Troubleshooting Dreamweaver (and other Macromedia products)

According to a previous report, crashes involving Dreamweaver 1.2 could be prevented by disabling certain Microsoft Library extensions. A new Macromedia TechNote confirms that the Microsoft C Runtime Library extension is the source of the problem. The TechNote claims that the crash only happens "after running an application that uses the Microsoft C Runtime Library extension." Disabling the extension at startup is the work-around. However, Macromedia Tech Support told Matthew Chaikin that the Library extension is needed by Dreamweaver for browser integration and certain other features.

An older Macromedia TechNote (prior to the release of version 1.2) offers more general advice on solving crash problems: disable all extensions except for: Microsoft OLE Automation version 2.06, Microsoft OLE Extension version 2.06, Microsoft OLE Library version 2.06, and WinSock Lib.

Macromedia's Dreamweaver support web site has a whole collection of troubleshooting TechNotes, covering such issues as problems updating to version 1.2 and problems playing WAV sounds. Actually, if you have problems with any Macromedia product, check out their web site. There are many helpful tips to be found. For example, we recently covered another TechNote that offered the solution to an inability to play Flash movies in Netscape, after updating to version 3.0 of the Flash plug-in. In this regard, Richard Ellenson adds: "We had to clear Netscape's cache to make the new plug-in work. Reselecting the MIME type in the Applications Preferences window alone did not work."