Rearranged drives, now even newly selected .exes are "not found"

[alphaniner]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• I have read the project documentation and not found a solution to my problem there
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

I rearranged my drives, potentially changing the SATA ports they were connected to. I expected this might mess up HidHide config, and when I ran it everything but the program .exe was pre-selected. So I removed the problem entries and began to re-add, but newly added .exes on every drive except C:\ are selected immediately after adding, as though they are not found. I closed and re-started HidHide to make sure it wasn't a quirk, and yes, they are pre-selected at application start. I even uninstalled and re-installed (rebooting after each as directed), and the few apps I added before uninstall were still there and still pre-selected. I would try to delete the config, but I can't figure out where it's stored.

Steps to reproduce

Not practical because it was presumably caused by HDD rearrangement.

Screenshots

Here's an animated screen recording to make sure there's no misunderstanding. I added an .exe on one of the problem drives first to show that it is immediately "not found". Then I added a random .exe from the C:\ drive (where HidHide is installed) just to demonstrate that it is found.

Machine info

CPU-Architecture: x86_64
Windows version: Windows 10 Pro 22H2
Software/driver version(s): 1.2.128 (despite the title bar saying 1.2.122.0, I installed from the latest release, HidHide_1.2.128_64.exe)

Additional information

One other thing I did between rearranging the drives and running HidHide for the first time was run Disk Cleanup as Admin and selected the "Device driver packages" entry. Doesn't seem relevant ("This task will remove older versions of drivers that are no longer needed") but what do I know?

[alphaniner]

Can you provide any advice on a workaround for this in the interim? I went so far as to delete, recreate, and reformat the partition, and in Device Manager the Physical Device Object name of the volume is \Device\HarddiskVolume6. But when I add an exe on the partition, it still shows up as \Device\HarddiskVolume10\... and is pre-selected.

[nefarius]

I don't know what the issue is, so no.

[alphaniner]

Is there a way to completely purge all configuration data? Seems to me that would be worthwhile to try. IIRC in another bug report you said config is stored in the registry; I was poking around and came across a couple keys I couldn't access. Also IIRC you said there that the config is not user-accessible by design (whether yours or Microsoft's wasn't clear). If those are it, I will try to find a way to access/delete them.

[nefarius]

Yes there is indeed; caution though, your own responsibilities lie ahead 😉

• Get the MS tool PsExec
• Open a CMD or Terminal as Admin
• Run .\psexec -s -i regedit
• Now Registry Editor should be open with system permissions
• Now go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidHide\Parameters and adjust the key permissions like so:
  
  
• Now you should be able to see those:
  
• Nuke the highlighted values
• Now run the normal uninstaller and reinstall it with the setup, this should re-create the default states
• ???
• Profit!

[alphaniner]

Thanks! Can't do it right now, but when I do I'll report the outcome.

[nefarius]

Any luck @alphaniner ?

[alphaniner]

Crap, has it been two weeks?!? Sorry.

Anyway I just got around to trying it. No joy, issue persists. But I double-checked Device Manager and it turns out I was wrong, \Device\HardDiskVolume10 is the correct 'path' for the partition. I also did some more testing, and the issue occurs with all the partitions/volumes on two of my disks, even if I had never added an .exe to HidHide before.

Both of these are configured as "Dynamic Disks" while the others (three of them) are "Basic Disks". This is because I have a Windows RAID0 (striped volume) on a partition on each of these two. There is also one additional partition on the first and three additional partitions on the second.

(Before "the rearrangement" I had .exes from F: G: and X: added to HidHide, but I also have the "not found" issue with .exes on H: and S:)

All this being said I had been planning to reinstall Windows soon™ anyway. I'll probably keep the old install around for a while, so if you think of anything let me know. Or feel free to close if you don't think a solution is likely. Either way, thanks for the help.

[nefarius]

No worries, 2 weeks is nothing in my time line 😅

I never tested the behaviour with dynamic disks, there has to be a difference in how the kernel resolves the drive names. I'll see if I can replicate it.

[nefarius]

Yeah guess what; haven't had the time to look into this, if someone wants to jump on the wagon and help out here, would be cool.