost always the antivirus app and in very few cases some other apps or driver issues. In your log file I don't see anything else injected into Wallpaper Engine so the most reasonable assumption is that Avast is causing this.

I just want to double-check because you have not clearly said what you did, did you make sure to fully exclude the wallpaper_engine directory in Avast? If you did and it still crashes, uninstall Wallpaper Engine through Steam, then manually delete the remains wallpaper_engine folder. Then restart your PC and reinstall the app via Steam and see if it still crashes. There might be some invisible file locks or similar in the folder now and they sometimes only get cleared when you actually entirely delete the folder by hand.

Sorry for the late reply, I finally got some time to try what you instructed.

So I did fully exclude the wallpaper_engine directory (...\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine) in Avast, it didn't work.

Then I tried "uninstall Wallpaper Engine through Steam, then manually delete the remains wallpaper_engine folder. Then restart your PC and reinstall the app via Steam", it still crashes now. (also, it looks like I lost the Wallpaper Engine settings and each wallpaper's preset after re-installing, I did backup the remaining files after uninstalling (such as the config.json file), is the "config.json" alone enough to restore everything I had?)

I also noticed the problem only happens when you are using a "Web" wallpaper (i.e. "Scene" wallpapers don't have this issue), anything else I can try to fix this?

Still couldn't fix the issue unfortunately, so I'm just following up on this. Again, the problem still only happens with "Web" wallpapers (i.e. "Scene" wallpapers don't have this issue), does anyone know what I can do to try fixing this? (the issue is probably related to the "webwallpaper32.exe" as it's the one that's reporting the Application Error, and its name suggests it's for "Web" wallpapers)

[Tim]

Since we still test Windows 7, it's definitely not some general Windows 7 issue I assume. Unfortunately I can really just repeat what I said previously, but in practically all cases this is caused by antivirus apps or some other app interfering with Wallpaper Engine during the shutdown process, causing the process to terminate in a faulty way.

Looking at your log file again, you mention Avast but I also see "Alibaba PC Safe Service" (also known as "Alibaba Protect") and "TaobaoProtect" on your system. I am not familiar with those but it looks like they might be some type of internet security software that could be interfering with the app in an unusual way.

Do you need those apps, can you configure them to ignore the wallpaper_engine directory or uninstall them entirely?

[ToXiC-_-PaDRePio]

I'm having the same problem, it started to occur since few days

[ali]

this is happening to me too and it makes me crap my pants

[JonJaded]

Reinstalled windows to another drive and now I'm getting this problem.