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Return to main page for “Cannot find main class”

This is one of the more demanding error messages, and can take some “sleuthing” to fix.

It is worth testing, as a restricted user, that you can open up "Notepad" or similar, and read/write/modify/save/delete text files into wordshark-shared.

This problem may occur for any one of these reasons:

a) The permissions for all users on wordshark-shared have not been set (by default on many networks will be "read only" for restricted users)

b) The permissions on wordshark-shared have been set, but are over-ruled EITHER by group policies covering restricted user groups and/or particular drives, OR by an inherited permission from a senior folder (e.g. "Program Files" or "Wordshark" or "Applications" etc)

c) The permissions for one or more files within the -shared directory have been set to “read only”.

d) The program is not trying to save into wordshark-shared but into some other location that has read-only permissions. Most commonly:-

       d1) EITHER the mapping (if mapped drives are used) is incorrect

OR  d2)  more than one wordshark-shared exists (e.g. from a previous install) and you are checking permissions on the one that isn't in use(!)

OR   d3) because the desktop icon/properties/start-in is not pointing to the wordshark-shared.

The "Start-in" sets the parameters for our working directory where student records are stored, and MUST point to wordshark-shared. If you have created the desktop icon by right-clicking the exe file wordshark/wordshark-programs/ wordshark3nrun.exe and "send to desktop(create shortcut), then you MUST then right-click the icon, and in the shortcut tab change the start-in from ...wordshark/wordshark-programs to .....wordshark/wordshark-shared. Occasionally, instead of moving the modified icon to the "all user" desktop, techs have been known to create the icon for the teachers' desktops, then create the same thing again for students but forget to modify the start-in address (or vice versa).

e) The wordshark-shared folder is in a location that is not accessible by one or more class of users - usually due to a group permission or other restriction. One proven solution is to reinstall either the “[word] [number]shark-shared folder, or the whole program, to the “All Users” area

f) Rarely, with the program installed onto the client computers but the wordshark-shared on the server, and usually with wireless installations, the message will crop up if the wireless connection to the server drops out. This intermittent fault rarely happens with wired connections or with robust wireless networks (a known oxymoron!)

g) Also rarely, some networks require "exemptions" to be set (another term for "group policies" in practice) - e.g. a group of users "may not write to any directory other than the following exemptions" - so wordshark-shared would need to be added to the exemptions list.

h)  Very rarely, it would appear to be due to bad sectors on the hard disk, allowing writing but not reading to take place. In these cases, installation onto a memory stick has worked.

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